Daniel started his first company when he was 14. Sweden was known for piracy, because of Kazaa and Pirate Bay. Because everyone had broadband and it was super fast, consumption existed before services did, so pirate sites had lots of users. Spotify was a reaction to this. It was evident that people loved Kazaa and Napster, but these solutions did not satisfy the industry. There had to be a way to offer a service within the bounds of legality. The idea was to create an iTunes with all the world’s music, available on any device and not just the iPhone.

Daniel announces that the Spotify team has built a radio app on top of their own platform. It’s like Pandora, but with unlimited skipping. It ended up being really fast for them to develop this. The best part of the experience is being able to skip as many tracks as you want — as opposed to Pandora, which limits your skips and your number of stations. But users want to easily add tracks from the radio into their own music library (and pay for it). Developers are welcome to build on top of this app as well.

Some advice for entrepreneurs:

1. Idea is 5% and the execution is 95%.
2. People is everything. If you want to build a strong product, then be familiar with all aspects of it, including development. As an entrepreneur, you have to try everything. Also, the most important part is the early days, when you build the initial team.
3. Focus. As an entrepreneur, you are an editor, setting the context, choosing what not to do, what to do, and distilling everything to the most essential.

Spotify has 2.5 million subscribers paying about $10 per month. However, there is no IPO in sight. The Spotify team has a culture of wanting to build a really great company. The objective is not to sell the company. What they want to do is to change the world (of music).

Mark Zuckerberg and Daniel both believe that music is the most social object there is.

Three trends to watch:

1. Local social networking. This is about groups and about communities. It’s the local meetup club. It’s the local library users. The social enterprise is also about local networking.
2. Convergence of entertainment and digital. The convergence of Silicon Valley and Hollywood. Things like TV integrating the web more into their shows.
3. The end of the real-time web. We’re going to find better ways to control and parse through the information that’s coming at us.

Three problems startups will face:

1. The financial crisis has created an uncertainty cloud that hangs over all startups now. Entrepreneurs don’t know whether there will be money or not. Customers don’t know whether they should buy things or not.
2. The talent wars. Companies like Google are offering every greater sums and perks to keep employees. Startups are also giving out perks and gimmicks to keep engineering talent.
3. There are lots of ideas out there. People think that “if you build it, they will come.” This is a fallacy. Most ideas suck. Less than 15% of the ideas Ben hears on a daily basis have any chance of becoming a startup. Most of the ideas are just incremental improvements, rather than fundamental changes to technology and society. Incremental ideas are easier to pursue because they require less ideas. The problem is that people will spend three or four years building incremental ideas, which will leave them with no real business and they will not have built up good skills. Also, this leads to a crowded market. (Please don’t build a photo-sharing app or a dail deals site). Changing the world is really, really, really hard.

Some friendly advice:

1. Don’t plant a flower, plant a sequoia. The tree will survive harsh winters, not the flower. Build something that will last.
2. Be adaptable. Great ideas always evolve, and so do great entrepreneurs.
3. Don’t build a company. Build a cause. Don’t just build a business because you think it’s going to make money. Build something that you will spend hours and hours behind because you know it’s going to change the world. Money is the side effect.

Niklas runs a $200 million fund which has invested in 50 companies. They don’t look for any particular subsectors. They look at opportunities in all kinds of sectors. When Google entered search, all the existing search engines pivoted into portals because that’s what the investment bank analysts were predicting was the next big thing. Google instead focused just on search with a better product. That is why Niklas does not look at a single sector, because similar timing opportunities for innovation exist in all sectors.

It’s very hard to develop for Windows or Blackberry. First, you have to put a gun to the developer’s head, because no one wants to go through the trouble. Alos, often the userbase on those platforms is just in the single digits, so it’s not possible to justify the cost and effort.

The growth in startups is not in US or Europe, it’s in emerging markets. China, Brazil, Russia, Turkey is showing a lot of growth.

The best way to reach Niklas is through the website, <a href=“http://Atomico.com”>Atomico.com</a>

7 Principles of Innovation based on the “Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs.” 

Jobs and Wozniak started Apple in the spare bedroom of Steve’s parent’s house, before getting too big and moving the business down to the garage. What the world needs is more jobs … Steve Jobs. It’s fair to ask ourselves, “What would Steve do?”

Principle #1 is to do what you love. Bill Gross just said the same thing. Being the richest man in the cemetary doesn’t matter … doing something that matters does. Build a company that touches peoples’ lives every day. You cannot create something great unless you are passionately moving the world forward.

Principle #2 is to put a dent in the universe. There is a difference between vision and mission. A vision is clear and concise and consistently communicated. Vision inspires evangelists. A vision helps you see things that other people may have missed. Two people can see exactly the same thing and interpret things differently, based on their own vision. Starbuck’s founder Schultz’s vision was not to make a better cup of coffee, but to create a third space between the office and the home.

Principle #3 “Creativity is just connecting things” ~Steve Jobs. Successful innovators apply learning from one field, to another. According to Dennis Crowley, foursquare is a more interesting tool because it was built in Greenwhich Village and not Silicon Valley.

Principle #4 Keep it simple. Say no to 1,00 things to make sure you’re not on the wrong track or try to do too much. When you can create a product that a two-year old can use intuitively, you know you’re on to something. “As physical beings, we understand clarity” ~Jonathan Ives. Simplicity is crucial.

Principle #5 is about the experience with the product. Create insanely great experiences. Innovation is not just about product innovation, it’s about the experience people have with the product. The Apple brand was inspired by the Four Seasons hotel, because the hotel chain delivers such good customer experience.

Principle #6 is to master the message. Nobody was better than Steve Jobs, because he informed, illuminated, and inspired during his presentations. You can have the best idea in the world, but if you can’t get people excited about it, it’s not worth much. Learn the rule of three. The human mind can only process 3 or 4 points of information in short term memory, so don’t bombard people with dozens of benefits. That is why you find groups of three in everything Apple does. Also learn to think visually. Use the Picture Superiority Effect to presentations, by adding great images to slides. Retention goes up by 65%. With words only, retention is about 10%.

Principle #7 is the most important: Sell Dreams, Not Products. As human beings, we are self consumed. Help people accomplish their dreams, and you will win them over. To turn Apple around, Steve Jobs focused and innovated around his customers and their needs. Steve Jobs’ advice was: “Dream Bigger”

Live post from LeWeb 2011: Phil Libin, CEO, Evernote and Loic Le Meur, Founder, LeWeb

Orange announces that all their customers will receive a premium subscription to Evernote as part of their service, starting in Spring 2012.

Phil talks about building Evernote as a “100 year” company. They were just named as Inc. Magazine company of the year (“How It Got Great, Fast”). Loic asks for a show of hands and it looks like 90% of attendees are using the service.

Phil says that their company is built on trust. If they want people to trust Evernote with their most personal notes, then Evernote must also act transparently.

Evernote has 20 million users (the company was launched in 2008). The growth has been organic, there has been no advertising. The question is, how do they behave?

After the first month, there is a big drop off. But once you use Evernote after one month, you don’t leave. And then, after two years or about 27 month, people start to come back — because Evernote contains their memories.

In the first month, only one half of one percent pay for Evernote. But the longer people use Evernote, the more people pay. After 3 years of use, about 20% of people are paid subscribers. There are about 750,000 premium users, paying $5 a month or $45 a year. The company became profitable about 6 months ago, then raised about $50 million from Sequoia.

Two new and separate applications were launched yesterday: Evernote Food and Evernote Hello. On mobile, they want really simple and evident apps, rather than adding more buttons to an existing app.

Evernote Food is a simple way to capture food experiences in Evernote. You take pictures of food and share them through Facebook, Twitter, email, or you just save them privately to your own space. The app automatically captures the restaurant.

Evernote Hello is a way to capture the people you are meeting, so you can have a way to remember them later.

Phil says that “Evernote is built for me.” The apps are meant to work together, so you can capture a picture of dinner, the people you were with, and notes from the conversation.

The goal is to reimagine productivity software, which is operating like it was 30 years ago. It’s time to refresh productivity to the new era of mobile phones, social networks, etc.

Bill Gross, Founder & CEO, Idealab

“Learning From Failure: 20 Years of Entrepreneurial Lessons in 20 Minutes”

Bill Gross has raised over $1B over the years. In a very fast-paced presentation, he shared 12 lessons of being an entrepreneur, of which I captured 9 …

1. Market Power Rules — Try to find a rapidly growing market, it’s like running a race with a strong wind at your back.

2. Master the Demo — Learning how to sell, to pitch, to explain, to demonstrate is one of the most valuable entrepreneurial skills.

3. Pursue Your Passion — Work at something you love — Every business will face huge challenges that you will only overcome if you have deep passion for the idea.

4. Focus, Focus, Focus — Focus is almost always better, even if you focus on the wrong thing. Do a few things extremely well and you will connect better with the customer.

5. Recognize Your Strengths — Design a structure around them, and balance that by having complementary skills

6. Test, Test, Test — Find a way to test your core proposition with customers as soon as you can, as often as you can

7. Stick With It — When you know you have something, stick with it despite what the critics say

8. Find Esssential Partners — If you have a large, world-changing ideas, you need to find the right partners to help you grow

9. All Truth Passes Through 3 Stages — First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is opposed. Third, it is adopted as if it was self-evident.

So it is with the anticipation of great things to come that we are announcing that The Startup Forum and The Hatchery, a New York City based organization, have today announced the formation of the Hatchery Miami. The following is the press release about our collaboration:

The Hatchery fosters Venture Collaboration between the investor and entrepreneur communities — hosting and producing events, seminars and showcases throughout the year. These activities expand and strengthen the ecosystem of entrepreneurs, start-ups, and venture investors. These events include:

Are You Serious: Held regularly, this is a start-up pitch event centered upon educating both participating startups and audience members. The event is designed to teach by example – offering direct feedback designed to improve companies and pitches. Several startups offer 5 minute presentations based on The Hatchery’s 11-point presentation checklist. A panel of expert judges publicly reviews presenters, offering constructive (yet entertaining) criticism.

The Gauntlet: Scheduled quarterly, these events showcase 3 promising companies – assisting in moving to the “next level.” These are invitation only events – both for the presenting companies and the audience members. Attendees usually include angel investors, venture capitalists and related corporate professionals. This event is intended for later stage companies, who are looking for institutional investment upwards of $5M.

Hatch Match: Each year, New York’s investor and entrepreneurial communities come together in for a series of intensive meetings. Essentially, Hatch Match is speed dating for startups and investors. In the space of one evening approximately 1000 speed dates takes place with 500 entrepreneurs.

Hatchery Miami plans to hold similar events, serving as a conduit between South Florida’s promising start-ups and angel investors, venture capitalists, fellow entrepreneurs and strategic investors and partners in New York and beyond.

“There is an inherent synergy between South Florida and New York City,” remarked Seth Elliott, co-Founder of The Startup Forum and Hatchery Miami. “The opportunity exists to ‘food chain’ South Florida companies into the New York venture investing ecosystem, allowing entrepreneurs and investors to mutually benefit.”

Yao Huang, co-Founder of the Hatchery noted “As a result of our New York activities, The Hatchery is becoming a marquis global brand in the entrepreneurial finance space. South Florida represents a natural extension, and we are confident that New York investors will get to see a significant number of promising companies not currently on the radar screen.”

The Hatchery Miami will hold its first Are You Serious event on February 10, 2011 hosted by Miami Dade College. Further details on the event will be released shortly.

About The Startup Forum. The Startup Forum seeks to fos­ter the devel­op­ment of vibrant regional startup com­mu­ni­ties. TSF encour­ages entre­pre­neur­ial for­ma­tion and growth and pro­motes early stage regional invest­ments. TSF serves three pri­mary con­stituen­cies: entre­pre­neurs, investors (both insti­tu­tional and angel) and gov­ern­ment (and related not-for-profit) organizations. Further information can be found at http://www.startupforum.net/.

About The Hatchery; The Hatchery is a venture collaboration and advisory firm serving as a venture catalyst for emerging and established companies in the Technology, Energy, Healthcare, and Social Impact sectors — domestic and international. It provides Business, Strategic and Corporate Development services to its clients and along with its affiliated Investment Bank directly participates in transactions: Private Placements, Mergers & Acquisitions. http://www.hatchery.vc/

startup, entrepreneurship, community, tech, venture capital, south florida

The panel of judges includes:

• Jean-David Blanc, Entrepreneur/Business Angel (Founder of AlloCine)
• Brent Hoberman, Founder & Executive Chairman, mydeco
• Xavier Niel, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors & Chief Strategy Officer, Iliad
• Jacques-Antoine Granjon, Founder & CEO, Ventes-Privee
• Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet, Founder & CEO, PriceMinister

LeWeb’s panel of judges discussing their startup investment philosophies:

And the winner is …

leweb, leweb10, startup, entrepreneur

waze, startup, entrepreneur, leweb, leweb10

super marmite, startup, entprepreneur, leweb, leweb10