Land, Crash and Learn! - TINC Fall 2019
By Abhirohan Parashar, Intern at Innovation Norway San Francisco & Silicon Valley
The TINCers thinking hard during the Strategy Tools workshop. Photo by Abhirohan Parashar
Join us for TINC Pitch NIght at the Alley on Nov 6th
Third week of TINC Fall 2019 was more laid back than the previous ones, but still the TINCers had the opportunity to pitch their companies to Planet 9 Capital and family offices from Norway. This was a valuable experience and as one of our participants said: "I realized some really important things about my pitch in that room".
Later the same day the group heard from Victor Belfor, VP of Business Development at 8x8, on how to create a strategy to best leverage partnerships as a startup. This gave the TINCers a different perspective on the dynamics of partnerships and guidance on what pitfalls to avoid. To conclude, Elin Elkehag, CEO of Vinna Ventures and Founder of Stilla, shared her experiences as a Nordic entrepreneur in the US. In a refreshing change of pace, the participants had the opportunity to hear about her rollercoaster experiences, and not just the success stories.
The TINCers had the chance to attend mentor meetings and external meetings on Wednesday, but were gathered for a workshop with Julie Hanna, a core mentor at the TINC program and Partner at Obvious Ventures. She gave the group excellent insight into work-life balance, understanding the purpose of your company, thinking global whilst acting local, and many other relevant topics for our knowledge hungry group.
Thursday was an opportunity for the TINCers to continue their learning, but in a different manner to previous workshops. The group worked with Christian Rangen, CEO and Co-Founder of Strategy Tools, using a board game to give them a better understanding of relevant problems or scenarios they may encounter while scaling up, in addition to a much greater understanding of the ecosystem they operate in.
On Friday the group spent their day working on their companies, attending mentor meetings and travelling the Bay Area to meet externals. Additionally, the TINCers met with pitch coach Nathan Gold for feedback on their pitches in preparation for the pitch graduation the following week.
Overall the third week was a great opportunity for the TINCers to apply what they have learned so far, and to further develop multiple facets of their companies and selves.
Connectitude
Johan Nilsson, CEO and Co-Founder, and Richard Houltz, CXO and Co-Founder
Connectitude make it easy for industrial OEMs and machine owners to gain insights with historical and real-time data to optimize performance by monitoring them in-factory as well as remotely.
Describe the program so far in three words:
Inspiring. Eye-opening. Clarifying.
The most valuable input you have gotten so far in the program:
There are many ways to define the market segment you are operating in, the market is not just an industry but can be seen a persona or a size of companies, for example. You can combine different views of the market to make your Venn diagram, then find the overlaps and find your market to focus on. Additionally, you get so much conflicting input from talented people at such a high velocity, which is good because you're more likely to understand the different perspectives that way.
The highlights from the first two weeks:
Julie Hanna's way of adapting and answering, during her workshops, was pretty impressive, in addition to her having great arguments for her opinions. She was able to take any question, deconstruct it and reconstruct it so that it had an overall meaning to all the participants. Aside from that, the structure of the program and the orders of the workshop was excellent.
Advice to companies applying to TINC:
Come with an open mind. Don't be frustrated if you don't get clarity immediately, you will learn and grow. Expect to be frustrated but embrace it. Try to meet people outside of the program and take help from the people in the program to meet externals.
DynamicDocuments
Fredrik Wittboldt, Founder and CEO, and Nicklas Söderberg, Co-founder and VP of sales
DynamicDocuments is in the enterprise software market working on a new approach to sales-channel management. More specifically, giving soft- and hardware vendors full transparency of contract-renewals.
Describe the program so far in three words:
Tumultuous. Intense. Eureka!
The most valuable input you have gotten so far in the program:
Input on how the VC environment with startups is. It's like a factory almost! I had no clue 80% don't make the cut of getting investment at all, and I had no idea of the extent of the environment and its dynamics. We've also benefited from the presence and perspective of Chander Chawla, a friend of the Nordic Innovation House. His attitude and mindset is unique and something we really like.
The highlights from the first three weeks:
Julie Hanna's workshop. She was very different and had that sparkle to what she did and said. She looks from a much bigger perspective and she's a strong character as well.
Advice to companies applying to TINC:
Understand the TINC program and do your research. Try to think about how TINC fits into your plan of where you want to take your company. Understand what your company requires beforehand to benefit as much as possible from the program.
Pickr.AI
Hafrun Hauksdottir, CEO and Co-Founder, and Mikal Jansen Berge, COO and Co-Founder
Pickr.AI offers high efficiency automation system for warehouses and micro fulfillment centers. Pickr.AI looks at the larger picture by automating the process in a way that makes sense for fully automated order fulfillment, leveraging robotics and computer vision to handle the complexity of piece packing.
Describe the program so far in three words:
Inspiring. Eye-opening. Empowering.
The most valuable input you have gotten so far in the program:
The input Sean Percival has given us on approaching investors has been invaluable. We also had our eyes opened to a "Ready Shoot Aim" mentality, meaning go into the market even before you're ready. It has been great to learn about not just product-market fit, but also product-problem fit.The highlights from the first two weeks:
Eva Nahari and Sean Percival's mentor sessions gave us valuable feedback. All the workshops have been excellent, we thoroughly enjoyed Lasse Andresen's founder talk and Nick Norena workshop in particular. Prioritizing your focus visually was great, in order to see what you actually should work on. In fact, the combination of the workshops has been perfect! They have all been eye-opening in some way or another.
Advice to companies applying to TINC:
Use time on finding the relevant people to talk to, both in the industry and relevant investors. Read up on the mentors as well beforehand. Just remember to land, crash and learn!