Creating Your Own Opportunity: Anyone Can Do It

Dr Peter KellySchool of Science, Aalto University

Entrepreneurship= creating new,for profit ventures

Pursuit of opportunity without regard toresources in hand

Entrepreneurshipis a skill we allshould master

What do we teach?

IDEA

IDEA

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€$£¥

EXIT

EXIT

PLAN

PLAN

Traditional Roadmap• Search for new high potential opportunity• Light bulb goes on• Write business plan• Raise money• Hire great team• Build product/offering• Orchestrate big launch• Achieve steady or hockey stick growth• Trade sale or IPO• Retire on beach

Does Traditional Roadmap Work?

– 98% of all new US businesses do not raise funding from angels or venture capitalists

– 70% of new businesses start with less than $20.000 in founding capital

– 1 in 6 of INC 500 fastest growing companies started on less than $1.000 (including Dell Computer 1984)

Does Traditional Roadmap Work?

• Only 6 of 1.000 business plans get venture funding• Of those 60% go bankrupt• Fewer than 2% of ventures reach an IPO

• Yet what do we teach? And how?

Search and Select Strategy

• Market already exists in some form• Undertake detailed analysis to identify

opportunities• Assess market potential on basis of

segmentation and past demand• Assemble resources to exploit the opportunity

How Could You Predict?

• Budget airlines (Northwest 1971)• Microlending (Grameen Bank 1976)• Online book sales (Amazon 1995)• Internet search (Google 1998)• Social networking (Facebook 2004)

Opportunities Can Be Made

• Incomplete information• Market that defies definition• Consumers are not aware of their needs or

wants• Confusing and conflicting signals abound

IDEA = ANYTHING + YOU

What is yourmotivation orpassion?

• I want to start a business• I want to be CEO• This is a “hot” sector• Investors like this space• I want to be rich• I am unemployed

What Are My Means?

• Who I am?• Traits, abilities and attributes of entrepreneur/team

• What I know?• Education, experience and expertise

• Who I know?• Social networks

Inventory Your Means

I want to investmy time doing this because ...

OPPORTUNITY = IDEA + ACTION

Affordable Loss:Risk Little, Fail Cheap

• Risking little implies thinking creatively about how to bring cost of discovery down while …

• Determining your walkaway cost in terms of time and money

• Time seems to be more expendable than money• Depends on which type of money (earned income

versus found money)

• Returns are not solely monetary in nature

VIABLE VENTURE = OPPORTUNITY + COMMITMENT

Co-Creator Mentality

• What do you bring to the table?• What are you prepared to lose?• Do you have an open mind as to what is being

created?• And with whom?• Why not? As opposed to Why?

Co-Creation: Securing Partners

• Stakeholders bring new means to table• Stakeholders invest what they can afford to

lose• Open minded approach to the opportunity• Buy-in as opposed to selling

• Look for partners with a “win-win” (reciprocation)• Who deliver on their promises• Who you like dealing with

Keeping Mobiles Charged

Enter PowerKiss

Co-Created Solution

The Element of Surprise

Who Could Have Guessed?

Could Be Transformed Into

What are my means?

How much can I afford to lose?

Who can I co-create with?

SURPRISE!

peter.kelly@aalto.fi+358 41 503 4508