Tag Archives: company

The prince of entrepreneurship – Day 131/139

Posted on June 20, 2010 | Leave a comment

Yesterday, the eyes of the world were targeted on a royal wedding. Sweden got a new royalty but could it be that they got something more than that?

The monarchy is not a corporation.

This statement was given by the king of Sweden in a television interview. Although the comparison seems a bit abstract there is some logic behind it. Monarchy is not considered to be producing anything. It makes no profit, only losses. Still, it has an enormous marketing budget and a bunch of employees.

But as a corporation in a monopoly, the monarchy isn’t exactly looking for internal change. Monarchy embraces tradition, not innovation.

So what happens if you turn an entrepreneur into a monarch?

This is something we should ask the new prince himself. Or just wait and see for ourselves. In an interview he has already stated that he wants to step up and promote health and entrepreneurship.

If we define the concept of entrepreneur as creative innovator and successful manager of risk then this poses a challenge for our new prince. After all he is now more like an ambassador of Sweden than a royal entrepreneur. But if he successfully manages to promote an entrepreneurial atmosphere inside the monarchy, we should probably establish a similar role here in Finland: “the prince of  entrepreneurship“.

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Status update 7 – Day 81/139

Posted on May 1, 2010 | Leave a comment

Now that we’ve taken things a few steps further, it’s time for a status update.

We have founded a company, so now all we need is its valuation.

FinderBase Corporation is a public limited company with 8,000,000 shares. I’m the majority shareholder with 5,500,000 shares. I’ve spent 55,000 € of my own savings to buy these shares so my project is on the negative side with the same amount (plus some peanuts to go with it).

My challenge was to make my personal ownership worth $1,000,000. This adds up to  $1,073,000 as the investment must be also covered. This means that I’ve successfully completed my project if we issue a credible number of shares to an external investor at a price of $0.20/share or 0.15 €/share.

It remains to be seen whether that is the correct price per share in our company.

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This is art – Day 79/139

Posted on April 29, 2010 | Leave a comment

Today morning I met with a performance artist and presented our lost&found service to her. As an engineer and a business person I love artists because they say what they fell. You can get to great lengths by doing what you know and can logically reason.

But there is a limit to logical reasoning.

At some point you have to take a leap of faith. You have to believe the feeling that what you do is good and act accordingly. This is my definition of art – the remarkable things that are only defined by feelings.

Business can be art in its purest form.

Today we had a constitutive meeting for founding a new company. Indeed a good way to celebrate the last two months of this million before 30 project. To leave out modesty to those who need it, we’re now owners of a new public limited company and I’m its majority shareholder.

Ask for the reasoning and you’ll get lousy explanations.

Ask for the feelings and you’ll see faces filled with love.

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My dream organization – Day 63/139

Posted on April 13, 2010 | 1 comment

After a month of intensive development we had today an internal kick-off where the team members got to meet each other for the first time. I’m positively stunned by the great atmosphere and enthusiasm these people will bring to the table.

But a company needs to be organized.

We created an organization of six teams according to the needs of the future company. Following teams were created:

  1. General management team
  2. Technology and software team
  3. Business models team
  4. Product launch and marketing team
  5. Communications and branding team
  6. Stakeholder relations team

Every team has a leader who is responsible for achieving the goals set for that team. The best part is that after a while I no longer have to holding all the strings. People get to dedicate their effort to the area they fell most passionate about.

Founding a new company is now closer than ever.

We even got news that after a cancellation are now invited to the Aalto ES boot camp. This is a great opportunity to present our newly created organization in action.

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An idea worth 50.000 € for free – Day 55/139

Posted on April 5, 2010 | Leave a comment

During Easter I stumbled upon a classified ad on the largest Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. The ad promotes a website:

www.ideatykki.fi (roughly translates to http://www.ideacannon.com)

Their business idea is to sell “business ideas”. This basically means founding a company and selling it to a new owner who avoids the “paperwork”. Filling in the paperwork yourself costs 350 € for a limited company in Finland. These guys should obviously add their margin and especially if they are not only selling the paperwork but a “business idea”.

And they do!

Their ideas cost between 7.500 € and 50.000 € and this price includes the newly established company and a few Internet domain names. What is even more interesting is that they don’t even have a single actual business idea, all they have is a set of B-grade names with a price tag.

Selling a real business idea is quite difficult since an idea is not worth anything before it has been turned into business. The cutting edge name that the guys at Ideatykki are selling for 50.000 € is NaturPower Finland that could be doing “applications with renewable energy sources”.

Here’s a better suggestion for the first taker

If you want to start a business in renewable energy, how about ViherPower Finland Oy (roughly translates to GreenPower)? With this name you could even get both the dot-com and dot-fi domain names unlike just the dot-fi for NaturPower.

All you need to do now is to think of what you really want to do. Without any searching of potential competitors, here’s a bunch of ideas you could do with that name (even with rather limited previous knowledge in the area):

  • Import and retail of solar cell powered battery chargers
  • Import and retail of bicycle powered battery chargers
  • Consulting on small-scale solar cell power system choices
  • Website for comparing renewable energy power system alternatives
  • Website for comparing and rating subcontractors that install renewable energy power systems
  • Website that makes it easier for people to show their friends how they have saved energy

If someone finds the name ViherPower or any of these ideas a least bit interesting, I’m happy to help you in founding the company completely free of charge.

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A company is a jigsaw puzzle – Day 41/139

Posted on March 22, 2010 | 1 comment

Have you ever been puzzled by how a company works?

Let me tell you how.

A company is a jigsaw puzzle where people are the unique pieces of a larger entity. Each individual has a certain way they fit to the team. A person in a wrong role might feel like a close fit but in the end is found more or less useless.

The manager is the person who plays the puzzle. A good manager sees the similarities between two or more people and finds the way to fit them into the organization. Not every piece out there will ever fit the puzzle.

A complete puzzle forms a bigger picture.

The company is truly successful when all the pieces fit. When that happens it is irrelevant what the bigger picture actually is. A team with a perfect fit can be successful in anything.

What can we learn from all this?

If you’re a piece of the puzzle, make sure you fit perfectly at least with all the pieces next to you.

If you’re playing the puzzle make sure you have the right set of pieces to start with. Otherwise you’ll end up frustrated with an unfinished puzzle.

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Call to action – Day 3/139

Posted on February 12, 2010 | Leave a comment

People asked me how I plan to do what I’m doing. I don’t have an answer ready but I’m not going to sit back and think about it for too long. Realizing a plan calls for action and I’m ready to do what it takes.

Do you have a business idea ready to make the million?

I don’t think any business idea can ever be ready and no idea is worth anything without the people determined to pull it through. Ideas I have plenty of and the more I talk about this project with people the more ideas keep popping up. I’m planning to present one of these ideas at the Aalto Entrepreneurship Society pitch evening on February 17th.

But you do have to have a lot of money and a really good idea to succeed

I’ll argue that a successful business is about:

  • 10 % about the idea
  • 20 % about the resources
  • and 70 % about the team

So you’ll just found a company and try to get it sold for a million by your birthday

Well yes, this goal requires founding one or more companies but I don’t intend to sell my share in them just to cash in. Instead I’m most willing to help entrepreneurial spirits find their own companies to pursue their dreams. I want people to stop dreaming and start acting. I only want be a part of a company where the whole is more than people doing it alone and where I’m worth more to the others than the cost of having me aboard.

What is this blog for?

It is primarily for all my friends as a source of inspiration on how to affect their lives. But it’s also for anyone interested in keeping up with current events and the status in this kind of project. Finally, it is an important tool for myself to keep me on the right track with the goal clear in mind. This being said, I’m planning to send an update daily and try to do something, however small, in my life every day to improve myself in terms of pursuing the goal. That will amount to a staggering number of things throughout the project.

Where can we follow the status of the project.

I’ll send an update every time something happens on that field. At this point I’m still firmly standing on the zero marker.

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