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"Seriously: McKinsey? WTF do they know about starting your own company?" Eh.. I don't know, maybe they've been consulting and guiding startups since before you

by tinco 13y ago

"Seriously: McKinsey? WTF do they know about starting your own company?" Eh.. I don't know, maybe they've been consulting and guiding startups since before you were born? They've even written an excellent book on starting a business called "Starting Up" (http://www.scribd.com/doc/4505824/Mckinsey-Starting-Up-Business-Planning-Manual http://www.scribd.com/doc/4505824/Mckinsey-Starting-Up-Busin...) Anyway, I don't think that the problem with Dutch startups is ambition. It is lack of action taking. If I look at people with awesome and ambitious ideas, they almost never go out and persue it full time. They also almost never try to find a cofounder. If they do, usually it's a group of friends that go at it part time. So perhaps what we need to convince people of is that it's not so risky to stop what you're doing for a year and pursue a startup idea full time. The Netherlands is actually a very startup friendly country, people just don't know it. They don't know about tax advantages and subsidies available to entrepreneurs. Banks make it seem like getting money is hard. BTW how did you manage to write a blog post about startup culture in Amsterdam without mentioning Bubbleconf? (http://www.bubbleconf.com http://www.bubbleconf.com)

nephronim 13y ago
So far there has been 1 bubbleconf.
- tinco 13y ago
  Yes, and in 2 weeks there will have been 2, what's your point? :)
  - vincentleeuwen 13y ago
    I think he means that looks like a quality event, but not very well-known (yet). We should definitely have more of these in the netherlands
    - nephronim 13y ago
      Its also not really that well known throughout the community. Who organises it?
      - Jaspermid 13y ago
        At first glance bubble conf looks pretty great, but 300 euro entry fee (one day), really?
        FooBarWidget 13y ago
        There are similar events that cost 700+ EUR for one day. With 300 EUR (and 60 EUR student ticket), BubbleConf is already taking a loss in order to make the event accessible to a large number of people.
        ninh 13y ago
        (Full disclaimer: BubbleConf co-organizer) And tickets have been available for roughly 3-4 months now ;-) If you were among the earliest, you could've gotten it at as low a price as EU 160 inc VAT. And even then this conf is run at a loss. (We're not in it for the money though, we want to grow and inspire the EU startup scene instead). Who knew conferences were expensive like that right? We certainly didn't when first working on this, so I can't blame you that you seem surprised. The best way to explain/understand is by trying to organise a conf first-hand, it's definitely been an enlightening experience for us. Just to give you an idea of what is involved: - Rent an awesome venue for your awesome attendees - Designing the entire conf - 300+ Badges/lanyards/programmes/posters/etc... - Website / Payment systems/checkin systems - On floor staff of about 12 people for the entire day - Hire camera folks for video registration - Hire photographers - Hire audio technicians and technicians to operate projectors etc... - Flying over international speakers (and amazing speakers they are indeed) - Provide lodging for those international speakers - Organizing a speaker dinner - Make nice food available for your 300+ attendees during the two lunch breaks. - Have a nice party at the end with drinks and laughter. This all culminates into hundreds upon hundreds of hours of work (if not thousands, I lost track somewhere along the line), and many tens of thousands of euro's. The only reason this doesn't reach the 6 figure mark is because of sponsors and the voluntary work we put in this. I hope that after hearing this, EU 300 doesn't sound that crazy anymore ;-)
vincentleeuwen 13y ago
""Seriously: McKinsey? WTF do they know about starting your own company?" Eh.. I don't know, maybe they've been consulting and guiding startups since before you were born?" Consulting and guiding from the sidelines indeed. Being a consultant is pretty much the furthest you can get from being an entrepreneur. They know next to nothing about risk taking, only about mitigating risk to others. I believe it's a true disgrace that new venture is the most well-known startup competition in the Netherlands, and I'm definitely not alone in this. Over the years it has become a bullshit bingo where some 50-year old Shell exec lectures young talent about why their startup should be a sustainability focused business. They just forget to mention how they have been ignoring any form of sustainable behaviour in their own business model for the past 5 decades. I'd rather take advice from someone who's done it himself instead of following up on some macro-level bullshit business plan book. I don't really believe in stories that promises me golden showers based on some assumption-overloaded excel model. Webvan anybody?
- wkneepkens 13y ago
  Hear, hear, couldn't agree more.
- tinco 13y ago
  Just to make sure you don't misunderstand me. I don't have any affiliation with McKinsey, I just think it's a bit odd to dismiss a firm with a pretty solid reputation out of hand without much evidence. I don't think anyone asks of McKinsey that they should be entrepreneurs, or even risk takers. I don't see how risk mitigation is irrelevant to startups. You'll find little about risk mitigation in 'Starting Up' though. It's more about how you can describe your business in a standard way so you and your investors can reason about it more easily. If that's something you want I'll leave up to you. I don't think you should follow the book to the letter, I just think it's a good little book. There's no stories in it that promise golden showers, none that stuck in my mind anyway. Isn't the whole idea of risk taking to promise yourself golden showers based on an assumptions based revenue model (or none at all), like webvan did? I agree with you that it's a good idea to take advice from entrepreneurs themselves though, that's also why Bubbleconf makes an effort to get founders to speak at the conference (and not consultants :P). (btw, I work for a company that coorganizes Bubbleconf, but I'm a part of the organisation of the conf this year, just a helping hand)
vincentleeuwen 13y ago
Also, could you name me one startup that became successful thanks to McKinsey?
- tinco 13y ago
  Well thanks to McKinsey is hard to say, since they're not very public about at which companies they consult. But for example Hireart is founded by an ex-McKinsey consultant and they're doing quite well it seems.

by tinco 13y ago

nephronim 13y ago

So far there has been 1 bubbleconf.

tinco 13y ago
Yes, and in 2 weeks there will have been 2, what's your point? :)
- vincentleeuwen 13y ago
  I think he means that looks like a quality event, but not very well-known (yet). We should definitely have more of these in the netherlands
  - nephronim 13y ago
    Its also not really that well known throughout the community. Who organises it?
    - Jaspermid 13y ago
      At first glance bubble conf looks pretty great, but 300 euro entry fee (one day), really?
      - FooBarWidget 13y ago
        There are similar events that cost 700+ EUR for one day. With 300 EUR (and 60 EUR student ticket), BubbleConf is already taking a loss in order to make the event accessible to a large number of people.
      - ninh 13y ago
        (Full disclaimer: BubbleConf co-organizer) And tickets have been available for roughly 3-4 months now ;-) If you were among the earliest, you could've gotten it at as low a price as EU 160 inc VAT. And even then this conf is run at a loss. (We're not in it for the money though, we want to grow and inspire the EU startup scene instead). Who knew conferences were expensive like that right? We certainly didn't when first working on this, so I can't blame you that you seem surprised. The best way to explain/understand is by trying to organise a conf first-hand, it's definitely been an enlightening experience for us. Just to give you an idea of what is involved: - Rent an awesome venue for your awesome attendees - Designing the entire conf - 300+ Badges/lanyards/programmes/posters/etc... - Website / Payment systems/checkin systems - On floor staff of about 12 people for the entire day - Hire camera folks for video registration - Hire photographers - Hire audio technicians and technicians to operate projectors etc... - Flying over international speakers (and amazing speakers they are indeed) - Provide lodging for those international speakers - Organizing a speaker dinner - Make nice food available for your 300+ attendees during the two lunch breaks. - Have a nice party at the end with drinks and laughter. This all culminates into hundreds upon hundreds of hours of work (if not thousands, I lost track somewhere along the line), and many tens of thousands of euro's. The only reason this doesn't reach the 6 figure mark is because of sponsors and the voluntary work we put in this. I hope that after hearing this, EU 300 doesn't sound that crazy anymore ;-)

vincentleeuwen 13y ago

""Seriously: McKinsey? WTF do they know about starting your own company?" Eh.. I don't know, maybe they've been consulting and guiding startups since before you were born?" Consulting and guiding from the sidelines indeed. Being a consultant is pretty much the furthest you can get from being an entrepreneur. They know next to nothing about risk taking, only about mitigating risk to others. I believe it's a true disgrace that new venture is the most well-known startup competition in the Netherlands, and I'm definitely not alone in this. Over the years it has become a bullshit bingo where some 50-year old Shell exec lectures young talent about why their startup should be a sustainability focused business. They just forget to mention how they have been ignoring any form of sustainable behaviour in their own business model for the past 5 decades. I'd rather take advice from someone who's done it himself instead of following up on some macro-level bullshit business plan book. I don't really believe in stories that promises me golden showers based on some assumption-overloaded excel model. Webvan anybody?

wkneepkens 13y ago
Hear, hear, couldn't agree more.
tinco 13y ago
Just to make sure you don't misunderstand me. I don't have any affiliation with McKinsey, I just think it's a bit odd to dismiss a firm with a pretty solid reputation out of hand without much evidence. I don't think anyone asks of McKinsey that they should be entrepreneurs, or even risk takers. I don't see how risk mitigation is irrelevant to startups. You'll find little about risk mitigation in 'Starting Up' though. It's more about how you can describe your business in a standard way so you and your investors can reason about it more easily. If that's something you want I'll leave up to you. I don't think you should follow the book to the letter, I just think it's a good little book. There's no stories in it that promise golden showers, none that stuck in my mind anyway. Isn't the whole idea of risk taking to promise yourself golden showers based on an assumptions based revenue model (or none at all), like webvan did? I agree with you that it's a good idea to take advice from entrepreneurs themselves though, that's also why Bubbleconf makes an effort to get founders to speak at the conference (and not consultants :P). (btw, I work for a company that coorganizes Bubbleconf, but I'm a part of the organisation of the conf this year, just a helping hand)

vincentleeuwen 13y ago

Also, could you name me one startup that became successful thanks to McKinsey?

tinco 13y ago
Well thanks to McKinsey is hard to say, since they're not very public about at which companies they consult. But for example Hireart is founded by an ex-McKinsey consultant and they're doing quite well it seems.