It was spring of 2011 when 25-year-old industrial design student Tuukka Kingelin decided to organize a meeting. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss setting up a company. This company, later called
Uploud Audio, would commercialize Kingelin’s long time hobby – loudspeaker designing and manufacturing.

Later the team applied for Aalto Entrepreneurship Society’s Summer of Startups 2011 (http://aaltoes.com/summer-of-startups/), which was an intensive 10-week programme targeted for early stage startups during the summer of 2011. From this programme Uploud Audio team got, for example, some valuable feedback for its development and growth.

So in a nutshell, Uploud Audio does good sounding and looking hi-fi loudspeakers for ordinary people. Unlike tech savvy gold ears that are seen the main consumers of hi-fi nowadays, ordinary people think at least twice what kind of stuff they are willing to keep in their living rooms, for example.

The team behind Uploud Audio consists mainly of three people. In addition to Tuukka Kingelin, there are Aku-Ville Lehtimäki and Lassi Laitinen – a business undergraduate and a marketing oriented social psychology undergraduate in this respect. There are also a bunch of hi-fi enthusiasts and professionals helping out the core team to produce loudspeakers that actually sound good enough.

For tech savvy readers, it can be revealed that all the model have SEAS 7” coaxial element ( http://www.seas.no/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=119&Itemid=141 ) while the boxes themselves are made out of integral urethane.

The future of Uploud Audio looks promising. For example, in Finland there are a handful of hi-fi manufacturers, but they all more or less rely on rather on technical specifications than the design aspect. Globally, the design hi-fi is usually quite expensive and therefore average people cannot or are not willing to afford it.

Check out prototypes and concepts from Uploud Audio at: http://www.uploud.fi

This is my interview with Blair Brandt. For those of you still scratching your head, wondering who he is. Blair is the founder of one of America’s most exciting start-ups, The Next Step Realty – The company helps 20-something recent college graduates find rentals in their first-job markets, pairing them with young real estate agents with similar interests and backgrounds, and a specialization in their rental needs.

Or how Blair puts it “When the transition of ending college and entering the new world is upon students, the last item on the agenda is the obligation to find housing, especially in a city that is unfamiliar and new. This is where The Next Step Realty comes in. Not only do we enable you to skip the step of finding an apartment on your own, we put you directly in touch with a young, accomplished real estate broker who specializes in your leasing needs and will take care of the entire transaction for you.”

Here is the full interview.

Blair Brandt (left), Belton Baker (Right)

Hi Blair, thanks for joining us on YHP, how are you doing?

Well, I’m amongst the living. Between earthquakes and hurricanes, its been an interesting week.

Can you quickly give us some background information about yourself before we move on?

Born in Manhattan. Grew up in Palm Beach, FL. I went to boarding school in New England at a great spot called Deerfield Academy. I went to college at the University of Richmond in Virginia and graduated in 2010. I’m thankful to have had incredible parents, teachers, and mentors. I’m 23 and currently live in New York City.

When did you know you wanted to be an entrepreneur?

I started a laundry business for students my freshman year of college and loved the independence of being my own boss. After that, I never decided to be an entrepreneur, I just kept exploring new opportunities and learning as much as I could about each industry I worked in.

Good entrepreneurs never sit down and decide to be entrepreneurs. They hit the pavement hard and keep their ear to the pulse of the streets. When they see an unfulfilled demand, they properly investigate the opportunity and execute efficiently. I’m proud to say we are of this category.

We never decided to be entrepreneurs, we were already doing this on a person to person basis long before it was a brand.

Tell us about The Next Step Realty and how the idea came about?

When I started working in real estate, I took the hands-on approach and, over time, happened to stumble upon a point of frustration I had with the market. Being a 22 year old sales associate, I didn’t have the respect of the clients I wanted to work with, but when I started working with young professionals relocating to the Palm Beach area – I saw that I was instantly building my client base, making more money, and learning a lot about my job.

My partner Belton Baker also believed that our friend’s who were seniors on college campuses were suffering from an inability to seamlessly find housing after graduation. A few of my friends, knowing I was immersed in my real estate job, had even reached out to me to be connected with the right broker in other cities. So, we decided to systematically connect and strategically match-make these two groups through an exclusive network. This would solve the slow pace of business that young brokers were initially experiencing, while also assisting the graduates in their relocation.

Why the name The Next Step Realty?

We sent out an e-mail before we launched the website to test the viability of our idea. We chose a few fraternities and sororites at UNC Chapel Hill and the University of Richmond, our alma-maters, as our sample group, and the title of the e-mail was “Here’s to The Next Step: Post-Collegiate Housing”. We sent it to seniors in the spring of 2010. When the feedback from the e-mails was overwhelmingly positive, we used that e-mail subject line to name the company.

Tell us how the process works?

Go to www.thenextsteprealty.com. Choose the city you are moving to. Tell us about yourself, how to contact you, and what type of apartment you are looking for.

Within minutes, your hand-picked Next Step certified broker will call you to confirm an appointment, review your parameters, answer your questions, and begin to e-mail you listings of apartments.

The broker who contacts you will be not only be pre-qualified to work with recent graduates based on our rigorous selection process, but they will also be available to assist you at times you have listed as convenient and be a specialist in the type of apartment you requested.

Our brokers in most cities are free to use, with the exception of London and Manhattan, where we have pre-negotiated discounted rates on behalf of our clients in advance. Everywhere else, landlords compensate brokers for bringing tenants to the property.

Typically our clients spend a day or two out with a broker weighing all the options, sign a lease, and move on with their lives! It’s that easy, and it’s free to use Next Step, so there’s nothing to loose.

What would you say was probably the most difficult part of starting the business?

The biggest obstacle is overcoming the inertia of your audience – making them aware that there is a different way to do things, and that your route is the most favorable.

What’s the toughest feedback you’ve ever received and how did you learn from it?

The toughest feedback we ever received was that our service wasn’t necessary because people could find brokers on their own.

We learned from it by improving our system so that our network of brokers is so well-qualified and well-researched by us, it is almost a crime not to go to us for a recommendation on which broker in your new city is the best fit for you. We created a certain quality guarantee, which has created great word of mouth and enabled people to trust our brand.

It is a safer bet to rely on that type of standardization then the one-off referral of a friend or family member who got lucky using a mediocre broker a year ago. Also, our match-making system ensures you work with a specialist. Finally, the pre-negotiated discounts are important because they save our users money, and those types of savings can’t be procured by going it alone. Our network creates these benefits, and makes being a part of it worthwhile.

Negative feedback is always just an opportuntiy to improve and make your product better, and I think our efforts to make our website indispensable to graduates are starting to pay off.

Tell us some of the key lessons you’ve learnt so far on your journey as an entrepreneur?

Persistence is crucial. You have to keep driving your product every day. Making it better, spreading the word.

Marketing is important. Of course you have to perfect your offer first, but the press is your friend and any opportunity for one single person to learn more about your company is a worthwhile use of time.

Brand control is also key. Being able to determine how it appears to others rather than it becoming something you don’t want it to be.

What would you say has been your most memorable moment so far?

That’s a great question. I was very excited when we signed our first lease. But, ultimately, it’s a toss-up between being invited to the White House and getting off the set of my first live interview on Bloomberg TV.

I was 22, had graduated from college only a month before, and we had been working at break-neck speed for 3 months. We’ve made incredible strides since then, but something about how quickly it happened and the shift that it represented in our lives made it very memorable. It was nice afterwards to go to the rooftop of our friends apartment, enjoy a beer, and reflect on an insane 3 months.

How do you stay grounded with your recent success in business?

Knowing that we haven’t succeeded yet.

Where do you see yourself and your business in 5 years?

We’ll have a strong market share in the U.S. and abroad of recent graduates and young professionals relocating from campuses to cities or between different cities, and we’ll definitely be changing the real estate market’s usual norms and conventions. Less money will be spent recruiting wealthy clients through expensive, out-dated advertisements, and more money will be pumped into developing the relationships we are initiating with young renters early on.

What can we be expecting from you in the future?

Beyond expansion within our core real estate services, The Next Step brand is currently exploring different business opportunities that consistently revolve around our niche audience of undergrads, recent grads, and young professionals.

We currently have projects underway in fashion, television, and vacation rentals. We also are becoming a desirable avenue for other brands who want to reach the twenty-something, high end demographic that we cater too. We are becoming a platform for companies to promote their products to our targeted demographic, and a consultant to companies who need assistance engaging members of our website.

What advice can you give to entrepreneurs out there looking to get involved in this industry?

Pursue industries and jobs that you love, and be infinitely curious about how it works. If you think it can be done better, then do it.

Thanks for your time Blair

Chances of meeting one’s role model nowadays are extremely rare, i don’t mean via Twitter or Facebook but face-face really having a proper conversation with them physically, let’s not mention if that role model or inspirational figure was Richard Branson.

However, it became possible for three lucky entrepreneurs to meet Richard Branson through the Virgin Pioneer Media competition where each contestant uploaded a video giving a brief intro about themselves and their start-up rounding it off with a question to Richard Branson, a question which they all hoped they could ask him personally if they were selected as one of the three winners.

Here are the three entrepreneurs that got through:-

Jamal Edwards

The 20 year old CEO and founder of SB.TV (an online music media channel) and Just Jam Records (a label agency under Sony RCA) asked…

“As SB.TV has got a big youth audience, how would you develop it into an organization that is as successful as yours?” He ended the voting with 3,650 voters coming first in the quest.

Sebastian Thiel – The CEO of “It’s Upshot” asked

“If you could have a conversation with anyone in history, who would it be with and why?”(Including those that are not alive) His campaign drew 3, 185 voters.

“It’s Upshot” is an online Youth entertainment brand and culture TV channel, which aims to provide all kinds of entertainments. Sir-Bastian aims to create a new youth sub culture that is dominantly against the uses of violence. Its upshot is all about believing, achieving and beginning young.

Matthew Lovett, CEO of “WOW Media asked…

“What was your biggest fear whilst setting up your company and how did you overcome it?” he ended up with 2,758 voters.

Matt’s company WOW Media helps other companies in creating enticing, eye-catching and sophiscated websites with Supports of all kinds made available to customers and potential customers ensuring they receive the best treatment.

All three entrepreneurs have different kinds of business, produces different kinds of products and services for their customers but now have one thing in common, they are all meeting Richard Branson.

It was rather exciting seeing how these entrepreneurs used Facebook and Twitter to drive their loved ones, fans and customers to their voting page.

As I sit on the tube writing this after what was my 3rd networking event off the week, I realised that networking is one of the most valuable spends off my time in terms of return, and not just in monetary terms.

Networking is free most of the time. It is full of like minded individuals and if you go to the right ones it is full of people that you can work with or learn from in some way.

Again you do get the odd events where people just end up trying to sell to, but I’m glad to say I’m coming across these less and less.

The more social these networking events the better, they provide a laid back atmosphere to chat with similar people and these informal chats often lead to many opportunities and potential ways you can work together.

What’s better is that face to face networking events create better lasting impressions in the minds of people you meet. I mean, ultimately it’s not about who you know, but rather who knows you, right?

This can always lead to future opportunities for both parties, in terms of help, advice and business. It can also motivate you go further, take the plunge into starting your own business or just expand you industry knowledge.

After networking events make sure to stay connected with those that you met. Take a look at the business cards you received and email those that you met while what you spoke about is still fresh in your mind.

You may feel you are to busy to attend these events, but they act as a nice break from being stuck in front of a computer and they can count as being work as you are inevitably spreading the name of your business, across an audience that can provide value to your business and it is a great chance to learn something and get ideas.

You will see the value in forming and maintaining a strong contact base which will serve you well for years to come.

There are many really strong startup communities around the world now and in times of economic uncertainty I truly believe that these communities have helped each startups progress in this period which can be challenging for many.

As a member of the marketing team at Huddle and co founder of YHP, I am pleased to say I am a part of two of the best networking events in London which are joined by two of the three I have been too this week.

DrinkTank is one. The tech meetup organised by Huddle and was started by the founders a few years ago after going to way too many networking events full of consultants trying to sell there services. This event was made a strictly members only event, all applications are vetted to ensure we don’t get spammers (look out for the next event soon).

YHP Connect on the other hand offers a smaller number of people the chance to come together and network in a relaxed social atmosphere with talks by entrepreneurs, who have been successful, discussing the journey they took and problems they overcame. With a smaller group the Q&A session becomes more useful and everyone gets a chance to talk with each other and the speakers.

Remember networking events give you the chance too relax and socialise for a few hours in what is a time when working on your startup can include working long into the night. And better still, it counts as work.

Your are marketing your business, your marketing yourself and best of all you are creating connections.

These events are all about mutual benefits. How can you offer a service or help another? Because there will be a time when you may need help or advice and you will want to have built a strong network.

There is a reason why many angels and VC’s insist on startups with a co founder and its because the majority of the time 2 is better than 1. And guess what, this scales. The knowledge and help of a community will pay dividend.

Your net worth is only as good as your network.

The Importance of Networking

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Follow @rishi_chowdhury

So you have set up your own business and you have a great product or service, now what?

Getting your first customer. Your first sale will always be the hardest but ultimately the most satisfying. The realization that someone is willing to spend money on your offering is  a great moment.

Unless you have an incredible, innovative new product that will go viral in hours you will have a lot of work to do in getting your first customer and start bringing in a steady stream of customers as you grow.

Whether you are opening a new restaurant, a consultancy, a software firm etc… it is always gets easier to gain new customers when you already have many customers, happy customers. Nobody wants to eat in an empty restaurant, clients want to know who you have worked with before and firms want to know who else is using your product. So how do you get your first customer, if you need customers to get your first customer?

A lot time will need to be spent on the computer spreading the word and on networking to get those first few customers to set you on your way. Remember word of mouth is one of the best marketing tools, so make sure you don’t forget to provide a quality customer service as the first few customers trickle in, they can help you grow your initial user base the quickest, especially with the advent of social networking and the role it plays in influencing large numbers of friends, which can help spread the word like wildfire. That leads me nicely on to my first point:

Social Networking – Set your self up on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and any others you can manage. These tools have given startups a great way of  marketing their business for free. Take time to interact with others and offer value. It may be advisable to offer special introductory offers to entice your first few customers. Make them feel special and they might sure the experience with their friends, followers, network whatever you want to call them.

Give it away – That’s right offer your product or service for free! Now this might not always be possible but if you can it’s a good way to build up users. You can integrate this with your social networking strategy and offer your first 20 followers or fans your product/service free. This also builds up your social network.

Now I know giving your product away for free doesn’t make you money but you can offer your product free to gain users. I personally count a customer as someone who has paid for the product or service. giving your product away for free will increase its users and help you gain your first proper customer.

If you are an online software company for instance you might even offer a basic free version or free trial  in the hope of upgrading them to a paid package at some point, therefore creating a profitable ROI over the lifetime of that customer.

Think a little closer to home - Friends, family, ex colleagues may all be potential customers. They would also be more inclined to buying your product as they may feel obliged to help you out. They can also be perfect in helping you see potential problems, where you might be going wrong. Spotting these and fixing it before you get too many customers from further a field who find problems, which may harm your brands reputation, is a benefit of selling to those closer to you.

Network – This is an important step in making your business known. It also gives you the chance to learn and meet potential influences that can help spread the word about your business. Attend networking events for those in your industry, social meet-ups for small businesses and conferences. All of these will help you widen your network and help get yourself out there as well as your business. Bear in mind that you yourself are a brand also and this has a direct influence on your company.

The Paid way – If you have some money to spend, putting it into a marketing budget can help you branch out. Whether you spend on marketing online, offline or both depends on your business. A local restaurant may use both local newspaper ads and Google local ads. A software firm may use only online advertising in the form of PPC (pay per click) such as Google adwords or may pay for banner placement on a targeted website.

This can help get your product/service seen by many people but may not always be effective in terms of ROI especially on a small budget. Online marketing is much more quantifiable but depends on more factors than the ads, converting visitors to your site is the most important aspect.

Last but not least, make sure you have an elevator pitch. A 30 second summary of what need your business fills, with what you offer and the benefits that that will be given. You never know when you might bump in to a potential customer or someone who can benefit you and your business.

The above are just some ways that you can gain your first customers, any other ways let me know in the comments.

Remember even if you don’t like sales, to be a successful entrepreneur you will need to be able to sell.

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If you liked this post you can follow me on Twitter here.

Businesszone.co.uk’s The Pitch, the UK’s biggest and longest running business pitching competition, has opened the 2011 application process with a twist this year that’s sure to provoke furious competition across all the Home Nations.

For the first time, The Pitch is going to be holding its preliminary heats in each of the Home Nations, with the national champions going on to compete in a grand final for a £50,000 prize package, and the title of the UK’s Best New Business.

The Pitch Home Nations, in association with marketing solutions business Yell, will see national heats held in Cardiff, Edinburgh, Belfast and London over the summer. Entrepreneurs will be invited to come and pitch their business idea to a panel of expert judges, in front of a live audience.

Each event will comprise a live half-day conference and networking event, aiming to provide support and guidance to local business owners and entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs can find out more about the competition and submit their entry by visiting www.ThePitch2011.com.

The Pitch has grown every year since its inception in 2008, and has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs make invaluable business contacts, gain access to expert advice and supplied free business insight to hundreds of thousands of small business owners across Britain, holding live events in a score of major UK cities.

This is a great opportunity for start-up business owners and entrepreneurs to gain presentation experience and feedback, while getting expert advice on their business strategy, but that’s not all, the content of the live events is designed to be practically applicable to common key issues of running a business, and the publicity associated with the competition has given many former entrants a much-needed boost.

The winner of The Pitch 2010 Ben Atkinson-Willes, founder of Active-Minds and inventor of a series of products designed to help people in dementia care stay mentally active, says:

“Being involved with The Pitch 2010 was a great, if slightly nerve-wracking, experience from start to finish. It was brilliant to meet experts like Doug Richard and Julie Meyer and get first hand advice from them. The publicity it generated for my business was phenomenal and the contacts I’ve made have proved incredibly useful. I would recommend getting involved in the 2011 competition to any entrepreneur.”

Over two days in June 2011, The Inspire Conference will bring together some of the most brilliant thought-leaders in Technology, Creative, Entrepreneurship and Society from across the world to the heart of Europe’s exploding tech and creative scene in East London.

Topics ranging from social entrepreneurship to open data, from the future of Internet typography to the next big thing in User experience will invite the audience to think, reflect, learn and be inspired.

Speakers include:

• Alex Breuer / Design Editor – The Times
• Ann Cotton / Founder – Camfed
• Anthony Browne / Policy Director for London Mayor
• Aza Raskin / Ex Head of UX – Mozilla Labs
• Conrad Wolfram / CEO – Wolfram Research
• Erik Hersman / Co-Founder – Ushahidi
• Michael Birch / Founder – Bebo, Profounders
• Parag Khanna / Best Selling Author – Second World
• Rajesh Sawhney / President – Reliance BIG Entertainment
• Rory Sutherland / Vice Chairman – Ogilvy
• Roshaneh Zafar / Founder – Kashf Foundation
• Stephan Shakespeare / CEO & Founder, YouGov
• Tom Chatfield / Game Theorist

And more to be announced soon!

Inspire is the first and only accessible and affordable thought-leadership event of it’s kind to be held in Europe. During the two days, 25 passionate speakers will share the power of their ideas with you, creating an intellectual theatre that will stimulate your creativity and boost your inspiration.

Early bird tickets for The Inspire Conference expire in 5 days so make sure you get yours soon! To find out more about the conference or to buy tickets – Click here

I seriously can’t wait for this event! YHP will be doing a lot of filming + interviews, it should be a blast.

Stu Green, a web developer & designer from the UK recently launched Fowndr, pronounced founder, is a new private network with the hopes of offering technology startups a platform/community to discuss new projects, share learning resources and files with like-mind technologists.

Although it is another social network, but it is said that it is not competiting with the likes of facebook, twitter or Myspace and the rest out there, but he is instead targeting the creators of those websites.

He said “It’s basically a safe place for entrepreneurs and founders to share ideas, projects and files, The service is designed for people who have been involved in setting up businesses in the past and love new enterprise.”

Mr Green who is currently working on few startups at the moment said he came up with the idea when he realised the need for a place to share ideas and receive feedback from top entrepreneurs was needed and he decided to create it.

The website is currently only offering a free, invite-only service at the moment, with registered members inviting others to the site.

He also said he hoped to build the platform on trust especially from members inviting others to the platform and sharing their ideas.

I’m sure a few of us might be familar with this quote: “The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.”
Don Williams, Jr. (American Novelist and Poet, b.1968)

Remember your first year in uni when every day was a like a new memory, most of you were probably by yourself for the first time in your life, totally free, independent. You knew you would be talking about some of these memories for years to come.

I guess we sometimes get so caught in the destination that we forget the moment, the journey.

Well, it applies to us as entrepreneurs, as individuals, we sometimes forget to really live the moment towards success, i guess everyone is in it to be successful regardless of their definition or perception of success right?.

We sometimes get distracted by the distination, we focus some much on the end game and lose focus on the present, the reality of things, those key moments, the opportunities.

Most people try to emulate their favourite entrepreneur so much that they follow their every step, their journey to fit theirs, I’m not saying you shouldn’t look up to your favourite entrepreneur, mentor or take their advices but instead of becoming obsessed in doing things their way, try to create a new way, your way in which these things can be created.

Most businesses are birthed through another journey entirely, i’m sure you have heard of entrepreneurs that started a particular business that wasn’t so successful but through that have spotted a different opportunity, a niche in which they then went on to become successful, its in the journey, the diversion, the uncertainty that we are able to learn and grow as individuals.

Especially nowadays when a lot of entrepreneurs are going into business at such a young age which i encourage, but most dive in with no clue, without the realities of things, obviously about the prospect of becoming a young millionaire which i admit can be a huge motivator, but this journey are the true teachers when things begin to go sour or extremely well.

Most people won’t tell you this but Nobody knows anything, we are all winging it.