2. Businesses
founded
Successfu
l 1
4
5
3
Non tech Tech
2
Sold or Closed
Ongoing Failure Pot l
entia
3. 1994 Esoterica
Internet Service Provider
• 1st to sell unlimited access for a flat fee in PT
• €4 million recurring revenues in 1999, EBITDA+
• Sold to an US-based ISP
• Still in operation as a managed service provider
4. 1994 Esoterica
Internet Service Provider
Opportunities
• Timing
… Internet adoption curve was at the start
5. 1994 Esoterica
Internet Service Provider
Challenges
• Financing
… or how to start a business with 10 000 €
• Management
… need marketing, finance, sales, not only engineering
• After sale: Entrepreneur ≠ manager
… Opportunities, Risk, Innovation, Speed, Growth
6. 2001 Internetworks
Server appliances distributor & integrator
2003 Kidesign
Design furniture for Kids
2006 MyMoment
Plastic Surgery
But
• Not tech
• No Scalability & Growth opportunities
… The ability to leverage the business
7. 2011 Lunacloud
Cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service provider
• Pure-play Cloud Server & Storage provider
• For Tech businesses, Start-ups, Developers,
SMEs
• Europe expansion in 2012/13 (UK, PT, FR, ES, DE,
NL, …)
• Outside Europe in 2014
• Local language, currency, support, …
8. 2011 Lunacloud
Cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service provider
Opportunities
• Timing
… Cloud adoption curve is at the start
• Uniqueness
… Hot resize
… Fast server deployment (10 seconds)
… Highly flexible = 307,200 server combinations
… Simplicity
… Price
9. 2011 Lunacloud
Cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service provider
Challenges
• Scale business
… be bigger or be more efficient
• Growth in value
… IaaS/PaaS focused
• Partners ecosystem
… SaaS
10. Cloud
We are at a starting point in
the Cloud adoption curve!
=
The same point of the
Internet access market 18
years ago!
13. European entrepreneurship
• Lack of maturity of the entrepreneurial
ecosystem (compared to the US)
• Ingrained culture of low risk
• But European countries boast some of the
most advanced broadband infrastructures
14. European entrepreneurship
• Need ambition outside local markets
boundaries, to scale and compete globally
• Legislators needs to facilitate, simplify, not
over-regulate
15. Cloud entrepreneurship
• New start-ups can use cloud services to
quickly test & scale-up (PaaS, SaaS)
without investing in building physical
infrastructure
• Cloud computing will be the new utility
• One of the industries with the most
opportunities for entrepreneurs
