This is the key note held on 31st May 2017 at the Conference of the EUniverCities Network in Lublin (Poland)

1. Myths About Start Up Hubs
What founders actually need
Jana Görs
Entrepreneur and Founder Consultant

2. Introduction
1939
Birth Place
of the
Silicon Valley
(538 US$)

3. Myth #1
It is all about having a good idea.

4. We only see the butterfly!

5. Yossi Vardi
After 85 investments, what is most important?
» After doing a lot of investments,
I came to the conclusion that
the most important thing is
the people. Not the idea –
ideas are overrated.

6. DRIVER
» Driven
» Resourceful
» Initiative
» Visionary
» Energetic
» Relentless

7. Be a magnet for great people

8. Fun fact about Silicon Valley
» The three universities Stanford, Berkeley and the UCSF alone
had 50 Nobel Prize winners in the world.
» That are more Nobel Prize winners than any other country in
the world received (except US itself).
» ... and this happened in a 19.000 sqm area.

9. Lessons
What founders actually need?
» Support people not ideas.
» Identify the DRIVER-types instead of focusing on ideas.
» Founders need other great people for doing great things.
» Universities should be an intellectual feeder for start ups.

10. Myth #2
We will need an education program
for all the formalities.

11. Seminars about taxes, legal forms, ...

12. Huge uncertainties regarding
the customer
their needs
their satisfaction

13. Create something people will love.

14. It takes many (e.g. 67)
iterations to find a real
customer problem.

15. Customer's Need Solution

16. Fall in love with the
customer's need,
not the solution.
Customer's Need

17. Modern Approach

18. Lessons
What founders actually need?
» Follow a lean approach instead of a waterfall approach.
» Help founders identify a customer's need worth solving.
» Encourage founders to reduce uncertainties fast.
» Support many founders.

19. Myth #3
You will need an MBA within a
founders team.

20. (Public) funding programs demand

21. Guy Kawasaki
Great companies start because
the founders want to change
the world ... not make a fast buck.

22. Steve Jobs
He did not sell
» hardware devices
» well-packed microchips
» mobile I/O devices
Instead he changed
» the way how people
interact with technology

23. Larry & Sergey
They did not sell
» ad-opportunities
» rank search results
» make faster database
requests
Instead they wanted
» to collect and organize all
the world's information so
it could easily be
searchable

24. Brian & Joe
They did not sell
» shop system for
apartment rentals
» additional income for
private home owners
They want to
» help create a world where
you can belong anywhere

25. The three roles for a founders' team
Hacker
Hustler
Hunter

26. A picture about
Europe:
» Successful employees
were a suit and a tie.
» Risk-averse mindset:
Has anybody else
done it already?

27. Lessons
What founders actually need?
» You do not need an MBA in early start up phases.
» Founders should be able to execute the first versions of the
idea on their own.
» Encourage founders' vision.

28. Overall conclusions
What should we learn from this?
» Universities are seeds and feeder for intellectual capital.
» Cities should invite to stay.
So UniverCities should
» focus on the people rather than ideas,
» support Founders' search for a problem worth solving,
» encourage founders to change the world.