This post is a feedback to one of my elective classes "Managing Tech For Startups" at IE Business School where I recently completed an International MBA. The class was a new elective that was introduced by our most favoured 'gadget professor' at IE Business School; Enrique Dans!
The class was organised over 12 sessions where Enrique introduced the course on the first class and got us started with the online tools in which we would share our opinion and experience with the rest of the class and of course with the online world. We were specially encouraged to blog, to tweet and to share useful links with our peers on delicious.
The blogs have been extremly useful as it prolongs your learning even after class, it allows you to read the class takeways of your peers, which highlights things that you may have missed during the session yourself and more importantly, see different viewpoints as we all evaluate information in different ways.
Delicious, while a great tool, have never been my cop of tea as I feel that too often many of the shared links have little relevance to what you are looking for, simply because it is so easy to 'tag' any site you come across.
We also had our own group on facebook where students were sharing links to their blogs, posted requests, shared opinions or simply stayed tuned with the rest of the class.
The tweets were specailly interesting as it almost felt that the class was operating as much online as it it was offline. Enrique introduced the hashtag #ietechstartup which allowed us and everyone else on twitter to follow the live 'tweet discussions' during the class.
The aim of using these tools was to uptimise the benifits of the following 11 sessions for all parties. The students, for the reasons mentioned above in addition to getting familair with digital tools that are most essential in the current business settings, the entrepreneurs who would increase their exposure on the net and of course the business school who share the same benifits as the visiting entrepreneurs. This simply illustrates how creativity is able to achieve an objective in addition to serve many different purposes all at once!
So, with these tools we started our 'real world entrepreneurship' sessions in which we had the previlidge to hear the 'inside' stories about the lives and ventures of the following successful entrepreneurs;
Julio Alonso, the founder and the CEO of Weblogs
Jorge Mota, the fundraising guru
Arrola, the founder of Coches.com
Gabriel Aldamiz, the founder of Chicisimo
Jesus Enciner, thefounder of Idealista
Alberto Torron, the founder of todotaladros
Roberto Saint-Malo, the founder of Kibo Ventures
Pedro Jareño, the founder of Minube
RJ Friedlander, the founder of ReviewPro
Pablo Larguia, the founder of LaRedInnova
Rodolfo Carpintie, the founder of Digital Asset Deployment
To help us understand the dynamics of an internet business, the guest speakers were all founders of online ventures. The sessions provided us with insight of how their business started, how it was financed, how it was evolved, some of the challenges they encountered, how they dealt with it and finally how entrepreneurship has effected their lives in general.
So, instead of reading Harvard business case studies about them, we actually got one step closer and had them live in our class. This allowed us to interact to the actual source itself for an immediate respond, which was truly a profound experience!
The profiles of these entrepreneurs were very different to each other, which is probably one of the misconceptions we often have about entrepreneurs and about how a 'typical profile' of an entrepreneur is or should be.
We had entrepreneurs with extremely calm personalities, who had managed to create a perfect balance between their ventures and their personal life, and then we had personalities who were so involved with their ventures and insisted that being an entrepreneur requires you to make big sacrifices and that serious compromises are inevitable.
The perception of these individuals about a life of an entrepreneur was also clearly reflected in the way they managed their ventures and also the type of the venture they were involved in.
We had the energetic individuals with a very go go attitude and whom perceived their ventures as part of their lifestyle and seemed to enjoy almost everything that it had to offer. On the other hand, we shared the experience of those who saw their entrepreneurial life as a life commitment to a goal where nothing else comes first, and in order to succeed, you must give up absolutely everything and everyone to achieve its success.
We had the risk adverse entrepreneur who started a business alongside keeping a full time job, but we also serious risk takers who gave up established and very successful careers to start a venture based on a dream...and knowing that they would generate no income for a long time to come.
Since two of our entrepreneurs were in fact also investors, we also managed to see investors under a different light, which enabled us to see things from their side of the table for once.
In those sessions, I learned to see the vulnerability of investors. Investors are often perceived as 'ATM machines', Robot like individuals who give you cash in return of the right combination of 'codes' and numbers (market analysis and income forecast) and they enter your company, take over of your dreams and treat you like an asset that simply provides an ROI. However, I was surprised to learn that this is not at all the case for all investors.
They are often more vulnerable than we give them credit for. Specially seed capital investors as they are investing in nothing but a concept, a dream! So their decision will be based on whether they share your vision or whether they see it more as an illusion!
They evaluate the person behind the idea more than the 'right codes'. The numbers can never be perfect regardless of how well your market definition is and how every possible risk has been thought through. Simply because, firstly... it is all based on an assumption that has been made on an unknown future and there will always be a possibility of an unforeseen circumstance, which would make the whole forecast completely void.
Secondly, regardless of how perfect the plan is, it is still up to the person behind the numbers to execute the plan. Is the person committed enough? Has the person got the strength to fight during tough times? Is the person willing to take advice and change the plan if it becomes necessary? Is the person willing to build a team based on the benefits of the venture and not based on personal interests?
Evaluating an investment opportunity looks easier than it is until you actually try and see things from an investor’s point of view. I guess the first question would have to be, how much are YOU willing to invest in your vision? If you are not willing to take any risks yourself, then is the idea really worth pursuing?
One very important issue that I personally learned is the importance of valuing your equity when you use this as a form of payment in the early stages of your venture. You must ensure that the benefits you get in exchange are worth the cost in the long term.
Calculating the cost of equity in the long term by reflecting the information in your financial forecast is a good practice as it allows you to evaluate the transaction and forces you to look for alternative solutions…and preventing you from taking very expensive decisions.
This simple tip, made me rethink a partnership agreement I was considering in my own start-up. What I really would really like is; being in a position one day where I go back to the investor and thanking him for saving me from a very expensive mistake.
This and many other takeaways are valuable learnings and real life experiences that we were offered in this class. I would take these with me wherever I end up, in anticipation that they are able to help me to stay motivated in moments of inevitable frustrations in a journey of an entrepreneur.
If I ever have concerns about financing my venture, I will remember those brave entrepreneurs who went ahead and started their ventures without outside financing and still made it. When considering an investment offer in my venture, I will remember the concept of 'smart money' as well as the concept of "money is green everywhere' before making a decision.
If I am ever refused an investment, I will keep in mind that a rejection does not have to mean that the business concept is invalid, but it could simply be that its not the 'thing' for a particular investor and there WILL be an investor who simply loves your idea and would share your vision of success.
I have seen a contradicting reality to what we normally believe and that is the fact that it is possible to maintain a personal life and to be a successful entrepreneur at the same time.
My aim now is to do my best to pursue my own dream and be able to come back to the same class and share my own experiences…and actually give an insight to a life of a female entrepreneur, which can by far be different to any of the stories we heard in this class.
This blog post is dedicated to my professor Enrique Dans who truly made my experience at IE Business School one that I would forever remember and value.
Thank you!
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