Rational Idealist

Pred počitnicami sem imel spet čast sodelovati v komisiji na zaključni konferenci ustvarjalnika. Predstavilo se je devet ekip srednješolcev iz slovenije, madžarske in zda, ki so letos obiskovali ustvarjalnikove krožke in se spoznali s podjetništvom.

To so bili najbolj zanimivi startup projekti ki sem jih videl letos. 
Srednješolci imajo res prednost na trgu zaradi svoje neobremenjenosti z avtoritetami in filtri. Lucidno znajo prepoznati resnične probleme v resničnem svetu, ustvarjalnikov program jim pa da jezik in metodologijo za prevod teh idej v poslovni načrt. Nekaj genijalnih primerov:

• četrtina operacij za srčne spodbujevalnike se opravi zaradi menjave baterij. Kaj pa če naredimo in patentiramo vzpodbujevalnik z brezžičnim polnjenjem?
• V združenih arabskih emiratih je popularen šport dirke kamel. Kamele ti dni pred dirko hranijo samo še s sladkorjem, v upanju da jim bo to pomagalo zmagat. Kaj pa ce namešamo hrano z alpskimi zelišči in jo izvozimo v arabijo?
• Ljudje ki so priklenjeni na voziček grejo tezko iz hiše ko dežuje ker imajo potem umazano celo stanovanje. Kaj pa če jim naredimo copate za kolesa vozička?
• Vsake tri minute je na urgenci sprejet nekdo zaradi alergije na hrano ker je v trgovini kupil nekaj z napačno sestavino. Kaj pa če naredimo app ki bo neberljivi drobni tisk prevedel v rdeče-zelen kazalnik?

To je samo nekaj primerov podjetniških zamisli šestnajstletnikov, ki so povsem izvedljive, premišljene, in rešijo resnične probleme.
Najljubša letos mi je bila sicer ena se bolj skrajna – tretjina odraslih se “ne počuti cisto po uporabi navadnega toaletnega papirja po veliki potrebi”. Vlažen papir ima nekaj slabosti, ampak kaj pa če naredimo vlažilnik za toaletni papir? Ideja ki je nora samo zato ker smo v kulturi, v kateri je to tabu tema. Taki biznisi so vcasih zelo uspešni pa se družbeno koristni.
Seveda bojo vse te ekipe v kratkem šle na univerze in bojo zelo težko nadaljevale te projekte, a izkušnja ki so jo imeli, iz učilnice do problema do ideje do načrta jim bo ostala za vedno.

Kar nas pripelje do drugega dela tega članka. Ustvarjalnik je letos objavil tudi da po petih letih bistveno zmanjšuje število krožkov. Enostavno pretežko je v Sloveniji vzdrževati operacijo ducatov šol, mentorjev, lokalnih sponzorjev. Spremljal sem jih od začetka, videl kar nekaj ekip ki so izgorele ko so poskušale drzati zadeve skupaj brez spodobnega plačila, videl sem kako ministrstvo naroči izvedbo enakega programa drugi organizaciji brez izkusenj, in kako Matija začenja razumeti razsežnosti slovenskega steklenega stropa

Tretje dejanje tega članka je enako pomembno. Ekipa ustvarjalnika bo pretvorila svoje izkušnje v spletno platformo za poučevanje. Sprva podjetništva, kasneje upamo da tudi še drugih sodobnih predmetov. Platforma bo omogočala ambicioznim šolam in učiteljem, ki jim je mar za prihodnost svojih varovancev, da na enem mestu dobijo vrhunski program in gradiva potrebna za izpeljavo podobnega predmeta, skupaj z vajami za razvoj podjeniške miselnosti in prakse.

Slovenija po mojem mnenju s tem izgublja izjemno pomembno gonilo prihodnosti družbe, a najbolj žalostno je da najverjetneje čez pet let noben ne bo več vedel, le jamrali bomo spet da Slovenci nismo dovolj podjetni. 

Hvala vsem ki so Ustvarjalnik poganjali doslej in veliko sreče pri novem projektu.

It seems that Slovenian society doesn’t have an agreement as to what projects should be publicly funded, so there is always pressure for more and more public financing of ‘useful’ projects, while the deficit is growing.

let’s look at the utopian approach first, let’s count how much money should the government disseminate to satisfy everything that the society produces. let’s break it down:

• we have 2M population.
• let’s assume that even retired and some underaged people can still participate in projects,
• let’s assume that importing foreigners is also an option which will compensate for the ones that couldnt participate.
• let’s also assume, that 10% of the population is capable of coming up with ideas and leading them, and that
• average size of an ideal project is 10 members.

This means that we will have 200k active projects, which will need capital to pay for 10 member’s living expenses, and the projects’ material and program expenses. let’s say this cost structure is something like:

• decent salary – $50k per person annually (average across the population)
• decent baseline annual project budget is $1M (keep in mind, that this now has to include everything that public sector is already covering – from schools and hospitals to EU projects contributions and everything in between)

this means, that if the country wanted to pay for everything, the budget would have to be:

• 2M people * $50k = $100 billion
• 200k projects * $1M = $200 billion
• so total budget would be $300 billion, and average project’s budget would be $1.5M

Slovenian budget is $10 billion, and the total GDP of the country is $50 billion. So this obviously won’t work.

Every time some new project expects public funding, it implicitly expects that if everyone did the same, the society would require $300 billion to function. Every time a new project is publicly demanding public funding, they are broadcasting this expectation into the general public. Every time a new project succeeds with this pressure, it sends the message that the society can afford $300 billion worth of public funding.

I believe it is crucial we form a broad agreement about what to do with this gap between ‘implied expectations’ and reality. We’ll look into that next time.

standard answer is ‘do it yourself’ of course, but that’s actually not correct or efficient.

as entrepreneur, you have to find ways to scale yourself / delegate. if you want to still believe tasks will be done well, you have several choices:

• find someone who has done it before. a professional, who will not waste anyones time. usually expensive but predictable.
• find someone between 15-25 years old, who is immortal and will move mountains. only works if you are able and willing to coach and mentor them, and have patience for occasional mistakes. 
• find a professional in adjacent field, who is eager to prove herself in new space. this is hard to find, but usually decent alternative to the first one.

btw, all of these apply to yourself as well as a 3rd person – you will only be successful if your background can be explained in one of these three narrative styles.

wednesday was a particularly heart-warming day for me – healthday.si happened, an event in ljubljana that got 180 local participants together to talk about what they are doing to change health industry for the better. startups, enterprises, doctors, beaurocrats. the organizers even published a ‘health book’ – showcase of the the community that was officially born there.

but really it all started in july already. gaja and I had some friends from NY visiting ljubljana. by coincidence two of the four worked in health-tech in the big apple, and we decided to drum up a themed tech meet up.

the email blast went out in the morning, 40 people and 12 startups showed up in the evening. after few hours everyone was excited to have met a number of likeminds they didn’t know existed in our town.

this turn up was an indicator that there is a community waiting to happen, all it needed was a catalyst. the organizers and key sponsor of the later healthday.si were there as well, saw it and started planning next steps.

i hope the community will continue, through such events, meetups, or simply direct contacts, but most importantly, by helping eachother at marketing the next revolution.

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