Array ( [data] => ) Entrepreneurial Ecosystems – Orren Prunckun https://orrenprunckun.com Sun, 05 May 2019 09:08:24 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://i0.wp.com/orrenprunckun.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/cropped-Orren-Prunckun-Beard.png?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Entrepreneurial Ecosystems – Orren Prunckun https://orrenprunckun.com 32 32 138446008 Accountability Of Labor Government Funding https://orrenprunckun.com/2018/11/06/accountability-of-labor-government-funding/ Tue, 06 Nov 2018 01:08:12 +0000 https://orrenprunckun.com/?p=4139

Do we need yet another workspace/hub/precinct?

The answer is no.

I wish our leaders would actually do something impactful and LEAD.

Stop throwing money at problems and do things that make change.

Here’s an idea: help change culture around entrepreneurship.

A very wise man once told me “why would anyone in Adelaide start a business when you can work 9-5, make a comfortable living mowing lawns, go fishing and relax each weekend?”

That’s culture for you.

They have a point too.

Why would anyone bother in Australia, let alone Adelaide.

There is no hustle in Adelaide and it’s so fucking easy to standout – all you have to do is show up.

Something that is bare minimum anywhere else makes you looks like a king (or Queen).

I have another friend move to San Fran to follow a dream.

Their whole salary went to pay for rent an apartment the size of my toilet.

They didn’t care – they had equity and starry eyes.

That’s culture for you.

A very different culture (I’m not saying replicate this, don’t get me wrong.)

If you want the bragging rights and the “power” and the Adelaide Club membership and all the other “cool” things, you also need to own the accompanying responsibilities.

You as the leader are responsible for culture.

Don’t hide from it.

If it were a CEO, they would be fired for a culture that does serve its interests.

Changing company culture is hard.

Changing a state’s culture is fucking hard.

Don’t throw money at the problem hoping it goes away.

Yes it gets headline but doesn’t move the needle.

Step up and be a leader.

Change culture.

I’m going to be critical of this government, like I was of the previous until someone takes responsibility for culture.

And also don’t say “why don’t you step up Orren and do something about it.”

First, it’s not my responsibility for culture of the state.

And I have – I’ve been advocating this for FREE for many years and over the past 5 years I have been observing government funding and the lack of public disclosure on outcomes achieved and public accountability for the expenditure.

The limited funds available for the start-up community should be used to make a tangible and verifiable difference to job creation and this appears not to be happening.

What I find concerning and consider needs further investigation is:

  1. Government funding is not targeting what can have the greatest impact on job creation, e.g. supporting/training people to start up small businesses to create employment for themselves and others; and
  2. Government funding is supporting private enterprises where directors/shareholders are potentially profiting for it short term.

Here is what I have found.

Over the past 5 years, the Labor Government has committed funding of $92,240,000 for start-up ventures:

How many jobs have been created from this $92,000,000 investment?

If government is serious about creating jobs and developing entrepreneurial skills to support business development, it should be accountable for outcomes and publicly declare how many jobs have been created from the funding provided.

Good things are happening that don’t receive funding and the public doesn’t hear a lot about them.

For example, the New Venture Institute at Flinders University (https://www.nviflinders.com.au/about/ourimpact/impact-december/), publicly discloses its job creation efforts and outcomes and they haven’t received any Labor Government funding.

]]> 4139 Case Study: Corporate Disruption https://orrenprunckun.com/2018/08/11/case-study-corporate-disruption/ Sat, 11 Aug 2018 08:38:23 +0000 https://orrenprunckun.com/?p=3893

The client organization was looking to find the next big thing for their customers.

Larger horizon in understanding the pain points and challenges in their customers’ lives and how they can offer different products and services.

Exploration of new offers in emerging categories and market that enable disruptive innovation and aim to position them for the next wave of growth.

Looked at what role they could play in helping their customers connect their devices to benefit their daily lives.

Specifically…

Smart devices allow us to do incredible things. With digital and cloud technology, the sky is the limit. How can we connect our device to the home to benefit our daily lives? What role could the Client Play?

The client has a team of Team of 4 who were tasked to explore that.

However, they “who are lagging a bit behind at the moment.”

They had their idea (found from researching frustrations and peeve points) and now need help testing and validating their idea, and fleshing out their business model canvas.

They had done a market scan and looked at problems  and they had then gone on to do 2 Ideation Sessions and come up with 90 or so product ideas and then shortlisted them

They had engaged an external service provider, but that hadn’t got them where needed to be with their milestones – to Proof of Concept stage.

This was measured by the following outcomes:

  1. Technology validation (can the technology be built);
  2. Initial Market Size (market size based on accurate data); and
  3. Business Model validation (does the market want it).

The problem is the lack of results certainly wasn’t their fault because there is a specific way to go about new product creation.

I knew what that was because of my background:

  1. I brought Startup Weekend to Adelaide in 2012 (which now has completed 6 sold out events with 600+ local alumni);
  2. I am a Startup Weekendglobal facilitator (I’ve been involved in 10+ hackathons events globally);
  3. I am a co-founder and current director of not-for-profit Startup Adelaide Inc– a not-for-profit organisation that exists to foster and support the Adelaide tech startup sector;
  4. I am a co-founder and administration of the Startup Adelaideforum which has 700 members;
  5. I am the co-founder of Business Higher Education Round Tableaward-winning program Venture Dorm (100+ alumni with total company valuations of $5.5M) which merged with Mobile Enterprise Growth Alliance to be Australia’s largest community pre-accelerator program;
  6. I am the former Director of Marketing for Mobile Enterprise Growth Alliance;
  7. I am the former Marketing Manager of New Venture Institute at Finders University;
  8. I am the Australia Day Citizen of the Yearfor Unley (2015)for my contribution to building the Adelaide startup ecosystem;
  9. I was recognised in Startup Daily’s“Top 50 Australian Startup Influencers” in Australia and “Mentors you should know in the startup space, Adelaide Edition”;
  10. I won an honourable mention in Australian Anthills30 under 30 award  for my contribution to building the Adelaide startup ecosystem;
  11. I am an independent member of the Business and Economic Development Committeefor Unley Council;
  12. I was on the judging panel for The Australian Centre for Social Innovation’s Aging Challenge in 2015.

Solution

This was recognised by the client who contacted me cold to task me come in and help them with their milestones.

No small task based on where they were at.

What I did was run the client team through an internal Hackathon style workshop – part lecture (live talking + video) and part activities (worksheets and implementation of worksheets).

I facilitated and took the lead in the direction of achieving the outcomes.

The activities I focused on to achieve the desired outcomes were:

  1. Market Analysis;
  2. Value proposition creation;
  3. Prototype design;
  4. Customer relationships and value ladder;
  5. Marketing and distribution channels;
  6. Costs;
  7. Market sizing;
  8. Revenue;
  9. Pricing;
  10. Offer creation;
  11. Sales and first customers/users;
  12. Prototype building;
  13. Partnerships; and
  14. Initial business model.

Don’t be fooled.

Although I have a very specific sequence and niche of content, a lot of this isn’t new.

It’s available online.

That’s not the value: What a lot of people get hung up on is the content and consulting.

If it was, then this team would have achieved their milestones already and not needed my expertise.

The value is in the:

  • Teaching;
  • Coaching; and
  • Accountability.

That this style of Hackathon achieves.

Results

Speaking of results.

In the 11.5 hours I worked with the team, they finalized the following:

  1. Analysed the market;
  2. Created their value proposition;
  3. Designed a prototype;
  4. Settled their customer relationships and value ladder;
  5. Settled their marketing and distribution channels;
  6. Settled their Costs;
  7. Accurately sized their market (almost everyone gets this wrong, and they didn’t);
  8. Settled their revenue streams;
  9. Settled their pricing model;
  10. Created and off;
  11. Sold to their first customer;
  12. Built their prototype;
  13. Settled potential partnerships; and
  14. Settled their initial business model.

You can read more about this process here.

They then went on to create an amazing pitch for their board.

By the way, I’ve seen hundreds of pitches before, and this was certainly in the top 5%, and I’m not just saying that because of my bias in being involved in the project.

Testimonials

In addition to these results and based on their experience, this are some of what the client had to say.

“Orren has a wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm. I wasn’t hesitant about attending the workshop and ultimately I decided to attend to get help with the mission. One of the biggest benefits attending this workshop has been learning about innovative ideas. I think Orren should run the next ‘innovation champion’” Ryan Cowled

“Always enjoy learning new and or better ways to do things and embrace the experience. I instigated that as a group we really needed some additional help to accelerate the group and Ben and Ashleigh suggested to bring you in because you’re a gun! Definitely helped to bring the team together and gave us some key points to focus on. Anyone looking to put a framework behind a problem without any clear outcome in mind. In essence, bring together and ascertain whether an opportunity is viable in a short period of time. In essence, it’s a rapid feasibility to bring together a problem and ascertain if and what the problem really is, while also ascertaining whether the opportunity is viable and how big the opportunity is and all in a short period of time.” Ben Michael

“Thanks again for your time and expertise!”

“It was really nice working with you. Thanks again.”

The average Net Promoter Score that is the clients overall satisfaction with and loyalty to the service I provided was 9.33/10.

Let me repeat: 9.33/10.

I get results.

For them, this was well-and-truly, worth the price of engaging me.

If you would like me to get similar or better results for your corporate, contact me.

]]> 3893 The Partner Co-Enrolment Process: How To Generate Cheaper Yet More Targeted And Qualified Leads https://orrenprunckun.com/2016/05/22/the-partner-co-enrolment-process-how-to-generate-cheaper-yet-more-targeted-and-qualified-leads/ Sat, 21 May 2016 23:41:56 +0000 https://orrenprunckun.com/?p=1843

Approximate read time: 6 minutes

It goes without saying that most brands with products, services or solutions are looking for cheaper yet more targeted and qualified leads for their brand.

Think about it, if you can get more targeted and qualified leads but for cheaper than normal, your cost of the sale goes down and your profit margin goes up.

Brands, of course, pursue the most obvious and reliable channels to generate their leads.

The problem with this is that they are obvious and reliable to other brands.

And being obvious and reliable means are expensive and saturated marketing channels.

This leads to less targeted and qualified leads and the price gets driven up.

Not ideal.

When brands look to uncommon lead generation strategies they benefit, as very few are playing in the same sandbox.

The concepts of “Symbiotic Marketing” and “Co-Enrolment” are two examples of effective yet uncommon lead generation marketing strategies.

Not only do they generate leads but they also generate leads that are targeted and qualified.

They are also considerably cheaper than other marketing channels.

Sounds pretty powerful, right?

So who is Co-Enrolment via Symbiotic Marketing for?

  1. Any brand that wants to generate more leads;
  2. Any brand that wants to generate more targeted and qualified leads; and
  3. Any brand that wants to generate cheaper yet more targeting and qualified leads.

Best of all, it’s probably for you!

So what is “Symbiotic Marketing” and “Co-Enrolment”?

“Symbiotic Marketing” is a marketing strategy where two or more complimentary but non-competing brands combine their marketing effort to generate leads and sales for all parties involved.

In other words, they cooperate with their marketing efforts off one another to get greater reach, awareness, conversion and return on investment.

This could be anything from co-branded advertisements to product, service or solution scavenger hunts and everything in between.

You may be wondering why brands would do this.

“Aren’t they competing against each other?”

The answer is no…

…Customers with the same pains or same wanted gains actually buy more than one product, service or solution (even competing products, services or solutions) to bring them closer to that gain or away from that pain.

Customers were going to buy those products, services and solutions anyway, with or without prompting from symbiotic marketing.

How many books of the same genre do you own?

I’m willing to guess that it’s more than one.

Another example may be hair shampoo and conditioner.

A better example may be hair shampoo and a hair straightener.

In the latter example, the products, services or solutions are either upstream or downstream from each other.

Upstream is better than downstream because your products, services and solutions are the next logical progression for the customer who has purchased a competing product, service or solution.

Products, services or solutions that are alternative or competing can also be complimentary to your product, service or solution in the case of hair shampoo and conditioner.

Embracing this dynamic puts you in a position of leverage – partners invest money, time and effort in generating leads and partners both leverage each other’s investment.

Put this way, if a partner has a qualified contact list that has purchased $1,000,000 of products, services or solutions and you can leverage this to build your contact list, you have in effect gained access to $1,000,000 of qualified customers.

Pretty powerful.

“Co-Enrolment” is another marketing strategy where prospects opt-in once to receive an offer and share their contact details (with permission and consent) with the parties involved, thus becoming co-enrolled.

When the two marketing strategies are combined, the participant brands gather leads for the purpose of marketing and selling their complimentary and non-competitive products, services or solutions in a reciprocal arrangement for mutual benefit.

So how does this work practically?

A giveaway!

Here are the steps in a Co-Enrolment marketing campaign:

  • STEP 1: Pre-launch;
  • STEP 2: Launch; and
  • STEP 3: Post-launch.

Let’s begin with…

The Partner Co-Enrolment Process Pre Launch

1) Pre-Launch

…The first step is Pre-Launch.

During the Pre-Launch, the Promoter recruits two or more participating partners.

Partners donate a discounted or free offer related to their products, services and solutions that are not ordinarily available (such as a coupon code).

These donated offers are added to a giveaway prize pool that each individual prospect has access to if they opt-in to the giveaway and share their contact details.

This individual giveaway is unlike a winner-takes-all giveaway.

The giveaway is hosted on limited access (via opt-in) membership website, where access is granted by an opt-in enrolment page.

All Partners get to nominate what segmentation information they want to capture from prospects on enrolment.

Just before the Launch, Partners send an email communication to their respective contact databases outlining the Launch, prize pool, terms and dates.

This is the “Symbiotic” part of the campaign.

Of course, the exact details of how to do this are beyond the scope of this guide.

This leads us to the Launch Step…

The Partner Co-Enrolment Process Launch

2) Launch

…The next step is Launch.

On the Launch date, each Partner sends two email communications to their respective contact databases explaining that the Launch and prize pool are open for enrolment.

Those prospects, from each Partners’ contact databases who are interested in the individual prize pool on, will enrol into the new Giveaway contact database.

And those prospects who are not interested in the Launch will not enrol into the new contact database and will remain solely on the original Partner contact database.

In other words, each contact database is cross-pollinated (with permission and consent), and each participating partner generates targeted and qualified leads from the complimentary brand.

This is the “Co-Enrolment” part of the campaign.

After opt-in and enrolment, prospects have admission to the password protected member’s area where they can access and redeem all Partners offers.

Of course, the exact details of how to do this are beyond the scope of this guide.

This leads us to the Post Launch Step…

The Partner Co-Enrolment Process Post Launch

3) Post-Launch

…The final step is Post-Launch.

Once the Giveaway is over, the Promoter distributes the contact details on the new Giveaway contact database to all Partners.

All Partners and the Promoter upload these contact details to their respective email communication platform for the purpose of marketing and selling their products, services or solutions.

Of course, the exact details of how to do this are beyond the scope of this guide.

The Definitive Digital Marketing & Sales Manual Take Action

Take Action

You made it…

You now have a solid plan for generating cheaper yet more targeting and qualified leads.

That’s the full Partner Co-Enrolment Process, and it will be more than enough for you to get started on your own.

You can get the printed illustrated Process Map of this and 20 others for free, here

And if you’re serious about marketing and selling more, the logical next step is to contact me to help you do it yourself, have me do it with you, or have it all done for you.

This maybe the momentum you need to get great marketing and sales results.

Now let’s learn about The B2C Lead Generation Process.

Or do you simply want more like this?

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]]> 1843 The Adelaide Tech Startup Roadmap https://orrenprunckun.com/2016/02/11/the-adelaide-tech-startup-roadmap/ Wed, 10 Feb 2016 22:30:45 +0000 https://orrenprunckun.com/?p=1789

Approximate read time: 10 minutes

This resource is for a few types of people:

  • Adelaide startup community leaders;
  • Adelaide startup founders; and
  • Local and state politicians interested in;
    • Startups
    • Innovation
    • Job creation
    • Manufacturing
    • Science
    • Information Technology
    • Employment
    • Economic Development
    • State Development
    • And so on…

Many Adelaide based startup founders are stuck.

They are stuck somewhere in the process of starting and growing their company.

There is so much to learn and so much to do, it can feel overwhelming.

And who can blame them… there are many steps needed.

It’s a situation seen over-and-over…

…I’ve directly helped 400+ startups (of those which have raised capital, their current combined company valuations are AUD $5,500,000) get their companies started market through various award winning training programs.

I am, arguably one of the most experienced people in Adelaide (and possibly Australia) in building entrepreneurial ecosystems.

My related credentials are:

  1. I brought Startup Weekend to Adelaide in 2012 (which now has completed 6 sold out events with 600+ local alumni);
  2. I am a Startup Weekend global facilitator (I’ve been involved in 10+ hackathons events globally);
  3. I am a co-founder and current director of not-for-profit Startup Adelaide Inc – a not-for-profit organisation that exists to foster and support the Adelaide tech startup sector;
  4. I am a co-founder and administration of the Startup Adelaide forum which has 700 members;
  5. I am the co-founder of Business Higher Education Round Table award winning program Venture Dorm (100+ alumni with total company valuations of $5.5M) which merged with Mobile Enterprise Growth Alliance to be Australia’s largest community pre-accelerator program;
  6. I am the former Director of Marketing for Mobile Enterprise Growth Alliance;
  7. I am the former Marketing Manager of New Venture Institute at Finders University;
  8. I am the Australia Day Citizen of the Year for Unley (2015)for my contribution to building the Adelaide startup ecosystem;
  9. I was recognised in Startup Daily’s “Top 50 Australian Startup Influencers” in Australia and “Mentors you should know in the startup space, Adelaide Edition”;
  10. I won an honorable mention in Australian Anthills 30 under 30 award  for my contribution to building the Adelaide startup ecosystem;
  11. I am and independent member of the Business and Economic Development Committee for Unley Council.

This article is here to help you understand the Adelaide tech startup ecosystem.

And by ecosystem I really mean…

A road map.

It’s a road map that reflects how founders go from realising that they would like to start a company to selling it and being a leader and mentor who gives back and pays their experience forward.

The Adelaide Tech Startup Roadmap

This roadmap outlines The Seven Stages Of Startups.

It is a visual map of the Adelaide tech startup ecosystem particuarly the current Adelaide support initiatives for each seven stages of starting at tech startup

The map shows what exists, but more importantly what is missing and thus highlights potential opportunities for the Adelaide tech startup ecosystem.

It is based on stage of development, rather than initiative type.

Before we go on it is important to define the word “startup.”

A startup company (note, no hyphen, as in start-up), according to Steve Blank, a Silicon Valley serial-entrepreneur and academic who is recognized for developing the Customer Development methodology, which launched the Lean Startup movement, is a temporary organization designed to find a new, repeatable and scalable business model for a product or company.

It’s not a small business, upstart or start-up.

It’s an important distinction.

If you plan on growing the Adelaide tech startup ecosystem, you’ll need to reference this roadmap and article often.

When starting or supporting a new ecosystem initiative, you’ll need to constantly remind yourself of the The Adelaide Tech Startup Roadmap.

Otherwise, you’re wasting time.

There is little value in focusing on an initiative in-and-of itself.

There is enormous value in understanding how each initiative fits into the whole Adelaide Tech Startup Roadmap.

Here are the seven stages:

  • PHASE 1: Stimulate;
  • PHASE 2: Study;
  • PHASE 3: Start;
  • PHASE 4: Search;
  • PHASE 5: Scale;
  • PHASE 6: Sell; and
  • PHASE 7: Support.

Let’s begin with…

1) Stimulate

The stimulate stage is characterised by a realisation or awakening that someone would like to start a tech startup.

The current ecosystem is comprised of the following initiatives:

  • Mobile Monday;
  • South Start;
  • Startup Adelaide; and
  • Startup Grind.

2) Study

The study stage is characterised by someone searching for knowledge and networks that are relevant to starting a tech startup.

The current ecosystem is comprised of the following initiatives:

  • Adelaide Lean Startup Group; and
  • Startup Adelaide Forum.

3) Start

The start stage is characterised by taking action on a tech startup idea

The current ecosystem is comprised of the following initiatives:

  • GovHack;
  • Startup Weekend;
  • Tech Jam; and
  • Unearthed.

4) Search

The search stage is characterised by finding a new, repeatable and scalable business model for a tech startup idea.

The current ecosystem is comprised of the following initiatives:

  • eChallenge; and
  • Venture Dorm powered by MEGA.

5) Scale

The scale stage is characterised by maximum the success of a tech startup.

The current ecosystem is comprised of the following initiatives:

  • Majoran;
  • Acumen Ventures;
  • Innovation Bay;
  • Innovyz;
  • Ventue Catalyst.

6) Sell

The sell stage is characterised by selling the company and providing a return for the founders and shareholders.

The current ecosystem is comprised of the following initiatives:

  • None.

7) Support

The support state is characterised by being a leader, a mentor and giving back and paying experience forward to other tech startups on lower stages of the roadmap.

The current ecosystem is comprised of the following initiatives:

  • eChallenge;
  • Startup Weekend; ndd
  • Venture Dorm Powered by MEGA.

NOTE: Data current as of February 2016.

Embed Code

Copy and paste the following to embed the The Adelaide Tech Startup Roadmap on your site:

Commentary

Filling the front of the Adelaide Tech Startup Roadmap, that is the Stimulate, Study, Start and Search phases (through hackathons, networking, events, meetups and similar), have proved to be the most effective mechanism to date to create a gravity of initiatives, where those initiatives feed off themselves.

For example, Startup Weekend Adelaide was instrumental in pumping 600+ people into the Adelaide tech startup ecosystemm Startup Adelaide was crucial to keeping the conversation and networks going in between events and both were contributory to showing the way and empowering alumni to go out and be community leaders and start startup ecosystem initiatives.

We know there is a large attrition rate as founders move through the Seven Stages Of Startups.

And in my view, Adelaide have hit a ground swell (but not a saturation) on the front end (the Stimulate, Study, Start and Search phases).

The more we can fill this front end of the Roadmap,  the more will come out at the Scale, Sale and Support end.

Yes, more initiatives may create “competition” among initiatives.

But no, it doesn’t matter.

We have already seen that new  initiatives brings new networks into play and the more people who take on initiatives means Adelaide will have a “flywheel” of activity that self generates and perpetuates.

In summary:

  • There needs to be more initiatives in the Stimulate, Study, Start and Search phases.
  • There needs to be initiatives in the Sell pahse; and
  • There is a saturation of initiatives in the Scale phase and no more are needed untill the other phases are addressed.

Next Actions

  • Add any missing tech startup initiates, here.
  • Get notified about the next version update, here.
  • I’d love to hear your thoughts on this as an, Adelaide startup community leader, local and state politician, or Adelaide startup founder.

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You may also like to read about The State Of Adelaide Startup Funding Report 2015 and How To Build The Entrepreneurial Ecosystem In Adelaide

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]]> 1789 The State Of Adelaide Startup Funding Report 2015 https://orrenprunckun.com/2016/01/05/the-state-of-adelaide-startup-funding-report-2015/ Mon, 04 Jan 2016 22:30:55 +0000 https://orrenprunckun.com/?p=1624

Approximate read time: 3 minutes

The Results Of The 2015 State Of Adelaide Startup Funding Survey

One of the main complaints I have heard over the past 4 years as a startup community leader in Adelaide is that “there is no money in Adelaide.”

I’m certainly not the only one who has heard that either…

Based on that notion, I did some primary survey research into venture capital in Adelaide particularly at the Angel and Seed stage for tech (web & mobile etc) startups to answer that question.

Below are the results and some commentary.

The State Of Adelaide Startup Funding Report 2015

Embed Code

Copy and paste the following to embed this poster on your site:

Survey Results

1. Have you raised angel or seed capital?
Yes: 46%
No: 54%

2. How much angel or seed capital did you/want to raise?
Raised: $319,167
Want to raise: $280,000

3. How much equity did you/will you give away?
Gave away: 19%
Willing to give: 16%

4. What is you company worth?
Ideal valuation: $1,750,000
Actual valuation: $1,602,778

5. What was/is your main hurdle in raising seed capital?
“Finding investors”

NOTE: Geographic location of investors was not researched and investment from startup accelerators was not captured.

Commentary

  1. Adelaide based startups are seeking on average $280,000 (median: $200,000) in exchange for on average 16% (median: 20%)of the company, to be valued at on average $1,750,000 (median: $1,000,000);
  2. Investors have given on average $319,167 (median: $162,500) in exchange for on average 19% (median: 18%) of the company, to be valued at on average $1,602,778 (median: $1,500,000);
  3. The difference between capital received and sought was on average $39,167 (median: $37,000) higher than founders expectations;
  4. The difference between equity received and offered was on average 3% (median: 3%) higher than founders expectations;
  5. The difference between expected company valuations was on average $147,222 (median: $500,000) lower that founders expectations; and
  6. The biggest hurdle for startups raising capital was finding investors.

Conclusion

These results indicate that there is angel and seed money being invested in Adelaide based startups.

Next Actions

  • Want to get introductions to Adelaide investors or founders, click here.
  • Get notified about or get your details captured in the 2016 version here.
  • I’d love to hear your thoughts on this as an investor or founder.

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You may also like to read about the Adelaide Tech Startup Roadmap and How To Build The Entrepreneurial Ecosystem In Adelaide

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]]> 1624 How Corporates Can Avoid Being The Next Kodak https://orrenprunckun.com/2015/10/05/how-corporates-can-avoid-being-the-next-kodak/ Sun, 04 Oct 2015 22:30:37 +0000 https://orrenprunckun.com/?p=1397

Kodak‘s demise.1

Approximate read time: 23 minutes

You already know the answer…

Technology = The Future.

In January 2012, Eastman Kodak Company filed for bankruptcy in New York and one month later, Kodak announced it would cease manufacturing cameras.

Wow!

How could this have happen to an iconic brand with market dominance?

What a way to end a chapter in photographic history!

Especially when Kodak had transformed photography by providing the means of taking photographs by everyone.

This was probably best captured by the Google-it-esque slogan, “a Kodak moment.”

But Kodak was caught out in time and for whatever reason their executives did not understand that the world was changing and companies where being disrupted  – their market, their customers habits, their revenue streams and their technology.

“Digital” is the iceberg, the unseen force, that is sure to sink many other corporate Titanic’s in the future.

Don’t believe me?

orren-prunckun-andressen-horowitz

Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz.

Marc Lowell Andreessen is the entrepreneur who, amongst other things, co-authored the world’s first web browser, Mosaic, the co-founded Netscape and is currently the co-founder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz.

Andreessen Horowitz is a US$4 Billion dollar Venture Capital firm in Silicon Valley, which has invested in companies such as Facebook, AirBnB, BuzzFeed, Groupon, Foursquare, Oculus Rift, Pinterest, Skype, Twitter and a raft of others…

With this portfolio, Andreessen knows a thing or two about digital disruption.

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Marc Andreessen’s Why Software Is Eating The World article.

In 2011 (four years in digital is a long time ago) he wrote a very compelling piece on digital disruption in The Wall Street Journal called Why Software Is Eating The World in which he gave a grave prediction:

“Over the next 10 years, I expect many…industries to be disrupted by software.”2

orren-prunckun-peter-diamandis

Peter Diamandis.

According to Peter Diamandis, the chairman of the X Prize Foundation and the co-founder and executive chairman of Singularity University, along with many other things, says as soon as something is digitised, it is on the speeding-train-without-brakes to disruption.

Let me repeat…

As soon as something is digitised, it is on the speeding-train-without-brakes to disruption.

Got it?

Good!

Software is only one of these threats.

We have exponential digital technologies that offer similar pressure to legacy brands:

  • Robotics;
  • 3D printing;
  • Energy storage;
  • Mobile internet;
  • Nano technology;
  • Synthetic biology;
  • Cloud computing;
  • Advanced materials;
  • Artificial intelligence;
  • Networks & sensors;
  • Autonomous vehicles;
  • Personalized genomics;
  • And many, many more…

So, how does a corporate inoculate itself against following Kodak’s footsteps?

How do they foster new ways of approaching innovation and solving corporate challenges to stay up-to-date in an increasing changing, digitising, disrupting world?

Innovating like they did in the past is not the answer.

The approaches used by startups can be adopted by corporations incrementally in three stages:

  1. Hackathon
  2. Incubation
  3. Acceleration

Let’s explore…

1. Hackathon

A hackathon is an event in which participants collaborate intensively for a short period of time, with no resources to create innovative solutions to existing problems.

Hack or hacking from the word hackathon, shouldn’t be confused with gain unauthorized access to systems or writing software.

In this context, it refers to creating shortcuts that increase output.

Hackathons are short events that are low-risk, yet high-yield.

A hackathon ideally runs over 2 or 3 days where participants determine problems to solve on the first and spend the next few solving them, all culminating in a pitch on what they have achieved.

And for corporates, they can learn from and behave like startups – their hustle, their urgency, their sense of purpose, their resourcefulness, their creativity, their agility and their speed to market and their unique perspective – all without “betting the farm.”

What is a startup?

orren-prunckun-steve-blank

Steve Blank.

A startup company (note, no hyphen), according to Steve Blank, a Silicon Valley serial-entrepreneur and academic who is recognized for developing the Customer Development methodology, which launched the Lean Startup movement, is a temporary organization designed to find a new, repeatable and scalable business model for a product or company.

It’s not a small business or upstart.

It’s an important distinction.

The aim of a Hackathon is to find a new, repeatable and scalable business model for a product or company.

Hackathons are effective because of a few intentional factors in-built that increase productivity and creativity so that participants are forced to pick the critical few tasks not the trivial many to complete their goal.

Those factors are based on the following principles:

  1. Public accountability – participants are required to tell their peers what they plan on doing then report on what they have done;
  2. Parkinson’s Law – say that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. The short time frames of hackathons are built on this law;
  3. The Pareto Principle – says that, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Again short time frames of hackathons are built on this principle.

Hackathons also replicate what really happens in the real world, but without the same consequences:

  • Things break;
  • People disagree;
  • Customers don’t buy;
  • Leadership falls short;
  • Teams are dysfunctional;
  • Technology malfunctions;
  • Procrastination takes over;
  • Products can’t be validated;
  • Time and resources runs out;
  • Workplace’s have pressure and deadline;
  • And many, many more…

Through desensitisation, participants know how to respond in actual work situations.

50km/hr feels fast, but it also feels slow when you come off a highway at 100km/hr.

The hackathon process helps staff feel the same in their regular work life.

As a side note, I have participated in several hackathons, incubators and accelerators:

  1. Startup Weekend Sydney;
  2. Adelaide Universities Entrepreneurs Challenge Incubation program;
  3. Mobile Enterprise Growth Alliance Incubation program;
  4. ANZ’s Innovyz Start Acceleration program.

Based on this experience, I went on to run, organize or mentor several hackathons, incubators and related programs and, I am, arguably one of the most experienced people in Adelaide (and possibly Australia) in this field; some of my related credentials are:

  1. I brought Startup Weekend to Adelaide in 2012 (which now has completed 6 sold out events with 600+ local alumni);
  2. I am a Startup Weekend global facilitator (I’ve been involved in 10+ hackathons events globally);
  3. I am a co-founder and current director of not-for-profit Startup Adelaide Inc – a not-for-profit organisation that exists to foster and support the Adelaide tech startup sector;
  4. I am a co-founder and administration of the Startup Adelaide forum which has 700 members;
  5. I am the co-founder of Business Higher Education Round Table award winning program Venture Dorm (100+ alumni with total company valuations of $5.5M) which merged with Mobile Enterprise Growth Alliance to be Australia’s largest community pre-accelerator program;
  6. I am the former Director of Marketing for Mobile Enterprise Growth Alliance;
  7. I am the former Marketing Manager of New Venture Institute at Finders University;
  8. I am the Australia Day Citizen of the Year for Unley (2015)for my contribution to building the Adelaide startup ecosystem;
  9. I was recognised in Startup Daily’s “Top 50 Australian Startup Influencers” in Australia and “Mentors you should know in the startup space, Adelaide Edition”;
  10. I won an honorable mention in Australian Anthills 30 under 30 award  for my contribution to building the Adelaide startup ecosystem;
  11. I am and independent member of the Business and Economic Development Committee for Unley Council;
  12. I was on the judging panel for The Australian Centre for Social Innovation’s Aging Challenge in 2015.

So, back to our discussion, who is already running hackathons?

According to Fast Company Magazine:

“One of America’s oldest toy companies, Hasbro, recently held a hackathon where 150 developers came and developed 45 products—equivalent to billions of dollars in traditional R&D.”3

10 years ago that claim would be preposterous.

Today, it’s an unprecedented return-on-investment!

Let’s now look at 3 types of Hackathons…

1.a. Community Based Hackathons

Startup Weekend Adelaide event #3.

Community based hackathons bring together external commercial participants to work on external commercial problems, usually their own or ones they are excited about – external participants work on any external problem or solution within the events parameters.

Arguably the biggest player in this field is Startup Weekend.

I brought Startup Weekend to Adelaide in 2012 (which now has completed 6 sold out events with 600+ local alumni).

Startup Weekend is a 54-hour weekend event, during which groups of developers, business managers, startup enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists and more pitch ideas for new startup companies, form teams around those ideas, and work to develop a working prototype, demo, or presentation by Sunday evening having started on Friday evening.

Startup Weekend has grown into an organization with a global presence.

They solely play in the community based hackathon sandbox.

Startup Weekend is a global network of passionate leaders and entrepreneurs on a mission to inspire, educate, and empower individuals, teams and communities, share ideas, form teams, and launch startups.

Approximately 10% of participants are able to generate revenue within 54 hours of idea generation.

Yes, read that again, approximately 10% of participants are able to generate revenue within 54 hours of idea generation

I’m not sure where else you can see those sorts of results.

Let’s examine the advantages of community based hackathons…

Advantages

There are upsides to for participants of community based hackathons:

  • Have fun;
  • Win prizes;
  • Meet new people;
  • Compete for prizes;
  • Learn something new;
  • Build a team around their business idea;
  • Gain exposure to investors and advisors;
  • Validate a business model;
  • And many, many more…

Next, let’s examine the disadvantages of community based hackathons…

Disadvantages

Yes, there are downsides to community based hackathons:

  • Discussions about IP ownership;
  • Negotiating co-founder agreements;
  • Varying commitment of the team members;
  • Navigating equity division between founders.

Community based hackathons generally are not applicable to corporates; however they give birth to the next two important examples.

If you are not getting at least 80 participants to your events, you are doing something wrong! 

1.b. Internal Based Hackathons

Internal based hackathons bring together internal corporate participants to work on internal corporate problems – internal corporate participants can work on any internal corporate problem or solution within the events parameters.

There are very few providers, if any, in Australia experienced in designing and delivering successful corporate hackathons.

Let’s examine the advantages of internal based hackathons…

Advantages

There are several upsides for corporates with internal based hackathons as they leverage staff knowledge of how the company operates.

A hackathon can create innovative solutions for a corporate.

These can be grouped into 3 broad categories:

R&D

  • Enables quick prototyping;
  • Develops product roadmaps;
  • Provides corporate solutions;
  • Makes innovation manageable;
  • Saves substantial development costs;
  • Allows experimentation with new tools;
  • Dedicates time to producing prototypes;
  • Opens up the possibility of internal incubation and investment;
  • Generates new products, new capabilities and new technology.

Productivity:

  • Increases day-to-day output;
  • Forces new ways of working;
  • Provides focus on doing not talking;
  • Removes the constrains of the “9-5”;
  • Increases energy and morale amongst staff;
  • Creates a friendly competitive environment;
  • Creates new ways of thinking for employees;
  • Grants staff to work on ideas outside day-to-day operations;
  • Permits freedom for staff to work beyond their normal roles and responsibilities;
  • Upskills staff in technology, problem solving, leadership, uncertainty, pressure, communication teamwork, collaboration and pitching.

Culture:

  • Provides a culture shift;
  • Enables a maker and action culture;
  • Changes the culture of the company;
  • Fosters a culture of “intrapreneurship”;
  • Increases retention and sharing of skills;
  • Builds stronger work relationship internally;
  • Offers opportunity for juniors to meet senior staff;
  • Create a “game” and completion element to work;
  • Helps internal change initiatives and workflow shifts;
  • Connects disparate parts of business for collaboration;
  • Sends a positive message to employees about the company’s future.

Many of these advantages have lasting effects in the culture post hackathon.

Next, let’s examine the disadvantages of internal based hackathons…

Disadvantages

There are a few downsides to internal based hackathons:

  • Lack of staff buy-in;
  • Fear of the “unknown” by management;
  • Inability to put operations on hold for the event.

If you are not getting at least 80 participants to your events, you are doing something wrong! 

1.c. External Based Hackathons

External based hackathons bring together external corporate participants to work on internal corporate problems – external participant can work on any internal corporate problem or solution within the events parameters.

Again, there are very few providers, if any, in Australia experienced in designing and delivering successful corporate Hackathons.

Let’s examine the advantages of external based hackathons…

Advantages

There are positives for corporates with external based hackathons too.

Many of these have been outlined in the advantages section of internal based hackathons above.

The addition to this list is:

  • Diversifies solutions and ideas by opening the event up to community.

Next, let’s examine the disadvantages of external based hackathons…

Disadvantages

Like community based hackathons, there are the same downsides related external based hackathons, but the following is added:

  • Relegation of trust with opening data, IP and assets:
  • Non-Disclosure Agreements and decentralize data and IP to the public.

If you are not getting at least 80 participants to your events, you are doing something wrong! 

[fancy_box id=4][content_upgrade id=1562]Do you want to know how to organize a hackathon to foster new ways of approaching innovation and solving challenges in your corporate?[/content_upgrade][/fancy_box]

So where do participants go after a Hackathon?

Incubation and acceleration.

Let’s explore those…

2. Incubation

orren-prunckun-venture-dorm-pitch-day

Venture Dorm #2 Pitch Day.

Incubation programs (or pre-accelerators), and specifically internal corporate incubators, extend the hackathon journey through incubating the solution and product for longer periods of time.

Incubation programs allow founders to develop their business model, products and markets far deeper and more comprehensively than they can in a hackathon and can broach the issues identified in the disadvantages sections above while receiving mentorship and education.

The aim of an incubation program is to refine the new, repeatable and scalable business model for a product or company.

Again, there are very few providers, if any, in Australia, experienced in designing and delivering successful internal corporate incubators.

I am the co-founder of Business Higher Education Round Table award winning program Venture Dorm (100+ alumni with total company valuations of $5.5M) which merged with Mobile Enterprise Growth Alliance to be Australia’s largest community pre-accelerator program.

Let’s examine the advantages of internal corporate incubation programs…

Advantages

Incubation programs have upsides for corporate teams, namely:

  • Increases knowledge of the problem, market and technology;
  • Permits time and exploration of the business model in far greater depth.

Next, let’s examine the disadvantages of incubation programs…

Disadvantages

As you imagine, there are downsides to incubation programs too:

  • Lack of much needed capital;
  • The need for balance with external priorities.

The culmination of an incubation program ideally leads into an acceleration program.

This may also mean the corporate hires the external team or purchases their IP at a fraction of their tradition R&D cost.

If you are not getting at least 50 applications to your program, you are doing something wrong! 

3. Acceleration

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Y Combinator.4

Acceleration programs extend the incubation journey.

In 2005, venture capitalist, Paul Graham co-founded Y Combinator, the world’s first startup accelerator in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Startup accelerators have a highly competitive cohort application and selection process and the programs run for a fixed-term (usually three months).

An accelerator can support any number of product verticals which are looking to return substantial investment multiples rather than fee for services.

The program ends with participants graduating in a pitch event or demo day.

Each cohort company receives seed funding in exchange for equity, recognition, mentorship, networking, introductions and common work space; however they also receive invaluable peer support and feedback.

The aim of an acceleration program is to accelerate the growth of a new, repeatable and scalable business model for a product or company.

Again, there are very few providers in Australia, if any, experienced in designing and delivering successful internal corporate accelerators.

According to TechCrunch, in 2014, the American multinational banking and financial services holding company, Wells Fargo launched an accelerator because it wants startups to become vendors of the bank:

“By allowing the companies to remain non-exclusive, [Wells Fargo Vice President Braden] More says they can grow more by pursuing other investors, which in the long run could pay off for Wells Fargo if it were to partner with the startups as vendors.”5

Wells Fargo is not the only corporate – Coca-Cola is doing the same. According to TechCrunch, startups…

“Put a fresh set of eyes on a problem. And even a company like Coke with more than 700K employees spread across nearly 200 countries needs that once in a while.”6

Let’s examine the advantages of internal corporate accelerators…

Advantages

You may have guessed, the upsides to internal corporate accelerators are:

  • Much needed capital;
  • Access to world class Mentorship, networks and introductions.

Next, let’s examine the disadvantages of internal corporate accelerators…

Disadvantages

As hinted at already, there are downsides to accelerator programs:

  • Giving up equity;
  • Short program time frames.

The culmination of an acceleration program usually leads to more rounds of investment, product commercialisation, high user growth or revenue.

If you are not getting at least 100 applications to your program, you are doing something wrong! 

4. What’s Next?

So, now you can access the same approaches startups use to hone and foster new ways of approaching innovation to stay up-to-date in an increasingly changing, digitising, and disrupting world without “betting the farm.”

You’re ready…

You’ve got everything you need to begin the journey to avoid being the next Kodak.

Start fostering new ways of approaching innovation today.

You have no excuse!

…Unless you want to stop manufacturing cameras.

Do you want to know how to organize a hackathon to foster new ways of approaching innovation and solving challenges in your corporate?

Contact me to find out more:

Full name:

Email:

Phone:

Footnotes

  1. https://www.flickr.com/photos/hmoong/7568616552
  2. http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424053111903480904576512250915629460
  3. http://www.fastcolabs.com/3030628/why-do-big-companies-do-hackathons
  4. https://www.flickr.com/photos/paulmiller/5475205694/in/photolist-9kPRUb-9kLNa8-9kLLN8
  5. http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/20/wells-fargo-launches-accelerator-to-promote-innovation-in-financial-services
  6. http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/10/coca-cola-hopes-its-startup-incubator-is-the-real-thing
]]> 1397 How To Build The Entrepreneurial Ecosystem In Adelaide https://orrenprunckun.com/2015/02/11/how-to-build-the-entrepreneurial-ecosystem-in-adelaide/ Tue, 10 Feb 2015 22:30:52 +0000 https://orrenprunckun.com/?p=1422 orren-prunckun-htbteeia-1

Approximate read time: 9 minutes

My Track Record:

I am, arguably one of the most experienced people in Adelaide (and possibly Australia) in building entrepreneurial ecosystems ; my related credentials are:

  1. I brought Startup Weekend to Adelaide in 2012 (which now has completed 6 sold out events with 600+ local alumni);
  2. I am a Startup Weekend global facilitator (I’ve been involved in 10+ hackathons events globally);
  3. I am a co-founder and current director of not-for-profit Startup Adelaide Inc – a not-for-profit organisation that exists to foster and support the Adelaide tech startup sector;
  4. I am a co-founder and administration of the Startup Adelaide forum which has 700 members;
  5. I am the co-founder of Business Higher Education Round Table award winning program Venture Dorm (100+ alumni with total company valuations of $5.5M) which merged with Mobile Enterprise Growth Alliance to be Australia’s largest community pre-accelerator program;
  6. I am the former Director of Marketing for Mobile Enterprise Growth Alliance;
  7. I am the former Marketing Manager of New Venture Institute at Finders University;
  8. I am the Australia Day Citizen of the Year for Unley (2015)for my contribution to building the Adelaide startup ecosystem;
  9. I was recognised in Startup Daily’s “Top 50 Australian Startup Influencers” in Australia and “Mentors you should know in the startup space, Adelaide Edition”;
  10. I won an honorable mention in Australian Anthills 30 under 30 award  for my contribution to building the Adelaide startup ecosystem;
  11. I am and independent member of the Business and Economic Development Committee for Unley Council.

My Story

Since 2013 I have attended 4 entrepreneurial community summits that were held in Cambodia, Brazil, USA, and Malaysia by Up Global.

These events provide phenomenal knowledge, experiences and value.

They aim to get the best entrepreneurial community builders and leaders in the world in one place to mastermind and share best practice, lessons, issues, networks, connections and that is just scratching the surface!

The 2013 summit was held in Brazil and I travelled to Rio De Janeiro, for the world’s largest entrepreneurial community summit:

orren-prunckun-htbteeia-2

While there, I visited Santiago to learn about Startup Chile.

Through the top-down Startup Chile program, the Chilean government wanted to diversity its national industry focus, become the Innovation and entrepreneurship hub of Latin America and reduce its dependence on commodities.

The Startup Chile program requires:

In exchange for:

In my opinion this model is flawed in two ways:

  1. Entrepreneurs are not necessarily community leaders – that is a distinct skillset (although it is not mutually exclusive to entrepreneurs); and
  2. Importing entrepreneurs and companies is no guarantee they will stay.

This experience led me to consider how some of the principles of Startup Chile could be implemented in Adelaide.

In essence the following helped create the groundswell of entrepreneurial activity in Adelaide.

Filling the front of the “Tech Start Roadmap” funnel that is, the Stimulate, Study and Start phases of the Roadmap, through hackathons, networking, events, meetups and similar which proved to be the most effective mechanism to create a gravity of activity where it feeds on itself.

Startup Weekend Adelaide was instrumental in pumping 600+ people into the ecosystem, Startup Adelaide was crucial to keeping the conversation and networks going in between events and both were contributory to showing the way and empowering alumni to go out and be community leaders.

I have written about this here.

Many of the current programs, meetups, activities and so on have touch points or starting points with Startup Weekend Adelaide.

Heck, the Majoran founders met at the first event! All of this was bottom-up grassroots activities by the community for the community.

The idea?

Provide grants for entrepreneurial community building projects.

So I pitched my fellow Startup Adelaide Inc Directors on how I thought we could implement parts of what Startup Chile was doing well, leave out the things that were unnecessary and combine it with what was already working in Adelaide to build the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

orren-prunckun-htbteeia-3

orren-prunckun-htbteeia-4

I also argued my point to the community via the Startup Adelaide Facebook community:

orren-prunckun-htbteeia-5

orren-prunckun-htbteeia-6

Text pasted (and re-edited) for readability:

“For clarification this isn’t a replacement of/alternative for The Awesome Foundation. The original idea I tabled to the board was a specific application of the idea to create a strategic and fair way to incentivise people already sitting on the fence to take the leap and help build “community,” by starting *NEW* activity. We know there is a large attrition rate as founders move from being inspired, to discovery, to action, to startup and to scale. In my view we have hit a ground swell (but not a saturation – still not close) on the front end. The more we can fill the front end of this funnel, the more will come out at the scale end. So it’s really a hybrid of Awesome Foundation and http://StartupChile.org. The Awesome Foundation model is just the funding part and the Startup Chile model is the incentivised funnel part (tl;dr = they give you cash, you create community.) Yes, doing so will create “competition.” But no, it doesn’t matter. We have already seen that new activity brings new networks into play and the more people who take on community project means we’ll have a flywheel of activity that self generates and perpetuates. So with that in mind, $100 is an *investment.* It’s also an opportunity for those already sitting on the fence to take the leap and help build “community, who don’t have time/skills/whatever to get their hands dirty but want to contribute in another way. That’s my vision for the criteria for selecting initiatives. Would this inspire more people to put $100 up each month?”

“This idea is about community building not funding solely funding entrepreneurial projects. Creative projects are probably the domain for Awesome Foundation (but I’m guessing here).”

“The tl;dr version is: if you have a new local startup community building initiative, Startup Adelaide Inc trustees (i.e. the donors) will give you $1000 to execute. No one is currently doing this locally and it’s something that aligns with really closely Startup Adelaide Inc’s core purpose.”

And none of this is conjecture, the concept has Adelaide entrepreneurial community support:

orren-prunckun-htbteeia-7

Where To From Here?

Empowering local grassroots entrepreneurial community members and current leaders to continue to do what they  are doing already or are going to do is simply an efficient use of resources.

They have the passion, the drive and most importantly the skillset to build entrepreneurial communities – and they have the credentials and experience to back it up.

Supporting something that already exists is always better than creating something from scratch, or worse still, replicating the status quo.

This doesn’t take tens-of-millions-of-dollars in government grants, nor do the majority of the members or leaders leave the community post-program.

[fancy_box id=4]

You may also like to read about the Adelaide Tech Startup Roadmap and The State Of Adelaide Startup Funding Report 2015.

[/fancy_box]

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]]> 1422 8 Ways To Get The Most Out Of Startup Weekend https://orrenprunckun.com/2015/01/21/8-ways-to-get-the-most-out-of-startup-weekend/ Tue, 20 Jan 2015 22:30:51 +0000 https://orrenprunckun.com/?p=1775 At  2.03 AM on Monday August 1, 2011, on a train somewhere between Redfern and Kings Cross Station in Sydney, Australia, I was exhausted and delirious. I was on the way to my hotel after the Sunday night celebrations. I was caught by the Startup Weekendmovement; hook, line and sinker. Since that weekend I have been involved in eight Startup Weekends on three continents and four cities ranging from organizing, facilitating, mentoring, observing, and participating.

Approximate read time: 9 minutes

8 Ways To Get The Most Out Of Startup Weekend

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]]> 1775 The Virtuous Circle of Startup Weekend https://orrenprunckun.com/2014/01/12/the-virtuous-circle-of-startup-weekend/ Sun, 12 Jan 2014 02:32:18 +0000 https://orrenprunckun.com/?p=1773 It’s common for Startup Weekend participants to have insightful experiences, both personally and professionally during the event.  For many however, the journey ends on Sunday night, but it does not have to.  By reading two participants’ stories, I hope to inspire you to contribute to the virtuous circle which Startup Weekend enables and reap the subtle yet important rewards it offers. 

Approximate read time: 6 minutes

The Virtuous Circle of Startup Weekend

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]]> 1773 Startup Adelaide: A Story Of Me, Us and You https://orrenprunckun.com/2013/11/02/startup-adelaide-a-story-of-me-us-and-you/ Fri, 01 Nov 2013 22:30:40 +0000 https://orrenprunckun.com/?p=3255

Approximate read time: 8 minutes

I’m going to tell you a story – it is a story of me, a story of us and a story of YOU.

In mid-2011 I attended the first Startup Weekend in Sydney.

For those of you who do not know what Startup Weekend is, it is a 54 hour event which facilitates the  building a startup company over the course of a weekend.

The event is powerful; it uses experiential learning, co-creation and behaviour change mechanics to get phenomenal business results.

What we were able to achieve as a team in those 54 hours was far more than I had done in the calendar year prior.

The problem was Adelaide didn’t have anything like this and that is the exact reason I had to fly to Sydney.

It’s a common story that if you live in Adelaide and want to do anything worthwhile you have to move away.

HAVE not WANT, being the operative word.

A friend of mine Dave and I wanted to build an active community around startup companies locally so we and others could leave by choice, not out of necessity.

So, to cut a long story short we ended up bringing the Startup Weekend event to Adelaide.

The first event was a success according to most metrics.

However we could have done it better.

We were good at certain things, but didn’t know all the answers.

And if we built a team that worked with us, not for us, we could grow this event into a movement.

And that is what we did.

And because of this the event has gone from strength to strength.

Fast forward 2.5 years, we grown the team to 26 people.

We have started a not-for-profit association promoting entrepreneurship locally, we hit Twitter trending topics and have a 300+ very active alumni community.

The lesson for me in creating a future I cared about was building a team based on what people want to do and are good at and empowering them to take ownership.

This is my story about co-creating a future I care about and the process showed me that a person, with a vision and small actions can make a difference.

You see my story is not unique, nor in isolation is it very remarkable.

But, my story is similar to many stories that are happening, beyond Startup Weekends.

So, I want to share with you, some stories of what others have done in co-creating futures they want to live into.

Kraft Foods were doing really well, but decided they could do better.

With the help of their customers, they built an online community to co-create a line of 48 additional branded products that then became a $100 million success story in its first six months.

Mountain Dew understood the power of their fans as well so they sent their best ambassadors new potential products to vote on.

These ambassadors then facilitated over 1m other customers participating in the new campaign which culminated in the creation of a range of best selling fan driven products.

Nike started Nike ID Online which allows customers to design Nike shoes made of different material and colours customized to the individual.

This idea alone tripled Nike online sales in the last decade.

That is pretty powerful.

Technology incubators such as Y Combinator will not invest in companies with less than 2 co-founders.

Y Combinator understands that having cofounders decreases the companies failure rates, allowing for a shared work load and forces complementary skills sets which gets more done faster.

Each of these 4 examples, either intentionally or unintentionally use the principles of co-creation to facilitate people working in collaboration to create a shared vision.

These stories show what can collectively been achieved when they couldn’t do it by themselves.

What I want you to get from these stories is that they all ultimately saw challenges and made a choice to empower people to work with them, not for them, which produced results far greater than what they could have done alone.

And they give us in this room hope that problems of similar magnitude, regardless of the commercial content can also be solved.

So, this is where I come to the story of “you.”

We all have things that we care about.

These problems create opportunities and a reason for you to take action.

Many of you are probably trying to solve problems alone or in small groups.

Yet, we have more information, more technology and we are far more connected than we ever have ever been before.

You are at a cross road.

In economics, over time compound interest can increase a small sum into a size many multiples larger.

If we apply the same principle of compound interest to what you are passionate about by multiplying creativity, imagine what you could do with a group who share a similar vision.

So how do you take action?

How do you turn your resources into what you want?

You need to co-create and use the principle of compound interest to add creativity beyond what you are capable of.

Here are the actions you need to do today to create the future you want to live into tomorrow.

  1. Commit, publicly about what you are passionate about;
  2. Work out what needs to be done AND by when; and
  3. Talk to everyone you come across about what you are trying to do and discover if they are up being part of your vision, then empower them to be involved in areas you lack and need help.

Just like Kraft, Mountain Dew, Nike and Y Combinator, if you do something together with others, you can have an impact far beyond anything you can achieve alone.

If you take action collectively on the things you are passionate about, the future will look a lot closer to what you want.

Will you stay on the sidelines or will your step in?

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