Aaltoes 2009-2010 Team handbook
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This 3 sentence summary provides an overview of the Aaltoes Team Handbook document: The Aaltoes Team Handbook from 2010 introduces Aaltoes as a student-run group at Aalto University that aims to promote entrepreneurship and bring together students, ideas, resources, mentors, alumni and startups. The handbook provides information for new members on getting involved with Aaltoes, team culture and values, recommended projects for 2010, resources and tools available to members, a glossary of startup terms, and a recap of events from 2009. The document states that Aaltoes is a work in progress and the handbook will be regularly updated.
Aaltoes 2009-2010 Team handbook
- 1. AALTOES TEAM HANDBOOK 2010 Just what is Aaltoes and how do I get involved? In this handbook weve compiled a few simple things you need to know. Aaltoes is a work in progress, so well be updating this document regularly. v.1.0 12/2010
- 2. Go-getters and self-starters. Dont lose perspective. The Aaltoes team makes the magic happen: we have a No matter what, we are all about generating new compa- very strong culture of doing things, of which we all are nies. This should be the focus of all our activities. The other very proud and protective of. Its up to you to make the guiding principle: we do things. Dont spend too much year work for you. time speaking, meeting and e-mailing. A brilliant idea not executed is literally worthless. The easiest way to participate is to come to an event half- an-hour early and just start helping out. Later, find your And most importantly. We do things together. place in the spectrum of skills. Event-organising, training, blogging - theres always something to be done. Check out the rest of the handbook and see what resonates best with you. What they say about us? A selection of kudos from the community Aaltoes has provided a platform for discussion, ideas Aaltoes has been very successful in encouraging people to become Aaltoes is the only student organization that is serious to be shared and teams to be formed. I have used this entrepreneurs and in raising interest towards entrepreneurship in about growth entrepreneurship in the country. I say this platform twice to pitch my ideas, and it has helped general. As for myself, Aaltoess Startup Talkoot was the best thing to having worked with most of the student unions here me to connect to some really good people. I think this happen to me. It enabled me to find and join a startup team. Moreover, (for our student promo). Aaltoes has managed to bring is just the beginning and we expect more exemplary all the numerous people that I have met in the Aaltoes events have known international speakers to teach students about moves from Aaltoes. I could very well use the phrase given me and my team some very valuable advice. I especially value the growth entrepreneurship, organizing pitching competi- You aint seen nothing yet . talkoot spirit in which people genuinely help and give feedback to tions with experienced entrepreneurs, and gather 40+ - Sachin Gaur each others. new ideas / projects together in less than a year.I would say their track record is vastly superior to any compa- At Aaltoes Talkoot, we recruited one of our early In essence, Aaltoes doesnt just bring you new contacts, it brings you rable endeavor from student organizations (or most employees, got a lot of invaluable contacts and had friends. incubators for that matter). a chance to pitch and develop our business idea in a - Nico Hiort Af rn辰s relaxed yet professional atmosphere. - Ramine Darabiha - Markus Bergman
- 3. Pitching Aaltoes Always be prepared to present Aaltoes in 15 seconds. No kidding. Practice. Heres a small cheatlist of what you might want to say: Aalto Entrepreneurship Society is a student-run group started in Janu- ary 2009. Our goal is to create a cultural change at Aalto University: bring resources together and gro entrepreneurial leaders. We currently have over 5000 members. Aaltoes works as a catalyst bringing together students, ideas, resources, mentors, alumni and startups. We organize different types of networking, training and social events, as well as trips abroad, start-up visits and pitching events. Recommended reading Arctic Startup STVP Ecorner Reporting the Baltic Start-up Scene Stanford Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders series, great podcasts from sea- http://www.arcticstartup.com/ soned entrepreneurs. See for instance Venture Capital Teaching Guide. http://ecorner.stanford.edu/ Y-Combinator Anything by Paul Graham, start with A Students Guide to For other sources of information google: TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Startup Entrepreneurship or the Y-Combinator Recom- HackerNews, MIT 100K, Guy Kawasaki, Taneli Tikka mended reading list http://ycombinator.com/lib.html
- 4. Hello Policy! The board meets every Tuesday at 17.00 in Aaltoes Office, but also in TaiK and HSE. The board meetings are open to everyone. There is always a secretary for every meeting and the meeting minutes are sent by mail. If you dont come to the weekly meetings, send an update to the team. Thursdays are more relaxed evenings in Nolla. This is were you should ask interested people, whether students or entrepre- neurs, to come and meet the team. If you buy something, you should first declare it with someone from the board. Prescheduled events have preliminary budgets. Dont go buying stuff on your own, but on the other hand be self-driven in your decisions. Some basic principles: Aaltoes spends money on net- working activities, conferences and books. What to do in 2010? The new board decides the strategy for 2010. But neurs to share their vision. there is always plenty of stuff to do for the team. 損 Pitch Events. Discover the new Skype and help out in forming new Aaltoes is organised so, that there is always a teams. named responsible person for projects from within 損 Something totally new. Pitch your idea to a board member and go make the board. However, this does not mean this person it happen. personally organises everything or even necessarily 損 Funding. An ongoing project. heads the organising team. They act as a contact people and make sure that the organising team 損 Communications inside Aalto University. Guilds, clubs, researchers need to be evangelised. knows their goals, resources available and what needs to be taken care of for the project to suc- 損 Website. Guide for entrepreneurs, feature stories on Aalto Startups, shar- ing industry knowledge. Blog posts or totally new sections- its up to you. ceed. Some suggestions on projects that weve started in 2009: 損 Visual Identity and communications. Help make our mantra more memorable. Both inside and out. 損 Aalto Ventures Park. Hands-on work as well as planning. 損 Keeping in touch with the Aaltoes startups. How can we help you today? 損 International Trips: Moscow, India, China - where next? 損 Attending external events and writing about them. 損 Talk Events. Invite the rockstar entrepre- 損 Communications with the sister organizations in Finland and abroad.
- 5. Small list of resources available. There are several handy things that you should know in order to work efficiently on the Aaltoes team. All the information cant be crammed here, so remember to check out Sites and Groups as well. Also, when hosting for instance a meeting or an event, remember to document the things you do in order to make life easier for the next years team members. Checklist for Web apps Personal channels you can and should use to Tips and Tricks for a team member An @aaltoes.com e-mail address. Use the tagline, promote Aaltoes: 1) Watch the Aaltoes presentation at web-address and twitter feed at the end of every e- Twitter personal user id, use #aaltoes. http://aaltoes.com/aes/about/ mail. Copy here: Flickr personal user id, use #aaltoes. Google Groups for e-mail communications. You can Facebook personal user id, use to share content from 2) See the Press section for some coverage on Aaltoes. order a daily wrap-up of the discussions. the blog. http://aaltoes.com/aes/press/ Google Sites for storing information. Remember to Linkedin, join the community and start topics. 3) Read about our Aalto Startups, learn what they do. add your meeting minutes, contacts etc. Also ideas http://aaltoes.com/aalto-startups/ youre working on etc. Google Docs shared Aaltoes folder for sharing docu- 4) Read some recaps from the previous events. Videos ments. These should be transfered/embedded to GSites are also available. after initial editing. 5) Browse through the Google Sites and Groups. Theres Google Calender for coordinating dates and planned Aalto Ventures Park / Aalto Design Factory a lot of info - looking through the old board meet- events. Two premises that are the current home of Aalto Entre- ing minutes might give you some ideas of the things Dropbox for storing documents, big files etc. preneurship Society. Keycards can be requested from discussed. Wordpress id for posting stories on the blog Jussi Hannula (@tkk.fi). Betonimiehenkuja 5 6) Feedback forms in docs. What works and what Other passwords (like Vimeo and Twitter) can be re- http://aaltodesignfactory.fi doesnt according to our community. quested from the IT resposinble. Other places we like: Nolla, Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu 21 7) Get creative. We have videorecorders, speakers, even tents and grilling equipment. Almost anything is ar- rangable, whether its Redbull or Nokia phones.
- 6. Small glossary to the world of startups Angel. An angel investor is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. A-round. A Series A round is the name typically given to a companys first significant round of venture funding in the Silicon Valley model. BASES. Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students. Burn rate. Negative cash flow. It is a measure for how fast a company will use up its share- holder capital. Business Incubator. Provides workspace, coaching, and support services to entrepreneurs and early-stage businesses. Bootstrapping. Bootstrapping in business is to start a business without external help/capital. Startups that bootstrap their business fund development of their company through internal cash flow and are cautious with their expenses. Elevator Pitch. A brief overview of an idea for a product, service, or project. The pitch is so called because it can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (say, thirty seconds or 100-150 words). What happened in 2009? May 19th TechStart. Speakers included Teemu March 13th Startup Evening How to get Kurppa, Tuomas Syrj辰nen, started? Osma Ahvenlampi Speakers included Moaffak Ahmed and Jussi Harvela as well as Joonas Hjelt, Hannu May 25th Visit to Uotila, Mika Vatanen, Mikko K辰rkk辰inen, Hoitonetti Joonas Pekkanen, Michael Falck and Tuomas May 28th visit to Sininen Syrj辰nen Meteoriitti March March 31st Aaltoes Idea Pitch Evening. Winner: May CityYard. January February April Jan. 30th. The first Startup Feb 18th Startup Beer at April 14th Power April 27th. Startup Center Day Evening Kipsari Networking with Sue Some 170 attendees. Tonks Start-up Center is a joint incuba- Speakers included Ville tor of Arabus (Taik) Technopolis Vesterinen, Petri Vilen, April 25th Startup Ventures and HSE Small business Helene Auramo, Christof- Talkoot. Working on center. fer Landtman and Maija business ideas. Itkonen. Arctic Alarms. Widsen. CityYard. Illtags. Social Mobile Gaming
- 7. Exit. Ways of recouping the capital the entrepreneur has invested in a company. The most common strategy is VC. Venture Capital/ist. A type of private equity capital typically provided for early-stage, high-potential, growth simply to sell their equity position to someone else. companies in the interest of generating a return through an eventual realization event such as an IPO or trade sale Freemium. A business model that works by offering basic services for free, while charging a premium for ad- of the company. Venture capital typically comes from institutional investors and high net worth individuals and is vanced or special features. pooled together by dedicated investment firms. Keksint旦s辰辰ti旦. The Foundation for Finnish Inventions supports and promotes the development and exploita- Vigo. Vigo Programmes aim is to use public sector incentives to achieve the involvement of the best, internationally tion of Finnish inventions. experienced top experts in enterprise development to transform startups into new growth enterprises. Currently NDA. A non-disclosure agreement is an agreement where a third-party agrees to protect your startups confiden- includes Veturi Venture Accelerator, Cleantech Invest, Food Process Innovations, KoppiCatch, Lifeline Ventures and tial information idea from disclosure to other parties. An NDA can be one-way (only one party has a confidential- Lots. ity obligation) or two-way (both parties have confidentiality obligations). Y-Combinator. Combinator is an American seed-stage startup funding firm, started in 2005 by Paul Graham. Sister organizations of Aaltoes. Boost Turku and Stream Tampere in 2009, more to come. Seed funding. A seed round is a securities offering whereby one or more parties that have some connection to a new enterprise invest the funds necessary to start the business. Seed money is typically used to pay for such preliminary operations as market research and product development. Stealth. Stealth mode is a companys temporary state of secretiveness, usually undertaken in order to avoid alerting competitors to a pending product launch or other business initiative. Tekes. The Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation. Tekes is the main public funding organisation for research, development and innovation in Finland. June Tuli funding. Tuli is a program funded by Tekes that helps researchers and research communities to evaluate the commercial potential of a research-based inventions. September 30th Aaltoes Talk with Jari Sarasvuo and Risto Siilasmaa. MIR-day. September 4th Aaltoes Startup Beer in Nolla December 15th M奪rten Mickos. Opening of the pho- September 24th Freshman tography exhibition. July 15th Aaltoes Startup Event. Beer in Fanny Otasuunnistus December 5th. Aaltoes Talk- July 28th Aaltoes Startup oot, renovating Visit to Dicole November. Slush Kauppalehti Optio Award July September November December June August October October 5th Aaltoes Visit to October 13th Aaltoes Clean- October 30th Artic Shakeup. Sulake tech Safari Richard Horning Marten June 5th Arkadia 28Opening June 9th Entrepre- Mickos Giacomo Marini Tanja October 8th Aaltoes Pitching, October 19th Aaltoes Pitch- an Growth Entrepreneurshop neurial Ventures Fair Aitamurto Michel Wendell winner IdeaCafe ing winner University Panel Bringing together June 30th Aaltoes Startup October 11th MIT Entrepreneur- October 25th Aaltoes Silicon Aalto Students, Visit to Floobs ship Session at Aalto Ventures Valley Talkoot with Arctic Startups, and HSE & Park Startup TKK MBAs Bill Aulet and Ken Morse June 10th Aalto University Symposium
- 8. Betonimiehenkuja 3 www.aaltoes.com, twitter.com/aaltoes aaltoes.facebook.com