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eKapija |
Wednesday,
10.01.2018.|
12:21
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Copy linkRisk-proneness making startups successful – Market adaptability becoming crucial to commercialization of innovations
The notion of selling immortality may seem outrageous, but parts of the development of this startup idea, presented by a group of enthusiasts to the AREA Science Park in Trieste, has been utilized by the NASA. To clarify, four young men came up with the idea to develop holograms so as to transpose the identities of historical personalities, enabling people to see them and discuss issues with them that they find interesting. Although the idea remains only as a prototype, some of its elements will be used in future space travel.
Should this be interpreted as a failure of the young men, or is risk-proneness an inevitable trait on the road to the success of a startup nowadays?
Not far from Trieste, in the Ljubljana Technology Park, which has been active for 20 years and which brings together around 300 companies, the belief is that team spirit and the ability to persevere in presenting one's idea are among the crucial things in startups. As they say, they support growth-oriented projects, because, if a company ends up a success, its references will be better as well. We wanted to know if everything initiated here got realized as well.
Iztok Lesjak, the director of this institute, says that startup success rate changes with time.
– Our society still sees failure unfavorably, but people are more liberal towards risk, and if a business fails to get off the ground in the first 6 months, they close up shop. It didn't use to be that way – people would soldier on no matter the cost. This concept is now changing. Not everyone ends up with the product they began with. Instead, they adapt to the market. Entrepreneurs sometimes also build up companies in order to sell them, so we could say that 50% startups survive, around 10% are successful, and 1% are exceptionally successful.
Finland, which is popularly known as the land of a thousand startups, has been named so thanks to a change of attitude towards failure. Kasper Suomalainen, COO at Startup Sauna, the most successful early acceleration program in northern Europe, which also organizes the Slush contests in which startups from Serbia have been participating in the past years, explained this a while ago in his interview for eKapija.
– The attitude towards failure in Finland started changing. Instead of being a negative thing, people started treating it as a learning experience - he said, and when asked about what his assumptions in terms of the ways how to increase the popularity of entrepreneurship in Serbia might be, he pointed out that it all started with passionate people and doers.
– In addition, what helps is to get a few big names to back the cause and say it's a good thing. This way they will lead with example and it's easier to get others involved as well.
Should this be interpreted as a failure of the young men, or is risk-proneness an inevitable trait on the road to the success of a startup nowadays?
Not far from Trieste, in the Ljubljana Technology Park, which has been active for 20 years and which brings together around 300 companies, the belief is that team spirit and the ability to persevere in presenting one's idea are among the crucial things in startups. As they say, they support growth-oriented projects, because, if a company ends up a success, its references will be better as well. We wanted to know if everything initiated here got realized as well.
Iztok Lesjak, the director of this institute, says that startup success rate changes with time.
– Our society still sees failure unfavorably, but people are more liberal towards risk, and if a business fails to get off the ground in the first 6 months, they close up shop. It didn't use to be that way – people would soldier on no matter the cost. This concept is now changing. Not everyone ends up with the product they began with. Instead, they adapt to the market. Entrepreneurs sometimes also build up companies in order to sell them, so we could say that 50% startups survive, around 10% are successful, and 1% are exceptionally successful.
Finland, which is popularly known as the land of a thousand startups, has been named so thanks to a change of attitude towards failure. Kasper Suomalainen, COO at Startup Sauna, the most successful early acceleration program in northern Europe, which also organizes the Slush contests in which startups from Serbia have been participating in the past years, explained this a while ago in his interview for eKapija.
– The attitude towards failure in Finland started changing. Instead of being a negative thing, people started treating it as a learning experience - he said, and when asked about what his assumptions in terms of the ways how to increase the popularity of entrepreneurship in Serbia might be, he pointed out that it all started with passionate people and doers.
– In addition, what helps is to get a few big names to back the cause and say it's a good thing. This way they will lead with example and it's easier to get others involved as well.
Young companies in Serbia today can count on this type of support at the Science-Technology Park (STP) Belgrade, which opened in 2015. Of around 60 companies operating in the Zvezdara Forest, more than a half are startups. According to Gordana Danilovic-Grkovic, the director of STP Belgrade, young people who come here boast remarkable technological knowledge. What they lack are business skills – how to establish a company, run it, make profit and, most importantly, recognize the market.
– Our biggest challenge is to dispel the notion of finances being the most important and to make them realize that the most important thing in the development of their ideas and products is the market, that is, the presence of clients for their product.
The LeanPay startup has been active at the STP Belgrade for a year and a half now, developing a platform for online purchase of goods and services in installments. The credit solvency is estimated based on the data left by the customers and the decision on the number of installments for the purchase of a given product is formed in several seconds.
Their current project, however, does not much resemble the idea they initially came with to the science park, says Misa Zivic, the company's CEO. The changes they've gone through in order to optimize their product for the market have resulted in the service's being implemented in the EU market, more precisely, in Slovenia.
– My colleague, the co-founder, and I come from the world of business and our problem was how to find IT resources and understand such skills, which is not typical for this region, where it's mostly people from IT that found startups, but have problems getting people from the world of business interested. As far as I'm concerned, this is the main obstacle to the development of young companies.
What, then, is crucial to the commercialization of innovations? Team, ambition, support, finance or timing?
There's no single correct answer to this “million-dollar question”, but they all agree about one thing – the process of development has been redirected. It is no longer a product that is being created. Instead, problems are detected and solutions sought (user development).
– If we choose this path, we are sure to come up with a solution which will find its purchasers in the market, whereas, if we only develop a product, there are no such guarantees – says the director of the Ljubljana Technology Park.
The ability to adapt, all things considered, seems to be crucial to the process.
– If you fail in one area, you'll succeed in another. That requires a change in the way of thinking and a reorientation towards market opportunities. What you knew two years ago doesn't have to be true today, and the problems we are seeking solutions to now didn't even exist five years ago.
Since the educational system reacts slowly to such transformations of the market, the role of institutions such as science-technology parks is very important, above all in the sense of changing the way of looking at things and implementing adequate tools, because, as our interviewees point out, “someone in the market has to make sure that the changes are noticed and adopted in the society as well”.
I.B.
– Our biggest challenge is to dispel the notion of finances being the most important and to make them realize that the most important thing in the development of their ideas and products is the market, that is, the presence of clients for their product.
The LeanPay startup has been active at the STP Belgrade for a year and a half now, developing a platform for online purchase of goods and services in installments. The credit solvency is estimated based on the data left by the customers and the decision on the number of installments for the purchase of a given product is formed in several seconds.
Their current project, however, does not much resemble the idea they initially came with to the science park, says Misa Zivic, the company's CEO. The changes they've gone through in order to optimize their product for the market have resulted in the service's being implemented in the EU market, more precisely, in Slovenia.
– My colleague, the co-founder, and I come from the world of business and our problem was how to find IT resources and understand such skills, which is not typical for this region, where it's mostly people from IT that found startups, but have problems getting people from the world of business interested. As far as I'm concerned, this is the main obstacle to the development of young companies.
What, then, is crucial to the commercialization of innovations? Team, ambition, support, finance or timing?
There's no single correct answer to this “million-dollar question”, but they all agree about one thing – the process of development has been redirected. It is no longer a product that is being created. Instead, problems are detected and solutions sought (user development).
– If we choose this path, we are sure to come up with a solution which will find its purchasers in the market, whereas, if we only develop a product, there are no such guarantees – says the director of the Ljubljana Technology Park.
The ability to adapt, all things considered, seems to be crucial to the process.
– If you fail in one area, you'll succeed in another. That requires a change in the way of thinking and a reorientation towards market opportunities. What you knew two years ago doesn't have to be true today, and the problems we are seeking solutions to now didn't even exist five years ago.
Since the educational system reacts slowly to such transformations of the market, the role of institutions such as science-technology parks is very important, above all in the sense of changing the way of looking at things and implementing adequate tools, because, as our interviewees point out, “someone in the market has to make sure that the changes are noticed and adopted in the society as well”.
I.B.
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