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Hi everybody, great to see you! Actually, this is my first conference talk at a tech conference. I've been telling stories to people before, but never something serious, so bear with me.
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First, let me introduce myself. I'm 33 years old and I have two kids and a great job with fantastic colleagues. Actually, they're all here. On the side, I also have a startup called MyPhoner, which is just starting to see its first revenue. This is pretty exciting for me. However, to get here, I went through a lot of trouble.
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This next 30 minutes is my story, and I'm going to let you learn from my miserable failures. I will conclude with a three-step guide on bringing your own ideas to life. So, let's quickly look through what happened to me over the past three years.
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The story begins in Spring 2011, where I built the first prototype for the MyPhoner project I just told you about. I actually dug down and found a screenshot of the early version. The idea for MyPhoner came when I was working for another startup back in 2010. I was sitting in a shared office space, and right behind me sat a freelance telephone salesperson who was doing cold calling. Cold calling is when you call people you don't know; you have a list of leads and you just start calling them up.
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Most of the time, people say no, and that can lead to feeling quite depressed. Cold calling is tough, but many people do it anyway. I noticed that this guy was using Excel spreadsheets to manage his leads. He would sit there, look at his spreadsheet, find someone he felt like calling, and then he would call them. When they said no, he would write something negative in a cell—like 'jackass'—and maybe color it red before moving on. To me, this seemed rather inefficient. I thought, with a small, easy app, I could make his life a lot better.
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So, I built this prototype after I stopped working for that startup and found a co-founder to handle sales and marketing. However, when I finished the prototype, he left and didn’t do anything at all. At that point, I strongly believed I needed someone to help me bring my ideas to life because I was just a developer. How could I handle sales and marketing, which I knew nothing about?
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I was looking for another startup, another idea, or another co-founder to get me on the right track because I really wanted to work on my own projects. Then, the project MoneyButs turned up. MoneyButs is a widget for web shops that allows end users to ask their friends and chat about products that they are considering online, providing social confidence about their choices. Our tagline was 'Sell more.' We built a lot around that and tried to find customers.
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At this time, I had a daughter, and some of you might know that having a child can feel like starting another startup. My partner in MoneyButs worked for a financial institution and had an idea to build a prototype for a risk management tool. Because he knew me, I was hired to do that prototype, which was great because I needed some paid work since the MoneyButs thing wasn’t generating any revenue.
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This risk project became a corporate solution for mapping risks to IT assets and creating a more intelligent mitigation plan for the organization. We invited everyone to collaborate on assessing and mapping the risks and IT assets. We built it during the day while I worked on MoneyButs at night. This went well for about a year. Everything seemed good until the renewal of the assignment for the risk project came. I was left without paid work for a while and I became frustrated. I didn't want to keep working for others to get my money; I wanted to focus on my projects and make them generate revenue.
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I still had the idea for MyPhoner and another idea I had been thinking about for a while. So, I thought, if I could quickly make some money from these ideas, I wouldn’t have to take another client project. Within ten days, I built two products and launched them. One was the next version of MyPhoner, which was a bare-bones prototype, but it had a landing page, unlike the first version. This was a big difference. With the landing page, people could actually sign up, and once they signed up, they could log in.
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That was cool! I also set up an AdWords campaign and hired a salesperson to use the system. I have learned that you need to build something that scratches your own itch; so I invented an itch to scratch. I developed a full-service hosting solution for Danish building material manufacturers. These manufacturers typically aren’t very tech-savvy, so having someone to build them a website and handle everything for a monthly fee was very convenient. I had the salesperson using MyPhoner to call these potential clients, but he faced a lot of rejection.
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After establishing the CMS system in about three hours, I structured the business model so that for every client I got, I could get a theme for $12 and customize it within five or six hours. This could result in a monthly income of around $250 for every customer with just five hours of work.
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Things started changing when the risk project—my main source of income—transformed into a startup. We were negotiating with the project owner to obtain the IP rights, which would allow us to launch our own business. During this time, we also launched a new version of MoneyButs, which is now called Shap, for shopping apps. Shap was essentially a split of MoneyButs’ features into smaller apps that could each function as a widget on web shops, giving shop owners tools for A/B testing and targeted functionality.
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For example, one app allowed users to ask questions directly to the shop owner, enabling the creation of specific FAQs for each product page. Another app enabled users to poll their friends on social media about which product to buy. The last one notified users when the price of a product they'd shown interest in went down. We had all of this working, and we launched our marketing campaign.
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Unfortunately, it didn’t work out. As you might have guessed, at that point, I was managing four startups along with taking care of a baby. Everyone agreed that it was too much and needed to make a choice—keep either RiskIt or Shap. The feedback we received for Shap was quite discouraging. We realized RiskIt had more interest from potential customers, which included some investors.
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This led to Shap being put on hold in April 2013. I had to terminate my salesperson and put the other two projects on ice to focus better. As you can imagine, I still needed income, so when my father came along with a month of work to build a prototype for an expert system for a major Danish shipping company, I couldn't turn it down.
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Though it was a project, it felt very much like another startup. When my father later called from Shanghai along with his partner after their first demo and requested many new features delivered quickly, it turned into quite a stressful situation. I was running out of money again as well, which added to the pressure. I took a freelance assignment in a large company for three months to try to clear the financial mess. Meanwhile, pressure rose to work more on RiskIt.
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There was interest from investors and customers. I remember a meeting I had with one interested investor. My partner met with him and shared a lot of exciting features we didn’t yet have. When the investor asked for a demo, I was at work at that moment, and it was a frustrating situation. I felt overwhelmed by the stress, and I was worried about the possibility of getting investment because it would mean I had to manage features and potentially scale a team, which was frightening.
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Eventually, I reached a point where I had to choose between my family and continuing with the startups. I chose my two kids and my wife over my startups, leaving me with essentially nothing left from my entrepreneurial pursuits. Following that, I took some time to reflect.
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In retrospect, I realized everything I did was quite confused; I didn’t really know what I wanted. I was just trying to make some money so that I could be free, but I learned that you need to have a ‘why’ behind what you do.
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The idea of having a strong 'why' is important because it serves as motivation and guidance. Initially, my 'why' was simply to make a lot of money to be free, but bringing ideas to life is much more than just financial gain. Being an entrepreneur is much more about the journey than the destination.
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I recall attending a wedding where we had a speaker called Dan Martell on a video call from San Francisco. He built a business that generated about $1.6 million in revenue and subsequently sold it for a massive sum. However, the next morning, he felt empty and it forced him into therapy because he realized no one depended on him anymore. I found this very interesting because he was technically free, yet he felt lost.
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Therefore, the concept of understanding your 'why' is crucial. Balancing your life is also important. You need people around you—family and friends—to lift you up when times are tough. Don’t hesitate to ask for help when you need it.
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From my experiences, I found it difficult to determine whether one of my ideas was about to succeed or needed to be abandoned. There’s a concept introduced by Seth Godin called ‘The Dip’ which explains this scenario. The graph explains returns versus effort, showing how every project initially yields positive returns, leading to the 'Dip' where reality kicks in.
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It's during the dip that you must decide to either persevere or quit. Unfortunately, in my case, I often chose to quit when things started getting difficult. I jumped from one idea to another too quickly, especially during times of struggle.
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A crucial takeaway is that if you don't experience a dip, something may be amiss. No meaningful success comes without challenge. Triumphing through the dip differentiates you from your competitors and creates the value in the product.
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After deciding to quit RiskIt, I spent time contemplating my next steps. Eventually, I accepted a job I had previously been rejecting. I found enjoyment in it while realizing I could continue to bring ideas to life but maybe just one at a time. Here's how it works in a nutshell: you have an idea, build a product, and establish a business. This is a simplified overview, but we could discuss many facets within that framework.
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A recent event highlighted the importance of product-market fit. For instance, a speaker shared how he validated his product idea by creating a landing page that collected emails before building the actual product. This approach helped him understand the market demand and shape the product before investing too much effort into development.
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MyPhoner is a simpler side project now, but it still serves a purpose and I have users who utilize it daily. While it doesn’t generate enough income for me to live off in traditional terms, it keeps my entrepreneurial spirit alive. I'm turning down offers to co-found other projects or take freelance work, as I want to retain control over my ideas and their direction.
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I advise you to consider the following if you have an idea you want to bring to life: First, know your 'why.' For me, it’s about creating superior productivity tools so that others can also enjoy their work. Second, achieve product-market fit; the story I shared earlier outlines how this process should be approached. Lastly, be in control. Many people advocate for going through an accelerator program or seeking investment, but don’t rush to do that without having a revenue stream first.
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And with that, it’s time for Q&A and a beer!
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I still believe that Shap is a good idea, and all the elements are present. I'm just not going to pursue it. Regarding where ideas originate, I believe they stem from recognizing a problem. Ideas can pop into your head when you are immersed in a particular field. Sometimes, however, ambition is what sparks the search for ideas, which can lead to disaster if not defined carefully.
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I've certainly learned a lot from my own experiences, but I've also gained insights from others. I realize that without having made mistakes, I wouldn't be where I am today. You cannot regret experiences that teach you. Instead of regretting, focus on using what you have learned to improve.
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When it comes to choosing between multiple ideas, it’s essential to push through the dip. If you have many ideas, you might quit prematurely without discovering their potential for success. So choose one and give it your all, letting go of the rest.
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I am happy to be free from the pressures that come with managing multiple startups at once. While it was fun to build and launch rapidly, it didn’t yield lasting results. I feel satisfied now.
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As for regrets, I have none. Each experience, even the ones perceived as failures, brought me valuable lessons. You should work with what you have and use your experiences to guide you forward.
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I am currently focused solely on MyPhoner. If an idea comes to me, I jot it down for future consideration. Ideas are abundant, but execution is king. I hope that answers your question. Thank you!