A Perspective on Entrepreneurship, Technology & Locative Dynamics

Last Wednesday the Swedish founder of dotCom startup letsbuyit.com, Johan Stael von Holstein, held an exciting and inspiring presentation about his life and his experiences at the University of Mannheim. This great event was organized by the entrepreneurial student initiative, Thinc!.

Many of you will still remember the many advertising spots on TV with the red ants convincing you to buy in groups with LetsBuyIt.com. The European company headquartered in London, registered in Amsterdam, failed as many others after the dotCom bubble burst, after receiving dozens of millions of venture capital and not making any profits or reaching break-even. Despite that, with the co-buying revenue model, the company was one of the more innovative ones during the New Economy times.

“We all get things cheaper when we buy in a group.”

“All together better value.”

“Together means more.”

Mr. von Holstein is still a believer in this model that buying in groups to get a better price is a valuable approach and he wondered why not more companies picked up this idea.

He is a great speaker and likes to share his knowledge to support entrepreneurship and aspiring entrepreneurs. This is also highlighted through his various investments in early stage companies and his work in the IQube incubator in Sweden. Let’s take a look at the many points he talked about:

Money is not all. He is a strong believer in entrepreneurship with all its freedom and responsibilities. Just focusing on making money makes you fail. Having owned multiple millions in stock options which have been priced by the short term thinking of stock markets and the New Economy bubble, he went through all ups and downs from a financial perspective.

Successful entrepreneurship is the 2nd best feeling in life. Love is number one. Mr. von Holstein was born in a small village and many were struggling around him and had no perspectives for their future. He was lousy in school but found his passion in skiing, what he followed professionally for 4 happy years until an accident destroyed his career. He did not know about entrepreneurship until age 26 when he went to university to study business. During this time he recognized his desire for achievement and the desire to win and to become an entrepreneur.

Work hard! Working always two hours more than everyone else makes you succeed, you don’t have to be too smart. He pointed out that the smartest will never win, but they can work for him, one of the many polarizing comments which made the presentation worth attending.

Everything works. You don’t need to have the best idea but you need the courage, the willingness and the passion to execute it.

Diversity is important. Mr. von Holstein lived in several countries for many years and always was surrounded by diversity, creativity and a multi-cultural environment. You have to be open-minded as an entrepreneur to succeed. The more diverse the team, the better.

Entrepreneurs make irrational decisions. These decisions drive innovation but also lead to many situations you are not expecting beforehand and are difficult to solve afterwards.

Nothing sells itself, ever! Thinking about the sales process, the distribution and the marketing in an early stage with a high priority is very important to create revenue. No one should ignore this fundamental business aspect.

Quality is a matter of recognition and thus over-engineering is more a burden than a success factor.

Avoid the help of VCs. They add overhead on top of the 100% work you already put into the product. Just the financial investment is highly appreciated. If you need an investment you have to reduce the risk levels.

A company needs time to grow. To be sustainable a company needs more than a couple of years to establish efficient structures and to expand. Ikea needed 40 years for its second shop, for example. The growth of letsbuyit.com was incredibly fast and led to the collapse.

Mr. von Holstein concluded with pointing out that the entrepreneur is the biggest hero in society because he or she creates jobs and supports the growth of the whole economy. A country that wants a long-term growth and a sustainable wealth has to support entrepreneurship in all areas of society.