Yearly Archives: 2014

Business Ideas, entrepreneurship, startup

Introducing +A RECRUITMENT

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I’m currently at the arrrrrsome 4th European Pirate Summit in Cologne, and upon arriving there yesterday and within three hours, I had received three job requests from devs and entrepreneurs and one company told me they were searching for a talent to fill a new developer outreach position.

I keep getting these kinds of requests all the time. Not a week goes by where I don’t get at least three or four asks from either people or companies. Some of them require the likes of a background check for Ohio. It really makes you think about what kind of work you could be doing to warrant such a check. Then again it may simply be a matter of a no drugs policy. Overall I’ve gotten so many requests that it got me thinking.

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entrepreneurship, Failure, Lessons Learned

Where are we now? A message from the present.

This post is from the present me in response to the recent automated message in a bottle from last year. Thank you for the heartwarming responses, and remember – that message was FROM LAST YEAR. This one is from the present.

Hello world,

I’m doing surprisingly well.

Today is July 2014, and I find myself at the end of my regular free open office hours at Startplatz in Cologne, reflecting on what happened in the year since I wrote a message to my future self from Silicon Valley.

Today, I should be happy. And grateful.

Yes. One year later and still here.

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entrepreneurship, Failure, Lessons Learned, Little Known Fact

Where do we go from here? A message in a bottle.

This is a message to my future self. I’ve set this post to automatically publish one year from now in the hope it will find us both in better times.

Hello world,

I’m not doing so well.

Today is June 19th 2013 and I’m sitting poolside in a fancy neighborhood in Atherton, Silicon Valley. It’s 7am and I’m about to pedal down to Stanford University for another day of lectures with Steve Blank and Jerry Engel.

I should be happy. And in some ways I am.

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This is where I’m staying: The Blackbox Mansion in Atherton, Silicon Valley. I’m writing this from the table center left.

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Business Ideas, entrepreneurship, Events, Lean Startup, Lessons Learned, startup

I am Making my Open Office Hours More Accessible

UPDATE: You can now book your free in-person office hours with me here: ohours.youcanbook.me.

This article was originally posted at STARTPLATZ by Inga Höglund in German. Reposted here for my English speaking friends. TL;DR – I’m now available for free advice every Wednesday 10am – 1pm 1100 hrs – 1400 hrs (BER time) at STARTPLATZ in Cologne Dusseldorf (check availability and book up front).

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The Norwegian entrepreneur and startup founder Vidar Andersen has since over a year become one of the important members of the STARTPLATZ family.

Vidar supports the regional startup scene coaching applicants to the monthly Rheinland-Pitch event how to pitch their startup and moderating also the event itself. He organizes the Startup Weekend Cologne, Startup Next Cologne and he also lectures and holds seminars around the topics lean startup and corporate innovation here, and now every week he’ll be here for his open office hours.

Whatever startups need help with, he is able to advise and assist. Sometimes, they need help securing more funding to set up their operations and he is able to show them different ways to secure the money they need. Other times, a startup might need simple advice on where they can find the right office space and furniture. He will be able to suggest local commercial property and furniture companies like Office Monster (https://www.officemonster.co.uk/). No matter how big or small the issue is, he is willing to help them out.

This is an interview with Vidar about his open office hours and why he’s so actively supporting the Cologne startup scene. Many thanks to Vidar for taking the time to speak with us. We hope you enjoy the interview.

Q: How did you get the idea to offer free open office hours?

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Education, Lean Startup, Usability

Speaking at #UXCGN

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I was recently honored and delighted to be invited as a speaker at #UXCGN, the regular UX meetup in Cologne. It’s a little know fact that I started out in this tech business doing UX before it was even called UX, but HCI (also known under the more derogatory term, Web Designer in the 90s) and I’m still a product guy at heart.

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I thought the brilliant Cindy Alvarez‘ presentation about how to do UX the lean way could use some more love in the German speaking world, so I decided to just blatantly steal and recycle it. I know I learned so many actionable things from it that helped me when I was building my last startup.

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