Picture cred to Julika Lamberth who took a selfie during #SUD14
Stockholm is really boiling of entrepreneurship and the startup scene is growing as we speak. This beautiful saturday morning 1000 participants met under the roof of Münchenbryggeriet.
I got there early invited to a VIP breakfast. All people I met greeted me with a friendly hello creating a friendly atmosphere. Startup Day is probably the only event where everyone comes to mingle which I love.
A realm was resting over the entire venue as I sipped my first coffee to get in to the mode. Since last year Startup Day have grown with one third since last year to 1000 startup founders, student entrepreneurs and investors all mingling around to connect.
The event is organized by Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship (SSES) and has established itself as a corner stone in the swedish startup scene. Even though its been running since 2005 this became my third. Start-up Day is a non-profit event and are listed since two years back by TechCrunch as one of Europe’s best events for startups.
And so the #SUD14 started
Thanks to Marta Sjögren for letting me use your picture of Joy Marcus in action
Joy Marcus, CEO of Bloglovin and venture capitalist opened the event and shared her top tips for managing a company that is going from ”0-60”. That was among the only talks I saw since I couldn’t help myself from talking to interesting people instead of sitting down quite on a chair listening. Joy gave 6 tips to the crowd.
- Set strategic goals – vision with numbers. You can’t have abstract goals.
- Do a few things well – choose carefully and keep your focus on whats working and do it better.
- Learn how to hire – it’s the heart and soul of the company and hire smarter and different.
- Communicate – share everything, hide nothing. It’s impossible but strive for it.
- Measure – data is not political. Measure everything.
- Work hard – there are no shortcuts. Only 10% is inspiration the rest is hard work.
David Rowan from WIRED
David Rowan, Editor of WIRED UK, talked about the importance of constructing a compelling narrative around your product. He opened his keynote with reading the out loud from his mailbox all the bad approaches made by PR agencies trying to get published by mailing him. Find your story and think about the customers, not what excites you was Davids message to us all.
Books tip for storytelling:
- 7 basic plots by Christopher Books
- Monomyth by Joseph Cambell
Mingle, mingle and more mingle
Except the two above talks I saw the last one by Louise Eriksson CEO of the new app Vint that connects people who loves exercise with professionals to boost their training. Otherwise I walked around mingling all of the time meeting both known and new faces. The participants of Startup Day has the perfect mindset to mingle with. They are all open, joyful and have a unique spark of ambition and they all want to talk about it. If you haven’t attended #SUD14 yet I strongly advise you to try it next year!
Thanks SSES, everyone there and especially Anna Jakus!
