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Skrevet af Femi og Michael
I first came across the term Generation Y (people born between 1980 and 1990) the other day and it’s been lingering for a couple of days.
“As Generation Y or the Millennials leave their dorms behind and enter the real world, we are encountering a corporate world that is, for the most part, still stuck in its outdated ways.” -Guest Post: What Gen Y Wants from Work
In a way I’ve been thinking that Femi and I were kind of different in abandoning the corporate work, starting a company and moving to a different country. But when I think about it I meet and read about a lot of people from my generation that tries to do things differently. The quote above is from Ryan Healy of Employee Evolution who wrote a post at WWD about what Generation Y wants from a workplace and it struck me as something very much aligned with my thoughts of careers and job.
“I don’t need a business plan and I don’t need millions or even hundreds of thousands to ditch the boring paychecks. I can even continue collecting a paycheck and make some extra money on the side. My very unscientific estimate of young people I know who plan to start a business at some point is eight out of ten. It’s no longer a risky dream. Starting a business is a reasonably cheap and attainable reality. The days of keeping top employees around with a 5% raise or a promotion to the corner office are dead.” – Guest Post: What Gen Y Wants from Work
The emergence of websites like this (Børsen Mikro) is an attribution to a shift in the (Danish) society for more people establishing their own business. Especially in times like these were the Danish economy is doing good. It will be interesting to see how the bigger companies will act to embrace the future generations of employees.
There is more interesting reading material on Generation Y at Wikipedia and Gen-Y.org
Just discovered that Mads Kristensen also commented (in Danish) on the article.
[tags]GenY, Generation Y, entrepreneurship, working environment [/tags]
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24. juli 2007 kl. 11:12
Skrevet af Femi og Michael
- When we told people that we were moving to Prague for six month – everyone without exception asked “why?”. The “why?” was usually accompanied with a frowning face and a look that said “are you crazy?”. Let me try and see if I can explain it…
Our goal of starting our own company has been to enjoy life and gain experiences while making money building software that works. We started this company to let us try something we probably wouldn’t experience if we were working for an employer.
After setting up the company and working in Copenhagen for about 8 months we realized that it is not crucial for us to be stationed in Denmark to work for Danish clients. We had Danish clients but also clients we’d never met and who were sitting in US, UK and Germany. We were web workers and all we needed was (roughly) a chair and good Internet and we could do our work. When we truly realized this fact and our lease in Copenhagen was nearing an end, we started to look at a map – in the beginning just for fun – but quickly it became apparent that we had to try to move to a different country.
We settled on Prague for a number of reasons – cost of living is cheaper (since we are still paid by Danish rates), trains and flights are frequent and cheap to Denmark and the rest of Europe and finally Prague is a beautiful metropolis with a thriving night life.
Our plans for our Prague adventure is to stay here for six months as a “work holiday” where we can get more value for our buck while we focus on developing products for other companies and one of our own products. Arb Design the company is still based in Denmark in terms of tax, VAT – it’s just the two owners that are sitting in Prague for a while.
- After explaining this some people said “I guess it makes sense in a way” or “I wish it was me” – and a few continued to shake there head.
We have now been in Prague for nearly three weeks and moved into our new apartment Sunday and it already feels like home. At times we have asked ourselves whether or not it was a good idea to make this move – now I know it is.
[tags] microbusiness, company, prague, entrepreneur, moving, relocation [/tags]
20. juni 2007 kl. 15:47
Skrevet af Femi og Michael
The picture below is taken at Menlo Innovations – the place where Femi and I worked when we met.
The poster on the wall right above the clock, is one of the biggest posters in the office. The year I worked at Menlo taught me a lot but one of the key phrases I’ve taken with me. It’s based on that ideology of Make mistakes faster – so you can make it right quicker. When you are not afraid to make mistakes and owning up to them it’s a lot easier to spot them early on, deal with them, learn a lesson and then move on.
Alexander Kjerulf recently wrote about how forgiveness is good for business. And Seth Gordin also states that failing is a thing to embrace and not to fear:
“There’s never been an entrepreneur with a crystal ball. Thereʼs no way to know for sure
whether your business is going to work, whether your targeted customers will buy, whether
your choice of technology is a good one. Youʼre going to be wrong. Get used to it!
In the face of this uncertainty, it seems to me that the very worst thing you can do is fail to try.”
-The Bootstrapper’s Bible
This is our last week in Copenhagen and in three weeks we are flying to Prague. When we are in Prague we are going to allocate most our time to a promising project of our own. Will it sink or swim? We don’t know – but we have to try.
9. maj 2007 kl. 13:54
Skrevet af Femi og Michael
After recently speaking to another two man partnership company based in Copenhagen, I was (and still am) very intrigued by their business model, because unlike a micro company like us, they have solicited financial backing funding from Angels, Venture Capitalists and Sponsors. They pointed me to a video documentary they had used as a source of inspiration, which I finally acquired and settled down to watch in the early hours of last night.
Startup.com is an exciting and frank document about the “rise and fall of the American dream”. It chronicles the tribulations of an Internet startup company in era of the dot com bubble, when a lot of money was being shelved out by various source to companies, with the lure of making big money in return on the virtually untapped Internet market. Having writhed, winced and wriggled through the 1 hour 43 min documentary, I must say it confirmed my worst nightmares with regard business ventures of that scale and solidifies my belief in the benefits of the micro company model. However, I have the utmost respect for the entreupenuers that have the ability and desire to take on responsibilies and pressure of that magnitude.
I would encourage anyone who hasnt already seen this documentary to dig it out.
29. marts 2007 kl. 07:24
Skrevet af Femi og Michael
Den anden dag blev jeg spurgt, hvordan vi markedsførte vores firma og uden at tænke over det, sagde jeg, “det gør vi egentlig ikke”.
Det passer ikke helt, for vi har jo vores hjemmeside, og så bruger vi meget vores netværk til at skaffe jobs, men vi har indtil nu ikke lavet egentlig markedsføring eller opsøgende salg. Samtalen fik mig til at tænke på et interview med chefen for en af de største internetsider i USA, som sagde “We don’t have any sales people – at all.”
Jim Buckmaster CEO fra Craigslist lavede sidste forår et videointerview med Fortune’s tekniske redaktør. Videoklippet herunder viser dele af interviewet med spørgsmål fra salen. Jeg synes klippet er et meget godt billede på mødet mellem den traditionelle, salgsorienterede virksomhedsopfattelse og så til den hippieagtige, kundeorienterede programmør, som Buckmaster repræsenterer.
Det er sjovt at se og høre reaktionerne når Buckmaster fortæller, at de ikke tror på profitmaksimering, og det eneste tidspunkt folk havde forladt firmaet var for at tage ud og rejse.
Klik på billedet for at se interviewet
Historien er den at Craigslist.com startede i San Francisco tilbage i 1995 med at lave en website, hvor man gratis kunne indrykke rubrikannoncer. Siden blev meget populær i USA, og i ‘99 blev der etableret et firma omkring siden. De begyndte at tage penge for job- og boligannoncer, imens resten forblev gratis, og dermed var deres succes grundlagt.
I dag har de ifølge wikipedia 5 milliarder sidevisninger om måneden, en årlig omsætning i omegnen af $10 millioner, og det gør de med bare 24 ansatte (heraf ingen sælgere).
Mikrovirksomheder som vores har ikke alverdens ressourcer eller tid at smide efter markedsføring. I hvert fald ikke på den traditionelle måde med brochure, reklamer, sælgere og opsøgende telefonsalg. Og det er heller ikke noget vi har særligt meget lyst til. Derfor har vores udgangspunkt også været, at vi vil benytte vores produkter, resultater og glade kunder til at skaffe nye opgaver.
Et produkt vi har produceret i den ånd er Rotaboard, som er en gratis, online arbejdskalender. Vi vil måske på et tidspunkt tilbyde ekstra funktioner, som man skal betalte for, men i første omgang er det bare noget vi har lavet for at vise, hvad vi kan og gøre opmærksom på os selv. Der ligger en del arbejdstimer bag, men ellers har det ikke kostet os noget. Da vi lancerede Rotaboard i beta gik tingene af sig selv, og vi har nu efter 1½ måned haft 35.000 besøg. Jeg tror vi har fået denne eksponering, fordi vi har fokuseret på brugeren og ikke på profitten – og ligegyldig om der kan tjenes på det, har vi lært en masse og er nået ud til folk, vi aldrig ville have været i kontakt med ellers.
[tags] craigslist, Jim Buckmaster, markedsføring, sælger, mikrovirksomhed, microbusiness[/tags]
28. marts 2007 kl. 22:28
