Speaking at Wired Next Generation, founders Nick D'Alosio, Emily Brooke and Jamal Edwards urged the young business leaders of tomorrow to seek out gaps in the market, find out everything they can about that gap and own it. Young people, they said, are uniquely positioned to solve the problems of tomorrow, having grown up in the technological revolution.
Explaining that your age simply does not matter if you have a great idea, D'Alosio -- founder of Summly, the service acquired by Yahoo! -- described what it was like to get a phone call from one of the richest man in Asia, aged 15.
"After a few tech blogs wrote about my business idea, I got a call from his team. They reached out to me, thinking I was a proper CEO. They said they were interested in investing. The phone call was in the summer holidays and I tried to put on a deep voice and drop every bit of jargon I could, but then at the end I thought I may as well confess: 'I'm 15'. But they were so excited. We've grown up with internet. We're able to see things and gaps in markets that others may not be able to."
D'Alosio's summarisation app reached a million users last December, just one month after its official launch, and by March the company was purchases. It proves, said D'Alosio, that there is still work to be done in even the most seemingly traditional of sectors. "There's still room for innovation even in the most simple sectors, like text. There are so many gaps to disrupt, and those ideas will come from people who are young and use a company's products and engage with them."
'The key is to find your problem'
This point was reiterated by Brooke, whose company Blaze specialises in developing products for the urban cyclist. She had never planned or wanted to be an entrepreneur, but a love of cycling unexpecedlty led her down that path. "I got the cycling bug and in my final year when I had to design a product from start to finish, I decided to look at the challenges facing urban cyclists," she said.
"The key is to find your problem, understand your problem and only build something valuable if you're solving a problem you know better than anyone else." Brooke spent time speaking to bus drivers, the council and experts in road safety, before discovering the biggest threat to cyclists was vehicles not seeing them and crossing their path. "I knew exactly what problem I wanted to solve." "Find a problem that you really are obsessed with and understand it better than anyone else, that's the only way to find a valuable answer. And do what you love, you'll do it and you'll love doing it and you'll be happy."
Like Brooke, D'Alosio spent time getting to grips finding out everything he could about the technology that would support his idea. That began with Google, books and online tutorials. But by the time his beta version was out, he was speaking to MIT and the Stanford Research Institute. "I had the idea," he said, "but I would never be as good as someone who did it for 20 years."
'Look after your three Bs'
Trusting your idea with experts in the field is vital, agrees SBTV founder Edwards. Having just secured his first round of funding he has decided to hire a managing director and business development manager. "Then I can focus on the creative side," he said. "I'm really on the business side at the moment, but it's important to focus on the creative side and have people with ten to 15 years experience to back you up."
Edwards said some of the best advice he's received over the years, was from none other than rapper and producer Dr Dre. "He told me to look after the three Bs," said Edwards. "Your base, that's your friends and family; your business; and your body.
That moment inspired me to get to gym, because I realised I was so focussed on the business, I wasn't looking after myself and getting sleep."
Brooke pointed out that your relationships can suffer when you're a founder, so Dre's advice to Edwards seems very on point -- do what makes you happy, but we all need that support system around us to be able to continue. "I've potentially not been the best friend, because you have to be focused and completely obsessed night and day," said Brooke. "My family have been supportive, but I've not been the most present daughter or sister. On the other hand I get up everyday and I'm building my own project and future, I'm in control of that. It's scary to be responsible for a team, but you own it and I'm buzzing and feel really lucky everyday. I'm figuring it out as I go, and am lucky to get up each day and be able to learn so much."
One final key piece of advice divulged by the trio was to refine your design to the point you are ready to show it -- don't feel pressured by the competition. If you have a great idea, get it to the point where you're proud to show it to people and just concentrate on that. "Chase your dreams not the competition," said Edwards. "I used to look at MTV a lot, and think my videos are not as nice as theirs. But I had something good and unique, and you can always look at other people. There might be thousands of others, but how are you going to stand out from there?" "The app market is over saturated so you need a lot of focus on design," adds D'Alosio. "Big companies have huge technical resources, but as an individual if you have a good idea and marry that with interesting design it will stand out from the crowd. "Apple will feature a new take on something innovative -- and with great idea things will happen."
Read more from Wired 2013 and Wired Next Generation's incredible spread speakers, thinkers, innovators and thought-leaders in our Wired 2013 hub.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
