Tirsdag ble det skrevet historie i Trondheim, da 29 oppstartsbedrifter «speed datet» like mange investorer under teknologikonferansen Technoport.

Dette utgjorde mer enn 400 unike møter, der hver av oppstartsbedriftene fikk 10 minutter med 15 utvalgte investorer.

De åtte som som kom videre til semi-finalen var FlowMotion, Iris AI, Graphiq Design Collective, SaniNudge, Picterus, Voico, Norsk Redningsdrone og Fresh.Land, men det var teknologiløsningsselskapet Voico som imponerte juryen mest og dermed stakk av med pengepremien på 250 000 kroner.

The future of Norway depends on whether we are willing to learn from failure or not, says previous brain of the year winner and the world´s first Director and professor on Intellectual Capital, Leif Edvinsson. 

Name: Leif Edvinsson (69)
Position/work: The World’s First Director as well as Professor on Intellectual Capital, Awarded for Thought Leadership by Peter Drucker Foundation, Intel and The European Commission
Favorite apps: Messenger, WhatsApp, Google Map, Skyscanner, Flightradar24
How will you describe yourself in 5 words? Curious, Nordic, Gourmet, Global Knowledge Nomad, Brain of the Year 1998

What is your passion and how is it reflected in your work?

– Design, because it adds to good mental health and enjoyment of life. It gives you a mental impact, whether you believe it or not. That’s why office design is so important. In order to get an innovative mind, you have to surround yourself with mindful things in a good context – everything from furniture to good lighting. You also need to have the right amount of oxygen to fertilize your mind and a good balance between Ying and Yang.

Who/what inspires you the most?

– Questioning patterns and talking to good journalists. When I founded and worked at the Skandia Future Centre, I had at least one journalistic conversation per day. These were of mutual benefit because i got the help to codify some of my thinking into words and different languages. Good questions create new patterns in your head and are essential If you want to develop new insights.

What are your sources for future insights?

– The Globe

As the Grandfather of Intellectual Capital (IC), can you explain to our readers what it is and why it is important?

– IC is not about financial capital, which is usually what you associate the word with. IC is about derived insights of head-value and is the hidden assets for future well-being. The roots for the fruits.

What can the readers expect to read about in your upcoming articles for InnoMag?

– How to move out of the box of the old financial accounting paradigm from 1494 into the present of valuing of knowledge, networking and futurizing, which is currently being applied on enterprise level as well as city and national level.

What do you see as being most challenging for Norway during these recent times of restructuring?

– The challenge for Norway is to have something else beyond the oil. Norway was once a very successful shipping nation and has been a very successful oil nation – but if you have the same type of cultivation for too long, you no longer have the nutrition to maintain a sustainable harvest. You can´t keep fishing only one fish in the sea, and that goes for innovation as well. It needs to be multidimensional and cross-generational, where you mix old and new thinking.

– However, the issue is not innovation, but continuous RENEWAL. If you take your body as an example, roughly all the cells you have weren´t there 5 years ago – it´s been renewed at different speed. Your mouth for instance recovers very quickly, but if you break a leg it takes a lot longer. The speed of renewal in a society is therefore very important. But speed is not enough – you have to be able to shift patterns as well. So it is about navigational velocity on all levels.

So if you compare Norway to a body part – which part would we be right now?

– Norway might be close to a broken arm! Unless you have the courage and support to renew you will not sustain. Norway and Sweden are not culturally very overseeing with mistakes like the Americans are. Being open to learning from failure, and rapid learning will be critical navigational skills for the future of Norway. You need to have the mindset of the Vikings – to have both the courage and support to explore the unknown.

– Norway has tremendous potential with all the international intellectual capital you have, but you need to create an environment where it´s allowed for rapid prototyping and futurizing with the resources available in order to find new approaches.

Leif Edvinsson will be speaking at this year´s “Future Insights” conference held on May 10th. For more info and registration please click HERE

 Read all portraits HERE

Kommunikasjonshverdagen er i endring, og vi må hele tiden forholde oss til nye verktøy og kanaler – men hva må egentlig til for å lykkes som kommunikatør i en stadig mer digitalisert verden?

Den teknologiske utviklingen skaper nye muligheter, men også utfordringer. En av de største utfordringene for kommunikatører i dag er at det blir flere og flere aktører som kjemper om publikums oppmerksomhet.

Under årets Kommunikasjonsdag åpnet sosiale medier personlighet og merkevarebygger Ingvild Moen, scenen med å dele sine tanker om hvordan man i fremtiden må bruke kommunikasjon for å kunne få frem budskapet sitt til riktig målgruppe.

­– Et godt budskap vil alltid være viktig, men det som kommer til å bli ennå viktigere i fremtiden er én-til-én budskap, som er segmentert og målbasert. Jo flinkere vi blir til å segmentere og lage gode målgruppe-baserte budskap, desto mer kravstore blir målgruppa vår. Man må derfor i mye større grad fremover tenke på hva som er viktig for den ene kunden og lære å kommunisere på målgruppens premisser.

En måte å gjøre dette på er gjennnom retargeting som går ut på å målrette budskap til brukere som allerede kjenner deg, ettersom kostnadene ved å etablere en førstekontakt eller et første salg ofte er høy.

– Men det hender også at det kan bli for mye én-til-én kommunikasjon. Da er det kjempeviktig at vi som kommunikatører tenker frekens, altså hvor ofte vi velger å dele budskapet vårt.

Ettersom det er så mange kanaler å forholde seg til, både online og offline, er det også viktig med en god kanalstrategi, der vi bevisst velger hvilke kanaler vi ønsker å bruke og hvilke vi ønsker å eliminere, mener hun.

– Kanalstrategi er viktig for ellers blir det bare kaos. De fleste har erfart at det ikke er noe motsetning mellom bruk av tradisjonelle medier og sosiale medier. Dette er derimot kompletterende kanaler som bør ses i sammenheng. Men hvilke kanaler vi bør bruke for å gå bredt ut, og hvilke vi kan med fordel benytte for å spisse budskapet vårt på, er kanalstrategi få av oss er gode på.

– Det teknologisk skifte har også gjort at vi i fremtiden må bli bedre på koding. Dette betyr ikke nødvendigvis at vi må lære oss å kode, men heller jobbe tettere med de som er flinke på teknologi – kodehodene som jeg kaller dem.

Til dagens kommunikatører har Moen fire tips:

• Bli glad i algoritmer og forstå algoritmenes premisser.
• Les deg opp på hvordan du kan samle data for å bli enda bedre på å spisse kommunikasjonen din.
• Bli god på de målrettede budskapene og ikke glem at det handler om digital-sosial intelligens, noe som betyr at det fortsatt er veldig mye av det som gjøres i det virkelige liv som kan overføres til det digitale.
• Les deg opp på kunstig intelligens! Det er mye som skjer innenfor dette feltet som blant annet kommer til å påvirke hvilke jobber vi gjør i fremtiden. Alt som kan automatiseres, vil bli automatiser, og da må vi finne på andre ting å drive med – som kanskje er mer meningsbærende.

During the Global Startup Grind Conference in Redwood City CA, leading investors including Marc Andreeassen, Tim Draper and Vinod Khosla shared insights, success stories and advice with thousands of entrepreneurs. Here are the key highlights from the two days:

• Tide is turning with reduction in valuations and capital

After strong post-recession growth in funding and valuations, ‘the tide is going out’ potentially leaving behind many dying unicorn companies. While many factors are contributing to this tightening of capital, recent post-IPO valuation declines (Zyna, GoPro, Box) are leading to a bleak outlook for exits in 2016, hence a restriction in capital for new investments.

• Revenue trumps investment

While always important, a strong and sustainable revenue stream is now essential for success (or investment). In fact, the act of seeking investment is now considered lack of success. Founders should put their time into acquiring paying customers not investors.

• Monetization of real pain drives success

To drive sustainable, profitable revenue, entrepreneurs (and leaders of all companies) must ensure they are uniquely addressing real customer pain (with severity, frequency and high impact) while delivering quantifiable (monetized) customer value.

• Black-striped unicorns with bootstrap profitability take control

The entrepreneur who takes funding gives up ownership (and control) of the company and idea. Through focusing on revenue growth, while minimizing expenses SLACK, Basecamp and other ‘black-striped unicorns’ have built profitable businesses without Series A funding. The resulting profitable companies fulfilling the founders’ dreams and passion are now lauded as more successful than the ‘high valuation’ paper unicorns.

• Test, iterate, repeat for lean, sustainable success

Today, the ‘lean company’ concept of building a minimum viable product, piloting it with real customers, gaining feedback then repeating the process to gain revenue and market share is essential for success.

• Pivot forward

If your company hasn’t achieved real market traction (sustainable revenue, growing demand) within two years (at most), it is time to move in different direction. Either pivot (change direction) to a new product to solve the customer issue you started out to address, apply the technology to a new market or pivot the full team to build a new company.

“During the first year, the primary role of the CEO should be customer attainment”

• Heads-Up: Founder as Chief Sales Person and Recruiter

During the first year, the primary role of the CEO should be customer attainment – getting to revenue. The second priority is seeking and recruiting great talent, which should require 30-50% of the CEO’s time and capacity. Great companies are built through revenue and people (not investments). The successful founder knows how to balance these ‘heads up’ requirements with the ‘heads down’ oversight of solution development.

• Self-awareness critical for entrepreneur sustainability

Leadership of a business from startup through growth and eventual exit requires many diverse skills. The entrepreneurs most successful in guiding their company through the journey are ‘self aware’ and willing to hire others with skills and perspectives they may be lacking. By building a complementary team, seeking advice and addressing feedback, they can develop into the CEO role – which may significantly improve valuation of their company.

• Culture of Employee Mindfullness pays off

While Silicon Valley is known for ‘round the clock’ company dedication, today’s leaders advise building a culture that demonstrates employees are valued – including recognition of free time, holidays and family commitments. By providing employees with time and encouragement of mindfulness (including life outside of work), companies can engage, retain and gain greater results from dedicated employees.

• Grind through 5-10 years for success

Whether bootstrapped or venture funded, entrepreneurs need to be prepared to ‘grind it out’ with long days, frugal use of cash and attention to customers and employee – for the long term. While UTube (18 months to acquisition) successes can still occur, the current expectation is that building a successful company can require 7- 10 years (and possibly one or more pivots) before an exit.

From StatupGrind, it is clear there are great opportunities ahead for entrepreneurs and high growth businesses. However the path to success today is not a clear ever idea backed by investors to gain a unicorn-like $1 billion valuation. Instead, it is through monetizing a unique solution to a real problem and building a team and company to deliver sustainable profitability.

Hvordan vil sosiale medier endre måten bedrifter kommuniserer på i fremtiden? – og er det egentlig så viktig for å forbedre en virksomhet? 

Stian Reinhartsen jobber fulltid med sosiale medier. Han er tourmanager for den norske DJ-suksessen Matoma og Chief Brand Officer i Reinhartsen Consulting som hjelper bedrifter til å profilere seg selv på ulike medieplattformer. Svaret hans er et klart Ja.

– Vi har gått fra pressemeldinger til statusoppdateringer, og hvor kundene bruker tiden sin har endret seg stort. Det har aldri vært viktigere, eller en bedre mulighet til å kunne kommunisere smart med sine kunder, sier Reinhartsen.

– Sosiale medier er en fantastisk plattform når det kommer til salg, branding, krisehåndtering og community-bygging. Når kundene bruker tid på sosiale medier, er det essensielt at bedrifter er tilstede der.

Reinhartsen jobber med ulike bransjer, blant annet den internasjonale artisten Matoma, fotballklubben Viking og reiselivsmotoren Nustay fra Danmark. I mai 2015 ble Viking kåret til den beste norske fotballklubben på sosiale medier av finansavisen Kapital.

– Inspirasjonen for å starte Reinhartsen Consulting var en genuin interesse for sosiale medier og de mulighetene som bedrifter har der. Vi ønsket å vise at sosiale medier både kan erstatte og være et bedre alternativ til tradisjonelle markedskanaler. Ett år før vi offisielt startet hadde vi en kunde hvor vi flyttet markedsbudsjettet fra print til sosiale medier og økte kundens omsetning med 30 millioner (24%) på 12 måneder. Da følte vi det var på tide å satse.

– Vår strategi er bygd på digitale og sosiale muligheter som er gjort tilgjengelig av innovasjon og ny teknologi,

– Og vi jobber kontinuerlig med å digitalisere alle avdelinger av bedriften vår.

Har du tips til hvordan etablerte bedrifter kan endre sin kommunikasjonsstrategi i takt med den digitale revolusjonen? (eks. Snapchat, Instagram, FB)

– Sørg for å få inn ekstern kompetanse med friske og teknisk innfødte øyne. De fleste som rådfører bedrifter i forhold til kommunikasjon spiller «safe» og anbefaler de store og etablerte kanalene. Kommunikasjons-strategien bør gjøres tilgjengelig i nye medier hvor uttrykket har større muligheter for å tilpasses de spesifikke målgruppene. Alle kanalene passer ikke for alle, men det finnes uante muligheter for de som er først ute i kanaler hvor det er masse oppmerksomhet, men få aktører.

“Snapchat er morsomt, men må tas på ramme alvor,” uttalte Reinhartsen under Social Media Days i Oslo. Du kan lese mer om hvordan du kan bruke SnapChat i jobb her. 

How to succeed: Start with selling 10 Startup Lessons from Guy Kawasaki

“Don’t focus on the bullshit, focus on the reality.” As the keynote speaker at this year’s Startup Grind, Guy Kawasaki, kicked it off with a bang, with the top ten mistakes of entrepreneurs.

Mistake 1: Too Big Numbers. Trying to magic all of your numbers and talking about getting “only 1%” of some enormous, billion dollar market. Instead, calculate from the bottom up. Prototype your product, get customers, and start growing it. Investors want to see the success you have now, not listen to a bunch of calculated stats about where you might be someday.

Mistake 2: Scaling too fast. “I have never seen a company die because it couldn’t scale to meet customer demand” . Don’t think you need to begin by supporting the mobs of people you haven’t acquired yet but might (see Problem #1). Instead, “eat what you kill.” Focus on SELLING what you have, and then scale when you really need to do so due to customer demand.

Mistake 3, 4, 5, and 8: Not focusing on selling to paying customers. Focusing on the wrong things: your partnerships, your pitch, your patents, and your slide deck. In short, focusing on the bullshit. Investors care about your revenue and customer adoption of the product. So put your effort into the prototype, get sales, and present what you actually have DONE ie revenue and customer adoption.

Mistake 6 Lack of Adaptation –instead of proceeding serially, proceed in parallel.. In the real world, it doesn’t go: raise money, then hire team, then build product, then make money, and now go public. In reality you must do those things all at once. So get used to it. Learn to work successfully in parallel.

Mistake 7: Think you’re going to retain control.. As soon as you take outside money, as soon as you have outside investors and you’re going to lose control. But, Guy claims, “control is overrated.” If you have a large percentage of a company that fails, who cares? “It is much better to own 0.05% of Google than 51% of a piece of crap.” So instead of clutching the purse strings, “make a bigger pie.” Grow your business and you’ll be able to share success with your investors.

Mistake 9: Hire people like you. Instead hire your complements. You’re white and male? Hire a woman of color. You’re young? Hire someone older. Hire the skill you don’t have, like experience or a diverse perspective.

Mistake 10: Expecting investors to be friends. “They want to give you a dollar and get fifty back. You are a tool, you are a means to an end.” Yeah, the investors told you they believe in you, they love you, they “invest in people” – but in the end, they care about the success of your company, and about how much money you can make them.

So what is the secret of success in Silicon Valley? Focus on gaining paying customers for your product and building your team.