Lessons from asuccessful
but unscalable startup
October 11th, 2011The Founder Institute, Amsterdam
@fnauta
My dream:Catalyst for a smarter country
"Vision in action":
• Think Tank creates new vision for Netherlands
• Translates it into projects
• Help with kickstarting projects
• Give them away
• Organize learning around it
My dream:Catalyst for a smarter country
"Vision in action":
• Think Tank creates new vision for Netherlands
• Translates it into projects
• Help with kickstarting projects
• Give them away
• Organize learning around it
Target: 2002 elections knowledge economy is central in coalition agreement
On the The Founder Institute scale
• Meaningful: certainly, but on local scale
• Enduring: hardly
• Technology: no
2002: Fit
• We got a 'CFO'
• Restructures in first month
• Businessmodel clear
- From Sponsor-model, to Consultancy, to service- & projectbureau
• Research in other countries, such as Finland
• First substantial profit
2003:Mission accomplished
• We create Knowledge economy hype
• and we become a hype
• Knowledge economy is part of the coalition agreement
• I start working in The Hague as secretary of innovation for the Prime Minister
Lessons on money
• Avoid what seems easy money (subsidy, sponsors), it makes you stupid and creates huge transactional costs (and find a launching customer)
• Even if you think money is not important, you still need a scalable business model, or you will get bored
Lessons on me
• Startup is the best way to discover your strengths and weaknesses, make sure you find great people to cover your weaknesses
• Working > 80 hours structurally is not cool, it means you're not organized effectively and wearing yourself out
• A startup is a marathon: see yourself as a top sporter, and take care of yourself that way
Lessons on people
• It's amazing how easy it is to get people to listen to you if you truly believe in something
• Your team is by far your most important asset, so never accept anyone in the team because he's 'a friend of a friend' or because he's just 'OK'
• Find truly great coaches and mentors (not famous ones, they are to busy)