To be honest, when I heard the word “conference” I thought it will be that kind of boring meeting where you listen to lots of unnecessary things. I’ve never attended a conference before, but some people’s thoughts about them were stuck in my head. Four hours straight of listening to people I’ve never seen before couldn’t make me excited about it. But they proved me wrong.
Fours hours felt like two because I was listening to many things I haven’t paid attention to until that day.
Until one year ago I was just thinking about getting a good job and never worry about anything else. Having my own business wasn’t even in my dreams. But last year I started reconsidering my future plans, even though I’m still going for the “safe” path because I still have a lot of fears.
The first to talk was Philippe Brodeur, CEO & Founder of Overcast HQ. His company helps people manage their video files better and in an easy way.
I liked his speech. He didn’t only talk about Overcast. He gave us advices on how to build our own business and explained why do we need to differentiate ourselves.
What really impressed me about his story was his starting point. Selling Christmas trees from door to door? This made me realize how I wasted so many years of my life without thinking about something productive. It’s truly amazing and impressive how he transformed something so simple (it just sounds simple though) into a “mini business”. I don’t know about the others, but that sounds amazing to me.
However, his company doesn’t have anything to do with Christmas trees, but developing your entrepreneurship skills when you’re young is important if you want to succeed later.
Overcast HQ sounds really useful and it’s pretty easy to understand. “Save time and money. Scale Efficiently. Collaborate Easily. Make Money” and “Let us take care of the tech – you work on growing your business.“. It kind of makes you want to make a video, doesn’t it?
Since we live in the century of technology, many marketers and publishers work with videos, so Overcast HQ can help you develop your business.
The next ones to speak were Brian O’Rourke and Alan Farrelly, CEO and COO of CitySwifter, respectively.
Brian is a DCU graduate! NICE!
The boys are customer focused, just like they have stated. Their advices were good. I was so glad and proud when I had to encourage my friend and one of their advices came into my mind. “You have to do it wrong to do it right after.” That’s really encouraging since people tend to have a lot of downs. I learned from it myself.
Talking about their business, there are actually three boys, the third one is Sean Byrne, the CTO.
“We’ve re-written the rulebook on Urban Transportation to give you a modern, sustainable shared transportation option“. Simple, but on point.
Another useful advice: “Be prepared to do what others won’t“. This is really important in business since it also has to do with creativity. To survive in the nowadays market is essential to come up with something new and unique.
They went from college graduates to entrepreneurs. Every path is difficult but I think the start-ups are more difficult because it is not easy to overcome the fear of failure and not panic when things don’t work in your favor. I appreciate them for their courage and congratulate them for where they are now.
GIRLCREW
Elva Carri‘s story has impressed me most. Could it be because I’m a girl? I don’t know. She’s the founder of GirlCrew and she built a tech business without being a techie.
I’m not a techie myself and I don’t know if I’ll ever be one, so I really liked her speech.
Nowadays a lot of people, including myself, prefer talking on social media rather than in real life, and this is really sad and wrong. I mean, I’d like to go out more, but it’s hard to give up on technology. I was really surprised how she ended up having her own business only by posting a message on a dating app just because she wanted to go dancing. The way she talked about it was enjoyable. This reminded me of Brian‘s and Alan‘s quote: “Be prepared to do what others won’t“. I think this is a true example.
–I had to put this here (:
iCabbi – World Leader in Dispatch Technology
Gavan Walsh is the CEO & founder of iCabbi.
The growth of his business is really impressive.
I have no interest in anything that has to do with cars, but his speech has caught my attention.
Many people are afraid of starting something new or turning their ideas into reality and that’s a pity, because many good ideas are wasted.
iCabbi is an innovative cloud-based taxi dispatch system. Gavan Walsh has stated:
“The idea came to me back in 2009, when I had nothing to do with the taxi industry. I was on holidays in Portugal with my pregnant wife and we got really lost whilst out walking one day. I had one of the new iPhones and I thought that if I could see live taxis on the map on my phone, and then order one with the push of a button, my issue would be solved. I found a very good partner with great technical ability. That is really important, finding the right partner you can battle the ups and downs with – and there are many downs! Next, we got a proof of concept out there and we took part in the NDRC’s launch-pad accelerator programme. This helped kick start us.”
They even won the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
I think good ideas come up in the most unexpected ways, like in his case. You just have to take advantage of it and find different ways to make it a success. But first you need some partners because working alone has more risks than working in a team. Of course, you’ll need a team for your company anyway, but having a good start-up is important.
Iseult Ward, the CEO & co-founder of FoodCloud held a nice and interesting speech.
I had no idea that so much food is wasted while there are so many homeless people who don’t have what to eat.
FoodCould is a social enterprise that connects people with too much food with those who have too little.
I also heard from some acquaintances who work with food how they are throwing away so much food, because that’s the law.
Having people like Iseult and her team is a bless to the world and many of us can learn something from their work.
Many companies could add charitable giving to their business and I’m sure that would make them even more successful.
And the last, but not the least: Adrian Mihai, CTO and Co-Founder of Opening.
He’s a huge fan of software and hardware architecture, as well as of South Park TV series (it’s on the website). Well, even successful people can have weird passions, I have many weird passions but that won’t stop me from my dreams regarding business.
He won the first place at the Romanian Programming Olympiad, which is amazing.
He talked about the fears of starting up something and why do we need to overcome those fears.
We have to find people who think like us and make the business plan possible.
Moreover, in his presentation there was something about the percentage of women working in technology.
– yes, it does hurt
All the speakers gave us many useful advices and tried to make us more confident in our abilities.
Since I’m studying Business, I think this conference helped me in some way. Being an entrepreneur sounds great, because you have full control over your workspace, you never feel undervalued, you can turn your passion and beliefs into a business, you can get competitive with yourself and many other perks.
However, it’s challenging because you can get discouraged at the first failure, since running your own business is more stressful than working for someone. You always feel the need to improve and grow.
What I found interesting is :”In developing countries, people tend to see more opportunities to start a venture than in developed countries.” And Japan, the 3rd economy in the world is ranked 4th least entrepreneurial country. (I really love Japan, so I found the occasion to say something about it yuppie)
Even so, 2 of 3 people worldwide think entrepreneurship is a good career choice. And I’m amongst them, but I need to overcome my fears.
Well, as a start-up you have to be creative, I guess.
References
Leadem, R. (2016). 46 Facts You Should Know About Entrepreneurship (Infographic). [online] Entrepreneur. Available at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/285079 [Accessed 18 Nov. 2016]
Long, J. (2016). 60 Reasons Why Entrepreneurship Is Amazing. [online] Entrepreneur. Available at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/243389 [Accessed 18 Nov. 2016]
Marc (2016). 6 Reasons To Be A Charitable Business. [online] Business Coaching. Available at: http://www.businesscoaching.coach/6-reasons-to-be-charitable-business [Accessed 18 Nov. 2016]
Kelly, J. (2016). iCabbi: The Irish software firm helping traditional taxi companies take on Uber and Hailo. [online] NewsTalk. Available at: http://www.newstalk.com/iCabbi-The-Irish-software-firm-helping-traditional-taxi-companies-take-on-Uber-and-Hailo [Accessed 15 Nov. 2016]
Little Big Thoughts 