frogs, hippos and weddings: learnings from building wooga
DESCRIPTION
Keynote at arctic15 in Helsinki by wooga founder Jens Begemann on September 22nd 2011.*Frogs, hippos and weddings: Learnings from building wooga*In his keynote, Jens Begemann talks about his learnings from building wooga and provides insights of what he thinks are the key aspects for successfully founding a company.TRANSCRIPT
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Frogs, hippos and weddings: Learnings from building wooga
Jens Begemann (Founder & CEO)
§ 2001-‐2008: valuable entrepreneurial learnings made @Jamba (startup in Berlin)
§ Best preparaBon for starBng wooga
Remember Jamba‘s Crazy Frog
wooga – world of gaming
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Key stats 6 games on Facebook 40 million acBve users
70% of users are female (age 20-‐60)
About wooga Founded January 2009 Funding of $32m InternaBonal team of 110 from over 20 countries in Berlin
Jens Begemann -‐Founder & CEO-‐
Agenda
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I. Founding team
II. How to get started
III. Product development
IV. Culture
V. RecruiBng
VI. Investors
Trust, clear responsibiliBes & strenghts
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Philipp Moeser
Co-‐founder & CTO
Jens Begemann
Founder & CEO
FOCUS
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Sales Technology
vs. vs.
Product
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PRODUCT
§ NO Biz Dev
§ NO Sales
FOCUS
Agenda
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I. Founding team
II. How to get started
III. Product development
IV. Culture
V. RecruiBng
VI. Investors
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Business Plan
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Brain Sport
Brain training
Social Networks
Casual Games
Slide from Nov 2008 Product Plan: Financial Plan:
Vision: Become a major consumer brand & desBnaBon for social casual games on the web & mobile phones
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Business Plan
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„Games for everyone“
Have a vision!
Important: Product -‐ prototype
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How do you grow customers? -‐ Brain Buddies
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4 month ader launch we ran out of wall
Maybe: How do you moneBze?
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Agenda
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I. Founding team
II. How to get started
III. Product development
IV. Culture
V. RecruiBng
VI. Investors
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DON‘T follow the HIPPO*
Source (Hippo): hep://www.am.dodea.edu/bragg/murray/Images/hippo.png
*Highest paid person’s opinion
A/B tesBng
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111%
100%
104%
User tesBng
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Throw stuff away
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Success comes by what you don‘t do!
Agenda
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I. Founding team
II. How to get started
III. Product development
IV. Culture
V. RecruiBng
VI. Investors
One office, one team, one language
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1
OPENNESS
24 Share key informa`on internally
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✔
Geang things
done!
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10 year vision
6 month plan
Weekly itera`ons
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Your behavior =
your company culture
vs.
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Agenda
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I. Founding team
II. How to get started
III. Product development
IV. Culture
V. Recrui`ng
VI. Investors
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2h/day for everyone in senior team
RecruiBng
Rather leave a job posiBon open than employ someone who doesn’t fully fit
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NO compromise
Onboarding
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Equally important
Leaving employees Happy people talk to 10 people
Unhappy people talk to 100 people !
Agenda
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I. Founding team
II. How to get started
III. Product development
IV. Culture
V. RecruiBng
VI. Investors
Raise
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2x what you need & Before you need it
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Valua`on not most important
Be long-‐term greedy
! Difficulty to raise next round
Don‘t forget other contract terms
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Investors =
Investor = geong married
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§ Don‘t understand your business § Cost you time instead of helping § Throw you out
Bad partners
Good partners
§ Have been in your shoes before § Support you as an entrepreneur § Are fun to work with
Make reference calls with CEOs of their investments
Select your partner
¨ No slides ¨ Have a Bme keeper ¨ 3 hour meeBng:
¨ 2 hours on theme of the board meeBng ¨ 1 hour on „other“/open discussion
¨ Latest financials incl. re-‐forecast ¨ „Update on the business“ memo
(highly structured email) ¨ Clear agenda ¨ Theme of the board meeBng
Board meeBng checklist
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Send before the mee`ng:
Mee`ng every 2 months:
II. How to get started I. Founders III. Product development
VI. Investors V. Recrui`ng IV. Culture
Trust, responsibiliBes & strengths
2h/day
Product Prototype
Your behavior =
your company culture
One more thing...
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Get experience @wooga:
wooga.com/jobs
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Thank you!
Jens Begemann Founder & CEO wooga
Twiker: @begemann
wooga.com/jobs