Entrepreneurship Journey

In my first post I will tell you something about my entrepreneurship experience and what I’ve learned from it.

It all began at the Startup Weekend Airport event in 2012. Of course in the startup capital Berlin. Due to a chance of fortune I took part in a 72 hours startup competition with five awesome teammates which I didn’t knew before. We engaged in the problem of queuing. You know, most people hate to wait. Especially if you are ill and have to wait at the doctor’s office. So we invented an app that tells you, how many people are waiting in front of you and how long it will take until it’s your turn. We won the first price, an office for three months, a scholarship for the Berlin Startup Academy and had a great time. All we needed to do is just get the thing rolling. 3 of 6 people were in. So let the magic happen.

Slowly I learned to take off the rose-colored glasses. I learned that the idea is important, but counts nothing. I met so many people who said, they had the same idea like Facebook, Whats app or Pinterest. But actually none one of them did it and is now a millionaire.

From our waiting app WaitBuddy, which was from the sales point of view not realistic, we piffered to other waiting situations like waiting at home for craftsmen. But we didn’t have enough contacts and insights to get deeper into that idea. As a next step we wanted to reduce with Yummsies waiting time in restaurants (e. g. waiting for the bill), which was not realistic in terms of monetizing. And finally during the Startup Academy our product drifted away from us. It went to a platform where you can see all the daily lunch menus around your corner. But we weren’t in to that idea anymore, saw no point of earning money with it and never got our final prototype. We just lost it.

During all that time I met some developers, which already had a working product. That was such a relief. You didn’t had to start from scratch, from an idea and most important you had very good developers J I met them, really loved the idea of agile processes and they heard the first time of positioning their brand, starting to create a brand and a communication around it. So it was loveable connection. Why that startup Kanbanero failed, I will tell you later. That was my most exiting experience so far.

After all that we failed with the startups but I earned so much personally! Today I have a total different knowledge of building a company, of working lean and doing prototyping, of agile processes, improvement and product management, of expectations, of software development, of what I really want and what is important to me in a company. I met so many lovely people, and so many people at events, from whom I already forgot the names… But I will thank especially Johannes and Mike for being wonderful company partners. I learned in that one and a half year so much more than in a “regular” job.

Key Learnings

• In Berlin you can go nearly every evening to a startup event with at least free beer. So you should select very carefully. Don’t get in the suck of one event after another.
• The Idea is important but just the successful implementation counts. You may have had the same idea like a millionaire, but you didn’t do it.
• You need money to live. You need time to build your product. So start now to safe, if you don’t want to have a business angel, VC or sponsorship.
• Always trust your gut instinct if it comes to the team. If you have concerns don’t invest too much time to find the truth.
• Know the industry or at least have an enormous amount of contacts in to it.
• You should always love your idea, if you are at the beginning, not earning money and if you are responsible for the product management.