Social entrepreneurship without a master plan...

Mathias Vestergaard™ E-ship Day 2008

Out of curiosity...

• How many of you do not speak Danish?

Who the hell is this bald little guy?• Photographer• Writer• Webdeveloper• Boy scout• Fashion editor• Student• Quasi-famous • Author (well, trying)• Teacher• Martini-drinker• 5% New Yorker• 22 years old

Who are you?

• Have you already started a company?

Conclusion

• Find the energy– Where does it come from?– How can you capture it?– Avoid the boring

What the hell should we talk about?

• Successful entrepreneurship • Stories

– How it started... – GadeMode™– Bounded creativity– Political activism

• Random thoughts – Stress– Networking... – Tips

• Workshop after dinner...

Explaining success

Successful company

Alternative theory

• Social Construction Of Technology (SCOT)– Authors: T. Pinch & W. Bijker (articles)

• Actor-network Theory (ANT)– Authors: B. Latour, J. Law, M. Callon, A. Mol– Books: ”The Pasteurisation of France” (Latour)

Entrepreneurship

Traditionally• The brilliant idea• Business plan• Investors• ”MyBusiness Inc.”• High profit (high risk)• Scaleability • Growth, growth, growth

• Cases: Skype, Facebook, YouTube, Fortune 500…

Alternative

?• Not necessarily better…

An instance of chance...

• My personal story• Not necesarily a definite guide... • Inspiration to do something

Story #1: No master plan

• 6th grade

• It all began as play: MT Air, Tele MT, osv.

• Interest in computers

→ small computer games and programsTroelsMathias

The first job...

• First: local wine import

• Later: local restaurant

• VAT-registration was a simple necesity...

No brilliant idea...

Pros• Basically no risk• Get you started• No fixed costs• Option to change direction• No boring investor ”pitches”

and endless meetings with lawyers and accountants

Cons• Becomes personal (so you

can’t really sell your company later)

• You won’t become a billionaire!

Story #2: Do what you want to do

!WARNING:Laughter provoking content

• Boy scout... indeed...

Mathias anno 1999

A new friendship and a new interest...

Mathias Helle

Articles for ’Delfinen’

More...

• 1½ years later...• +1400 daily visits• Awards from Magasin

and Cosmopolitan• Press: Politiken, DR1

News... (and TV2 Østjylland, P4... )

GadeMode™

And the list goes on...

• 15 voluntary photographers

• Contract deliveries for Politiken and Sonday.dk

• Part-time assistant editor (best decision ever)

• Spin-off: – Articles on trends for

EMU.dk – Articles for Dansk Daily

during Copenhagen Fashion Week

– Articles and photos for Euroman

Shut up now....

Lots of practical work• Shooting photos (with a

camera borrowed from a friend)

• Writing texts• There were no comments

on the site in the beginning• Press releases

• A lot of criticism– Angry e-mails and stuff...

Is GadeMode™ actually a success?

• We’ve worked on this for 1½ years

• Where is the money (Lebowski)???

Success in social entrepreneurship

• Sounds so terribly fancy...

• What does it mean?

Ways of interacting

• Having coffee• Dinner at a restaurant• Party/getting drunk• Group work• Meeting• Starting a new project

What did we do?

• Loved the work• Followed the ”energy”– ”Is this fun?”

• Attracted volunteers• Changed direction as needed

• Problem: how to have a good idea?

• No boundaries → finger paint → ’Kaospilot’

Story #3: bounded creativity

Mathias has a girlfriend

Mathias Pernille

Mathias has a girlfriend

Mathias Pernille

Boundary 1: travel time

Pernille

HerningÅrhus

• Chanel• New York• Paris• Restauranter• Caféer• ...

Boundary 2: need $$$

Pernille

• Shoe store • Huge inventory of old shoes• Frustrating work environment• Too expensive to sell discounted products in

the physical store• Recurrent problem• Wholesale can devaluate the standard prices

Boundary 3: shoe shop

• 3 hours on the train• Need for $$$• Shoe shop with a huge inventory

• One night...

Boundaries:

• Large selection• Reduced prices• Photography on Sundays• Special technology: working offline on the

train• Quick solution – less than 20 hours

Online sale

...my third story is also a story of failure...

Unfortunately...

Story #4: political activism

Those were the stories

Thoughts on networking...

• Or... social NOTworking as someone recently called the endless hours spent on Facebook...

My three key contacts

• Teacher from primary school• My sister’s friend’s father• The guy who called me up in 2001 because he

wanted to use one of my Flash games on his website (for free)

The point is...

• You can’t really know who’ll become your most important contacts...

• ...so instead of only networking with the ’cool kids’ or ’big bosses’, I try to listen to everyone...

Blogging authenticity and collaboration

CaratGadeMode™

Paid to blog?

• Can you do that?

• Three-way (kinky...)

• Real?

• Openness

AUs

Users

What about STRESS?

• 3 out of 6 so called ”Future Leaders” do not believe that stress actually exists!

• It is pretty real!

• Meditation + running etc.

Tips & tricks to do it yourself

• Begin while you study• Do a real project• Set a reasonable and good price (difficult)• Spend on the stuff you like

My ”organization”Fun!

CVR

Folding doors

Branding strategy

Website

Boy scout

Training course

Festival

Eventuelt.org

Reviews

GadeMode™

Speeches

Articles

But where is the ”core competency”?

Thaught experiment: the perfect Wednesday

Do it!

• Maybe no one actually knows how to do a successful project... But one thing is certain: if you don’t try nothing will happen...

What’s next in my life?

• Company boards • Moving to New York, fall 2009