Keynote at Venture Cup 2011

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Why you should not start a company Venture Cup, January 2011

description

My keynote at the software finals for Venture Cup 2011.

Transcript of Keynote at Venture Cup 2011

Page 1: Keynote at Venture Cup 2011

Why you should not start a company

Venture Cup, January 2011

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In most cases you will fail (forget about 1/10 odds, it’s more like 1/1 million chance of creating something valuable)

Why is it stupid to create a startup?

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People will look down upon you when you fail

(your banking advisor will tell you he told you so and people will be whispering behind your back)

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You will on average earn more the rest of your life if you take one of the many easy safe jobs

(Like banker, venture capitalist or start-up advisor)

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So when should you create a startup?

If you feel like this after listening to why not to do it

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The story about how Tradeshift became an overnight success

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We spent 2 years failing with our first startups.

We then spent 5 years working really really hard learning about a domain and the business rules behind it

…and then we launched Tradeshift.

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Wait a second… you didn’t just like create a plugin for twitter and put it on the Interwebs?

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(3500bc)

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(1933)

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(Today)

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10 pct. of all trees cut down worldwide 64B € in EU alone spend on typing and retyping

50 pct. of all business mail Stupid…

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Business software is broken

Global  5.000  

500.000  –  1.000.000  middle  0er  business  

125  million  small  business  globally  without  accoun0ng  so<ware  

SAP  ORACLE  

1000x  legacy  accoun0ng  systems,  ver0cals  

(Microso<,  Netsuite,  Salesforce,  etc.  )    

?  

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The market was broken down into millions of small islands of software, not connected.

And an army of people, printing, carrying and typing paper in between these islands

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But it’s about more than just wasting time and paper, it’s about the speed and cost of relations between business…

…globally!

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That’s (luckily) a tough problem to solve

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Enterprise deal status

The solution, a new kind of business platform, working just like a social network

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Supporting real business relations

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We then got a frontpage on Wired

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Today Tradeshift is used in more than 120 countries

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Advice

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§  DON’T compromise, ever! §  Avoid the MBA’s the bankers and the

start-up advisors §  Pick people with a bias for action §  Know your self and pick people who

challenge your weaknesses §  Get the best designer you possibly

can…

Team

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§  Build something real!

§  Make sure it is something that can make you passionate, angry/happy every day!

§  Solve the right problems everyday and dont care if everything else is on fire

§  All the good stuff is really complex, so LEARN

Product

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§  Start pitching now!

§  We pitched more than 100 VC’s before we got the valuation we wanted. §  Dont believe in smart-money, it’s all just money.

§  Having somebody on the team who understands the game is ideal, just make sure your interests are aligned!

Funding

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The mobile network in Sri Lanka is faster than the one I have here

The cost of technology is now so low that you can start the next Google everywhere

Build technology for the world market, you are competing there anyways

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In the end if you WANT do it, don’t be afraid, nothing can stop you

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Christian Lanng CEO, Co-founder Email: [email protected] Twitter: @christianlanng Skype: christian_lanng

Contact:

SHIFT HAPPENS We are hiring! tradeshift.com/jobs