Warning! Unlike other startup stories, that you are used to read on the web, mine does not talk about me becoming the next Unicorn. It talks about me trying to find a magic shortcut to entrepreneurial success.
It is said that we learn better from our own mistakes. I cannot agree more. For more than twelve months, I immersed myself into a completely new world, and “mistake” was a daily activity.
It all started with an idea: “What if I could create a market place for all the sport activities, and become the next startup everybody talks about”. I will call it “Sportyholic”. First mistake, an idea born from a desire and not from a necessity.
However, an idea is not enough for success, so I started reading books and articles about world best startups, assisting to different conferences related to startups, learning the Swedish legislation, working with a consultant, searching for a business partners, meeting investors, working with a IT developer, working on different prototypes, etc. More I was learning, more difficult the task was. Strange no? Five months later, I realize that I am not going to make money out of this idea very soon.
Therefore, I put “Sportyholic” on standby and started working on a new idea: “A location-based augmented reality game for tourists”. This challenge required more proficiency in the design field, so here I was reading about digital design, mastering Photoshop and Illustrator and of course improving my google maps knowledge. It was fun learning all this, but in the end, I knew that I needed a good technical team who believed in this project for this idea to take shape. It was exactly what I did not found in Sweden.
Probably, these ideas were never meant to become successful, but they were certainly meant to teach me a lesson (or more). I am done playing the startup game for the moment, but I keep the entrepreneurial state of mind inside me.
In the meantime, together with my beloved girlfriend, we have took a decision. We are going to leave Sweden and start pursuing our dream: “To travel the world for at least one year, or until we had enough”. We leave in September!