with a kiva founder, Matt Flannery

1. Dualistic approach: be smart and optimistic

Vinod khosla was after all a master Yoda. Whatever he utters might not make sense  on the surface, but if you think through, you can grasp what it truly means. He gave out some good punchlines you would be tempted to tweet out. Out of those, I’d say the following line was the best.

“You must explore all the possibilities that can put you to failure, but at the same time you have to have a religious belief that you will succeed.”

What he calls the nuanced approach(above) is essential. As Lauri said in the previous blog posting, there are countless ways that your startups will fail and nevertheless one still must have an unshakable belief for success. Yes this is a tricky balancing act. If you do not understand the subtlety, you probably won’t be able to survive over a long haul. If you have only the blind belief, however strong your commitment is, you won’t last too long. In the flip-side of the coin, if you obsess with the risks of failure, you won’t last too long either.

2. Be picky about whom you’re getting fundings from

When it comes to getting a VC funding, it is easy to believe that the point of funding is a money injection that will keep startups alive and push them forward for success. Well it’s not quite right. What numerous VCs and angel investors at the event kept telling us was that start-ups have to be super cautious about whom they are getting fundings from. If they can choose, it’s awesomely better.

What VCs can offer to start-ups is not only money to invest, but also their expertise and networks. The latter part would not count merely as a support or some marginal factor. It can determine whether your start-up will be able to hit the mark or not. Just like dating, study their portfolios and ask smart questions to people who had a investment from them. Just like marriage, if the relationship will turn sour sooner or later, it’s better off not starting the relationship from the beginning.

3. Sell

Someone said, any business can be categorized into two things essentially: Make and Sell. While those two pillars of business cannot be too important, I think selling part is often ignored or at least less attentively taken cared of. Vinod Khosla said- Yes I had a crush on him- “sell, sell, and sell”.

Startup people should pitch their ideas anywhere anytime. Except for some rare cases, it is not a good idea not to pitch your idea or ask for sign-up for NDA, being afraid of getting copied. And for startups at more developed stages, one should still sell like crazy. Whether it’s a mid-aged guy living next door or a incredibly successful figure, like Bill Gates, one should never stop selling.

To be frank with you guys, I had many moments where I was hesitating to strike up a chat with people, worried about why he or she would want to talk with me. And that was the most stupidiest idea of all. Until I saw this guy from Greece, I couldn’t really bring myself to approach big guys. Yes I was squandering golden opportunities to pitch Aaltoes and my stories to them. The guy always asked and pitched his idea, whether it was Vinod Khosla, or Greg Papadopolous, former CTO of Sunmicrosystems. He didn’t just seem to care about his relative positions compared to them.

His just-ask-and-ask spirit pushed me forward and at some point, I surprised myself, pitching to people in a calm and confident manner, not the best but still okay. Anyway, yeah let us sell.

A window of opportunity is open for you

Lastly for those who wish to know how the event was put to an end. I’d like to share with you 5 start-ups that were picked by judges in the pitching competition. And you can see a very familiar name on the list

They went so far as to even get a chance to showcase their wonderful ideas on Demo Conference. You can get a glimpse of what it would have been like through youtube video clips. Well then, Nähdään!

-DH-

Hard work is the unmistakable part of entrepreneurship!

1. Speaker rounds

At least I really enjoyed the four speaker rounds we had during the weekend. Basically the concept was, that the participants were divided into groups of ten and then had smaller sessions with seasoned entrepreneurs and VCs. This way the discussion was very informal, fun and I hope everyone got more out of these.

2. Why and how startups die?

As part of the Speaker rounds, Ricky Yean, founder of Crowdbooster (YC Summer 2010) had an interesting point on why and how startups die, based on his batch of YC startups. For none of the companies not operating anymore, it was not a question of running out of money, but more about the chemistry between the founding team and their passion for the idea. If you just can’t stand the face of your co-founders or don’t care about the product anymore, it’s really hard to keep going with the ups and downs of the startup-rollercoaster.

None of the “failed” companies actually had to go bankrupt or just shut down the company, but due to high demand for engineering talent in the Valley, all of them got acqu-hired and the team re-positioned into the acquiring company. Of course there might be a lot YC-bias in this one, but still: not bad, right?

The importance of team and passion for the vision was also heavily emphasised by the other speakers throughout the whole weekend. I guess in addition to increasing chances for success, it’s also good to know that having a killer team will make the failure more profitable.

3. Biz Dev -workshop

On a practical side, perhaps one of the most interesting items was the business development -workshop on Day 1. The topic was “Business Plans gone wrong” – something you might not expect to be covered in an inspirational conference. During the session, the instructor walked us through a couple of cases, where companies were facing serious financial problems and how those were handled.

In such situation, one should ask three questions: what can I do without, what I don’t need at all and how could I increase margins. Another advice was to cut costs only once and after that, forget the dead and focus on the living. Cutting personel many times can be really stressful and start a vicious cycle, so it’s better to get it right for the first time. Also, after letting people go, instead of worrying about them, you should make sure the remaining ones are happy and motivated.

4. Max Levchin

The last but definitely not the least keynote was by Max Levchin, one of the co-founders of PayPal. The speech was great, but I found two points particularly interesting. First, you should remember that most all valuable things are also hard to make, but not everything hard is valuable. Thus, when you come up with an idea that seems valuable, first check that it’s also hard, but after that, triple check that it’s also actually valuable. Second was a simple question for evaluating potential investors: what will it be like with them, when I at some point need more money?

5. Networking

This one is a classic, but I’ll still repeat it here. Even though there was also a lot of substance in the keynotes and workshops, the most valuable part of the bootcamp was meeting and getting to know all the other participants.

Cheers,
Lauri

Tesla Roadsters

Even though having been several times to the Bay Area, it (once again) definitely had something new to offer. Tesla, making electric cars without compromising any design or convenience related issues, let us in to see their production line. They’re constantly looking for interns, so Lauri & Mikko stay tuned for a Startup Life intro! Photographing inside the premises was absolutely forbidden, even though sometimes the rules are made to be broken.

A tiny swimming pool at Google Campus

Google was pretty crazy. Instead of getting thrown out for “just using the free wifi”™ we got inside! The 30.000-employee company has indeed a pretty nice HQ. The engineers have literally built their own working spaces and we saw desks varying from a jungle to an inflatable tent. And the food.. We knew how much people hype on Google’s gastronomic offerings to its employees but seriously – the food scene in the campus is more than impressive. The cantina we ate in had everything from Japanese to Mexican cuisine and from the best pizza ever to delicious indian chicken.

Yahoo‘s data center was another stunning place. A huge room filled with noise, hot air cut with cool air breezes and a respectful amount of server racks consuming a ridiculous amount of electricity makes you think a bunch of things – e.g. which of these hard drives do contain my flickr photos. To access any room a four-fingerprint-scanning is required. The co-founder of Yahoo, David Filo, was in the house, showing us his servers wearing an old cosy looking stanford sweater. Roger that.

Intel was a bit of an anti-climax of the day since instead of seeing the actual company we visited the Intel Museum. A bit of Heureka-liked tour into the early years of Intel and the development process of the processors revealed us still some curious nice-to-know info.

After Palo Alto it was time to go downtown San Francisco. Kiva provided interesting insights on social entrepreneurship as a non-profit startup. Kiva offers anyone the  possibility to give micro loans to people from developing countries eager to start to build their own idea. It’s actually a more fair and respectful deal compared to charity.

Our lovely 1/2 group of internationals!

At Twitter we had a nice session with six employees specialized in localization. Most of the discussion focused on the integration of the service into different cultures as well as on how the company has grown during its six-year existence. Twitter is definitely one of the biggest players revolutionizing the way societies communicate within as well as between each other.

Dropbox was the cherry on top. An exclusive tour at their brand new office right next to the AT&T Park with a sea view, a 400-employee-capacity and a music room (with a really decent band equipment and a grand piano) was simply great. Even though the office was nice, the most important thing at Dropbox was the laid-back open culture. While we had lunch, one of the head engineers just sat down with us to chat, Drew Houston (the CEO) drove by on a little electric scooter and  all the time someone was playing ping pong. Still you could be sure that everyone was professional in their own field and shared the same passion (to make Dropbox the greatest service on Earth). Chris Barton, the founder of Shazam, was also present and had a short Q&A with us. Dropbox HR people definitely approved Startup Life and what could be a better giveaway than 5GB of free dropbox space? ; )

Other startups visited during the tours were: Foursquare, RockHealth (accelerator), Zynga, AirBnB, EA and Palantir.

Claudio likes Intel. A lot.

The two-day startup touring ended up with the actual E-Bootcamp kick-off dinner where Douglas M. Leone, partner of Sequoia Capital, gave an insightful keynote (and a Q&A) about thinking differently, the first approach to a specific market and the entrepreneur’s four risks: market, people, product and money – underlining the market as the most crucial factor. Douglas now knows about Startup Sauna and is more than willing to see the best teams from the spring batch in the Valley!

So far it’s been great to help BASES people out with the arrangements and we’re really looking forward to the rest of the days!

100+ great individuals with the right mindset to create new things in the same place. Simply Wow.

- Juho & DH

A few weeks ago two Aaltoes guys, Juho and DH, got a mission: to join E-bootcamp and help out the organizers of the event as a partner. Although it was such a creepy idea to go back to bootcamp once again – we’ve already served 3 years in total in military – we quickly sensed that it’s going to be so much fun, just by the fact that we would be able to meet 100+ entrepreneurs coming from all over the world at Stanford university campus.

While DH and Lauri, another participant of the event representing Tuubio, flew in San Francisco, Juho was already enjoying a beer with Startup Life interns (Nelli, Otto, Pekka) in a cool bar called Zeitgeist.  The interns told us that they are truly content with their jobs and are learning a lot while working with get-things-done entrepreneurs. Just like what Nelli did last year, Otto extended his stay in the Valley as he wanted to work there longer.

The next morning after some serious playing with waffle machines we headed to I/O ventures located at downtown San Francisco to work. The place was packed already in the early morning. Kristo and Tuomo from Metrify joined us for lunch – their speed is pretty impressive as they had had 12 meetings yesterday.

True entrepreneurs always take risks, don't they?

In Palo Alto we finally got to meet Zissis, a handsome guy from Greece and one of the organizers of the E-Bootcamp. We were assigned to lead the startup tours taking place during the next two following days which was great – we’re going to see some of the most stellar companies in the world and herd a group of aspiring entrepreneurs. We also started to envy Stanford students just a bit, mostly for their meal plans. The student dining room provided incredible amount of food options as well as an ice-cream machine (!).

E-Bootcamp is a bootcamp after all so no place was actually secured for us to sleep in. Nevertheless we, the restless warriors, did not flinch at all, because we knew that life is always full of surprises. Fortunately E-Bootcamp crew (us included) quickly found two very kind Stanford students who stepped forward to host us. Somehow it felt like things turned out better this way as now we’ll be able to get some sense of how it truly feels to be part of the Stanford community. Tomorrow we will walk 20+ people through the coolest companies of all – more on that later.

Alright! Seems like we need to get some sleep for a change. Stay tuned!

- DH & Juho

The last two days have been an experience of constant learning – a real life school into networking, interviewing, shooting (video & photos) and pitching. The pace has been super fast and to add to the challenge we still haven’t recovered from the jetlag. However any difficulties have been rewarded tenfold with the experience, knowledge and skills learned.

Wednesday we headed down to Palo Alto and Stanford. The drive was filled with talk of Silicon Valley wonders and who is who in this place. The HQ of Oracle and the offices of IDEO were pointed out with keen recognition. Of course, the Stanford campus was a welcome sight again – we doubt these people never get tired of going to school.

At Stanford we met up with Forrest Glick at the STVP (Stanford Technology Ventures Program) office. He and the team are responsible  for the eCorner portal which we are interested in. Really hospitable and helpful people – Forrest took time out of their busy day to talk to us and offered us a box of cinnamon buns. Those sweet pastries weren’t the only thing we got to enjoy here, oh no, definitely not.

Forrest gave a comprehensive explanation of the process and structure they have developed and which is making eCorner a success. For example their podcast is appreciated by a wide audience in part because they are made available nearly instantly after each talk ends. Forrest also gave numerous specific tips which will be very valuable when it comes to organizing and developing our own archive service at Aaltoes. We feel like we were given great support in the form of the various insights from eCorner.

We also attended the ETL (Entrepreneur Thought Leader) talk and saw Forrest and his team in action. The talk was an interesting one given by two generations of entrepreneurs, a mother and a son, Sandra Kurtzig (ASK Group inc. & Kenandy) and Andy Kurtzig (justanswer.com). And of course, you will be able to catch their talk on eCorner.

After the talk we had a quick look and talk around at the Stanford Entrepreneurial Week ending party – a themed week full of talks, seminars and mini events.

We then headed out to meet some of the Startup Life interns working in the area. We had a date set up at a restaurant in Palo Alto and enjoyed a casual talk and shot some interviews with Anne Liiri and Raimo Tuisku. Anne is interning as a part of the marketing team at Apptivo. Raimo is a developer and interning at UserVoice.

Both seemed very happy with their roles and companies and it was a pleasure to hear about their experiences so far. The interviews went well and the footage can be seen in future Startup Life promotions. Considerably

In the evening and back in San Francisco, half of our team + Raimo went to the Nordic Game event to learn some valuable lessons. ALWAYS carry a dozen business cards with you! In tech capitals of this scale, events and invitations emerge so fast, you basically never know where you’re going to end up next. Though we’re all flooded with these pieces of paper, the social aspect of receiving and being able to give something back, leaves you in a much better position than mumbling something under your breath about the hotel locker. Thank god most of the embarrassment was saved by swift Linkedin communication and contacting (mostly accepting).

The Nordic Game event was overall a chance for networking, preparing our pitches for SXSW and getting an idea of the Nordic game scene. We were surprised how many people had not yet heard of Aaltoes and it’s message. Every time the notion of “Europe’s Silicon Valley” was mentioned, it began to get more resonance. Lots of interesting conversation took place, ranging from ‘mind-controlled gaming’ to the future of Finnish gaming scene in general. One of the most prominent topics was the difficulty in penetrating the Asian market, China in particular.  For Aaltoes and Startup Life there were also interesting news. Jouni Keränen the COO of Apple Toons, a company which has been notably successful in China, showed interest in hosting a few internships at their HQ in Shanghai! The future lies within the East!

Thursday was an administrative day. We promoted the Startup Life throughout the Stanford campus, took care of the general organizational things and prepared for the upcoming SXSW days. We also had a meeting with Jussi Valtonen another startup life intern in the area.
Jussi was able to give us some valuable insights on working around the valley.
On his mind the whole working mentality and the level of involvement are on a different level in the Valley. Every team member truly gives a full hundred percents, and there really isn’ a possibility to just tag along! Work is project based and really fast paced. As a part of a team you have a full responsibility, but also the possibilities are endless. For Jussi the internship has been a great window  for gaining hardcore international experience. On his mind Startup Life internship is actually best described as Space Travel! You can never know what it’s like before you’ve really done it! But afterwards the feeling and experience gained are awesome!

The application period is still open until next wednesday! Sign up and see for yourself!!!

Start your year with a stack of new skills and tune into the following sessions – from the comfort of your home sofa. Here’s a selection of the offering, hand-picked by Aaltoes-peeps, to get you going:

Launchpad class by Steve Blank 

What: Remember Steve? Oh yes you do! Now it’s your chance to take part in his infamous Launchpad class and hear how feedback is really given

When: Class starts in February 2011.

More: http://www.launchpad-class.org/

Technology Entrepreneurship

What: Chuck Eesleys teaches the undergrad course on Technology Entrepreneurship. Really good overview into the world of information, green/clean, medical and consumer technologies.

When: Class starts in January 2011

More: http://www.venture-class.org/

iPhone application development 

What: The full walk-through class on how to learn iPhone development. A little pre-knowledge on C required.

When: Start right away! The videos are all there.

More: http://itunes.apple.com/itunes-u/iphone-application-development/id384233225#ls=1

You can also check out the Stanford Open Classroom collection for more computer science courses as well as Stanford Engineering Everywhere. There are course available on Machine Learning, Databases or even on Artificial Intelligence.

The Stanford – Aalto partnership is progressing: do check out the recent updates on the new minor that will start
in fall 2012. Keep an eye also on Startup Life if you’re dreaming of interning in a Silicon Valley startup as well as physically taking part in Stanford classes. The next round will begin in January!