Simon Hjære is co-founder of Tonsser, a new startup with online team management software, for networks of football players, coaches, teams and clubs. Johan Frederik Schjødt, is co-founder and CEO of AutoUncle, presenting used car information, an aggregation service and deal finder. And Simon Stubben is co-founder of BillyTracker, to help you track your kids using an app and GPS sensor.

Here are some of their answers based on their experiences with the concept. Check out the article for the full interview and all their insightful responses from their experiences (there is too much to capture or summarise here in this translation).

How do you understand Lean Startup?

‘Zoomed out… it’s the most direct way to develop a product or business model that works. But in everyday life, it’s very few new features or ideas that work as expected – nine out of ten things just do not work…..so, it is probably the fastest way to fail. And the more times you can reach to fail, the greater the likelihood that one reaches to hit something that works. ” Johan F. Schjødt, AutoUncle

‘….Startups try very hard to survive and navigate the chaos. For me, it’s about LEARNING to build products as efficiently as possible by responding to change…. you can stick to the old plan and walk the last 10 rounds out before you realize that you have failed. In a startup you have a lot of assumptions that ultimately prove to be incorrect. Why not learn from the mistakes as quickly as possible?’ Simon Hjære, Tonsser

‘In short, get certified business with as few resources (time and money) as possible.’ Simon Stubben, Billy Tracker

Doing ‘Lean Startup’ doesn’t mean you’re calling it that, but for some it’s part of the approach regardless.

How to use the Lean Startup in practice?

‘We have used Lean Startup to clarify everything from key strategic issues such as which groups we should focus on fine-tuning and optimization of products. But most of all, we use it to figure out how to prioritize what new features to be sacrificed blood, sweat and tears. …. for us, it is to be taken back to the state where you can suddenly see the product with a user’s eyes. I think that most can recognize the experience where you sit next to a user and to explain or show something, and suddenly realizing details, everything from typos to the illogical flows, you had been blind to.’ Johan F. Schjødt, AutoUncle

‘I would not say that we at Tonsser use Lean Startup directly…. but I can see that we still indirectly are very “lean” in our approach. In Tonsser we are very conscious about working with tight deadlines and test our solutions with users as early in the development process as possible… feedback boosts our motivation enormously when we experience feedback from dedicated users..’ Simon Hjære, Tonsser

‘In Billy Tracker, we use Lean Startup with our users helping to create the product, we collect their immediate reactions to the features of our app. …. In my opinion, we have not used the Lean Startup method from the beginning we first subsequently became aware of it. We, however, were great supporters of the method…. we will as far as possible get all processes “lean”, that also means that we need to get better at measuring what works and does not work.’ Simon Stubben, Billy Tracker

The concept: building an MVP (minimum viable product) validated learning and testing, meeting customer needs, and practical steps for a lean approach.

Do you have any advice on the use of the Lean Startup?

‘…test properly and do not shoot blanks! We have previously made mistakes in our tests, and it is like a reed blowing in the wind – imprecise and therefore unusable. One has to know what you want. Otherwise, the test goes in all possible directions. The truth is somewhere in between you as the expert and the user. ‘ Johan F. Schjødt, AutoUncle

‘I seem to see a hazard if one might be led to blindly abide by its users’ feedback. I agree with the importance of that one should listen to its users and it can often be invaluable. But it does not necessarily mean that you MUST abide by your users want. ……We also built an MVP that users have tested, which gave us some valuable information. However, it is a balance. I am of the opinion that ….. we should not be concerned that all is not perfect in the first place. But on the other hand, we also have an obligation to our users, which motivates us to push ourselves ….’ Simon Hjære, Tonsser

‘The qualitative aspect of Lean Startup is hard to handle. That the opinions of people who surveyed or interviewed, must often be critical…. make sure to ask plenty of questions. If you have plans to sell a physical product, Lean Startup may also be difficult to perform, since you may not have the product yet, or if the same customer groups live far away or have a situational use by our customers.’ Simon Stubben, Billy Tracker

What have you learned from Lean Startup?

‘Think big, but focus on solving one basic problem at a time ‘ Simon Hjære, Tonsser

‘…you do not have to spend a lot of money on development and production to the business proposition validated. Validation can be done by setting up hypotheses on its business proposition and have them validated, for example using an MVP. The good thing is thinking about the development of a product / service with customers, making it from their needs.’ Simon Stubben, Billy Tracker

Other literature you can recommend?

‘Switch, written by the Heath brothers. It is a much less academic approach to how to create motivation and commitment, which is a prerequisite for pursuing an idea, decision or change in practice. Especially when it involves other people that you depend on in the same direction’ Johan F. Schjødt, AutoUncle

‘ … [writings by] Steve Blank, who in his time inspired Eric Ries to write the book Lean Startup’ Simon Hjære, Tonsser

‘Startupdigest.com with all sorts of good articles about startups! And “Lean Analytics” which is based on developing KPIs.’ Simon Stubben, BillyTracker

The post The Lean Startup – thoughts from 3 Danish Entrepreneurs appeared first on Øresund Startup News.

“Copenhagen is the most exciting startup city in the Nordics!”

Those were the words blurted out with passion from Martin Hauge, General Partner at Creandum during the White Bull panel session facilitated by Farley Duvall and Martin von Haller Grønbæk at Betapitch Copenhagen last night. What followed was an intense debate about how to create the next billion $/€ company in Copenhagen. Martin von Haller Grønbæk, Partner at Bird&Bird led on with asking about if tax was an inhibitor or could be a catalyst to get more of these companies. The panelists disagreed – almost to the point of starting a fistfight – whether our high taxes is indeed a problem or not. I believe all could agree that lower taxes will be beneficial but whether or not more billion $/€ companies will come by doing so remained highly debated.
 

Danger! Highly flammable!

Just about 90 people showed up for the combined Betapitch and White Bull event. The participants came from all parts of the entrepreneurial stack: Wanna-be-preneurs, entrepreneurs, serial entrepreneurs, business angels, investors etc. It was an explosive and highly flammable mix of most of the startup scene in Denmark as well as the southern part of Sweden. Despite the buzzing, energized and hot (in multiple ways) atmosphere with multiple sparks flying around it was amazing that the whole of Republikken didn’t burn down to the ground. A key to why this didn’t happen was the continuous stream of beer, wine and food generously sponsored by Bird&Bird which added a certain level of humidity to the atmosphere. Suffice to say, we wouldn’t be shocked if several new knots were tied at the event.
 

Wat’a-bike, boligportalen on steroids and just print your own damn house!

The ten teams that made it through were these:

• Swipes: Swipe away procrastination

• KOMBO Building Systems: 3D print your own house

• iRezQ: Fast alert if you’re in an accident

• Bikway: Bike-paths for everyone and everywhere

• Wat’a-bike: Water+bike=Wat’a-bike

• Tasspass: Crowdsource a dog-sitter

• Sociotransit: Crowdsource a courier around the world

• BillyTracker: Track your kid using a GPS

• Hiveeo: Boligportalen on steroids using social networks

• Wilding: A recording room in a room

The Pitches

On the paper it looked easy: Clearly all 10 ideas were awesome, but on the paper it would appear that some of them had greater potential, some teams looked nicer and some just seem to make more sense. But oh boy, were we wrong about that! Once the pitching war started it spared no one. First up, Swipes – amazing growth for an app that has only lived for a week in a very crowded space. Second up Wilding – an ambitious project that aims to create room-in-a-room for which to connect with loved ones, create amazing green-screen videos etc. Third, Bikway – a bike-path to be easily installed everywhere in order to move the Copenhagen bike experience to towns less fortunate. Fourth up iRezQ – a great team with an app that detects accidents alerts the authorities and nearby motorists. Fifth BillyTracker – track your kid using an easy-to-use app and a small GPS sensor. Sixth up Hiveeo – as Casper Overgaard tweeted “Boligportalen.dk on steroids”. Sean the founder came extremely well prepared with multiple backup slides and jokes – he made jury-members laugh so hard they seemed to forget their questions. Interesting strategy… Seventh Sociotransit – a website which let’s you crowdsource a courier from around the world to pickup forgotten cellphones, Chardonnay’s etc. Eighth up Jakob Bue – with an amazing tale of how and why we should use more waterbikes in cities with canals. The design he proposed is way better than what exists in the market today. Ninth – Tasspass – a website that crowdsources dogsitters tailored to the individual dogs needs. Finally, Kombo – a software tool that makes lives simpler for architects and will basically allow you to 3D print your own house.

The fight was on! Who would win the Trophy? After almost 40 minutes the jury emerged from the meeting room in a fog of white smoke. Ready to announce the winners.

Bikway and Swipes took it all!

The 2nd place (which also qualifies for a trip to compete in Betapitch Global) was Swipes by Kasper Tornøe and Yana Vlatchkova – see you guys in Berlin!
 
But the 1st place went to Bikway by Andreas Schuster, Dovydas Rusciauskas, Eimantas Liudvinovicious and Simon Hansen! The jury found that the Bikway team had found a way to export something, which truly reflect Copenhagen and had done so in a very promising and believable way.
 

Also an announcement: RepublikkenTech!

A small but important announcement was also made during Betapitch Copenhagen. Republikken which hosted the event – currently a co-working space, which is known for it’s focus on architects and designers have decided to take a firm step towards tech startups. At Betapitch Morten Sylvest Nøhr announced that they will blow the roof off the old Republikken and open the 4th floor of the building to house tech startups: So far titled RepublikkenTech. They’re doing so in collaboration with Michael Reibel Boesen, Sebastian Schwemer and Andreas Cleve Lohmann who are working on a project to empower the Copenhagen Tech Startup ecosystem so far named CphQ. If you’re interested in being a part of the new Tech Startup epicenter of Copenhagen, be the first to get an office etc. then sign-up for more information here: http://republikkenmeetstech.launchrock.com. Also like the Facebook page and follow the Twitter profile.

An amazing night in the spirit of innovation and ideas

All in all it was an amazing night with lightning talks by the likes of Tommy Ahlers and Thomas Madsen-Mygdal followed by the heated discussion of the White Bull panel before finally, going into the Betapitch competition, which featured teams that really showed how to step up to the challenge of pitching ideas. We want to thank all our sponsors and partners as well as the jury members: Thomas Madsen-Mygdal, Madeleine Gummer von Mohl, Martin Ferro-Thomsen, Henriette Weber and Anette Nørgaard! Thanks to all for making it an awesome night!
 

Check out the live feed at our Conferize site http://www.conferize.com/conferences/betapitch-copenhagen, which is also embeded in this post. There you can see the action step by step from last night.

The post Event Report: an amazing Betapitch Copenhagen appeared first on Øresund Startup News.