5 Insights From VC Meetup and Panel for Enterpreneurs
I love to learn and share those learnings so here are 5 things I took away:
- Validate the good idea. Over 50% of new apps and products fail. Those that success have been vetted and tested. The advice they gave was to have as many people as possible provide you feedback as quickly as you can. That could be through Kickstarter or just creating an MVP!
- Either be or hire a Tech Geek! The VCs validated that every company today is competitive through technology (well, just about!). The discussion was that every company is a tech company so either the founder or her right hand person needs to be steeped in the knowledge of technology.
- Network. Networking is crucial to a successful startup. All the VCs said that they bet on the person first, the idea second. In order for them to bet on you, they need to know you and trust you! Take the time to get to know those who might fund you!
- Have a business plan. This factoid amazed me. Over 50% of those companies that come into a VC come in with a great product but no business model. Make sure you think through both the offering and the way that you make money.
- Dream big and have confidence. A lot of success is trying again and again and not being afraid of hearing no Facing rejection can be tough, but ensure you have the confidence to wirhstand it. One entrepreneur said he was turned down for funding over 20 times before he was funded, and is now a successful serial entrepreneur. Be passionate about what you bring to the table.
New Startup: The Smartphone Device That Will Be Able To Detect Cancer In Your Breath
Compliments of Ray Hammond who alerted me to this cool Startup! A device developed in Israel called the “NaNose” is claimed to be able to detect cancer and other illness simply by sampling human breath.
NaNose is now being ported to be available on a smartphone as an add-on called “The Sniff Phone”.
By identifying the special “odour” emitted by cancer cells, it is claimed the NaNose system can detect the presence of tumours, both benign and malignant, more quickly, efficiently and cheaply than previously possible.
It is claimed the system is 90 per cent accurate.
3 Pieces of Advice for Start-ups and Intrapreneurs from Unusual Places!
I am in Vegas and walked through a great museum with fun quotes and it made me think of the advice earlier from some of our Venture Capitalists!
1. Fish are the last to recognize water. Make sure that you are constantly evaluating the landscape. Sometimes startups fall in love with their products and don't see poor product-market fit with a solid business model. Remember that the product must be desired by a customer -- and there are many substitutes. At our last VC roundtable, the VCs said that they are always weary when someone comes in with an idea that has 0 competition While this seems basic, I have seen many entrepreneurs dive into creating a product that they think is totally unique, not thinking through other options.
2. It's always better to be looked over than overlooked. Many start-ups think about scale and overlook the way to get to need scale. The priority should be on developer productivity and being able to deliver the features and platform that sets your product apart. Focus on scale when it actually becomes a problem. You'll be better prepared with more information about what to fix and where and hopefully with more help to do it.
3. If you want the rainbow you better put up with the rain. Many start-ups put their energy into impressing their boards and investors instead of their customers. Of course you must work with your investors, but a great start-up filters those ides through the eyes of their clients and potential clients. Don't get distracted focusing on the wrong group.
IBM SmartCamp Finals is Almost here!!! Join us!
Join us for the SmartCamp finals with a set of AMAZING Entrepreneurs!
Monday, Feb 23
3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
MGM Hotel
Rooms 312--317
http://www.ibm.com/cloud-computing/us/en/interconnect/devat/smartcamp/
Speedgeeking! 5 Demos To Keep Your Career Heading UP @ Interconnect
Yes, I am a self proclaimed Girl Geek. In fact, Geek Girls are very chic!
So for my top 5 Picks at IBM's Interconnect Conference in Las Vegas on Feb 22-26 -- here you will find my top choices! And Yes, I want to go to all of them! How about you!?
You can register here: http://www.ibm.com/cloud-computing/us/en/interconnect/devat/
Top 5 Speedgeeking Demos
- Startup in 15 Minutes Using Bluemix -- Disrupt or be disrupted is the mantra of IT today. Watch this demonstration where we take an idea and turn it in to a prototype for a real business and take it to a pilot stage. We will use a variety of services on Bluemix including Cloudant, dashDB, Twillio, Analytics for Hadoop and Node-Red.
- Real-time Sentiment Analysis of Twitter during Brazil World Cup soccer games - FAMA was implemented for real-time sentiment analysis of streaming Twitter data during all matches of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. This engine included the sentiment about each player, the coach and the teams. We have implemented a Machine Learning-based classifier to identify the polarity of each tweet during the games in real-time using IBM InfoSphere Streams over Softlayer cloud infrastructure. The system provided a report of the most frequent topics, terms and their co-occurrences and the corresponding volume of messages classified with positive, negative or neutral polarity. These results were made available to a major nation-wide television network mobile app and at a ESPN hotsite.
- From Nothing to a Running App in the Cloud with IBM Bluemix DevOps Services - You want to develop something quickly but you don't have days or weeks to set up an environments? No worries, Bluemix DevOps Services is here to help you be more productive. Come to this hands-on demo to see how to create a new app (Node.js), manage source code (Git), or configure automated builds and deployments (continuous delivery) in the cloud. The demo will also introduce DevOps Services capabilities to manage agile product development (Product Backlog, Sprint planning). When cloud computing is so easy with Bluemix DevOps Services, you can focus on what really matters: Develop your next brilliant idea.
- Building a Living Heart - (Just in time for Valentine's Day!!) - Dassault Systemes, an IBM Business Partner and Silver+ sponsor, is building a heart simulator by working with experts in medicine, device manufacturing, academia and regulatory agencies. This is a short demo of the The Living Heart Project announced by the FDA and Dassault Systemes for a Living Heart collaborative research project with crowdsourcing and ability to project IP and share outcomes.
- Let's Build a Start-up In 30 Minutes Using Bluemix and IoT - In this workshop we will show you how to quickly develop a new line of business using the IoT technology provided by Kiwi Wearables and the IBM Bluemix platform. As telco executive is trying to target the under-served market of senior citizens. They don't carry smartphones so they sign very inexpensive contracts that barely generates any profit. The new business idea is to create a plan where they receive a smartphone with the Kiwi app pre-configured, a data plan and an automatic fall detection service. The attendees will build the fall detection service that will be running on IBM Bluemix and will use the services provided by the platform to store and analyze data and automatically notify a caregiver of the fall.
Content transformation and Fire fighting: Two startups make it to Global Finals!
What do two startups, one with a solution in content transformation and the other with a solution in fighting forest fires, have in common? They are both heading to the SmartCamp Global Finals! Stelae Technologies and Insight Robotics won our SmartCamp Asia Pacific Regional!
Stelae Technologies, winner of SmartCamp India, has an automated solution that enables an end-to-end workflow for information management. With at least 70% of cost savings over current solutions, theirs is one platform for multiple file types (PDF, Word, ASCII, etc.) and enables rapid turnaround times for converting files into multiple output formats (XML, S1000d, XBRL, etc.).
So, imagine if you had access to a single platform that enabled you to create, manage, and convert multiple file formats. That would be a huge time and money saver!
And I really love what Insight Robotics, winner of SmartCamp China, is doing to prevent forest fires. Just last year in the United States, over 9.3 million acres of forest were lost to fires! Just think of how many acres globally are lost! Thankfully, Insight Robotics has a solution to address this global problem.
Using thermal imaging sensors and advanced artificial intelligence vision technology, Insight Robotics solution allows fire fighters to quickly locate a forest fire, giving them a jump at extinguishing the flames. So precise is their solution that is can spot fires as small as an area of 2m x 1m within 5km radius!
Congratulations to Stelae Technologies and Insight Robotics! I'll see you both at the SmartCamp Global Finals!
Helpful links:
Stelae Technologies -> http://www.stelae-technologies.com/
Insight Robotics -> http://www.insightrobotics.com/
Join me on Oct 6, 2pm ET for #IBMDigitalNYC Tweetchat!
We launched the Digital.NYC platform on October 1 with City of New York Mayor Bill De Blasio. As he pointed out, we made history that day: bringing the ultimate resource to the city with the fastest growing startup scene in the US!
I will be holding a #IBMDigitalNYC tweetchat on Monday October 6 at 2pm - 3pm ET to discuss questions such as:
Why/how does IBM partner with the startup community?
How will Digital.NYC continue to evolve with New York?
What is the plan to roll this out to other cities?
Come armed with your own questions and comments to this open discussion!
Register now to receive a reminder or add this to your calendar – I look forward to hearing from you on Monday on #IBMDigitalNYC!
SmartCamp Entrepreneur Winners in France, Italy, and Africa!
We have more exciting news coming from SmartCamps in Africa and Europe!
Last week, we had SmartCamps in Milan, Lille and Nairobi. And at each location, the local entrepreneurial ecosystem was engaged and participated!
Congratulations to Social Bullgard (Italy), Seclud-IT (France) and Digital Vision East Africa (Nairobi)!
Social Bullgard gathers and structures social media content to help companies react quickly to requests and opportunities, as well as avoid and manage crisis efficiently.
Seclud-IT's solution, Elastic Security, brings to cloud infrastructure providers the ability to provide on-demand computing resources to their customers, without compromising with security.
Digital Vision East Africa's solution, Chamasoft, is a simple to use web and mobile application that automates all activities in an investment group. Their solution also promotes transparency and accountability within investment groups.
What an impressive list of startups! And all that just from last week! There are more to come, as our SmartCamps are happening around the world. Find out more about a SmartCamp near you!