Daan / Located in Belgium / Tech startups

[DaanM]

Hi guys,
As requested, a quick introduction about myself.
So I'm from Belgium, Trumps favourite country . Belgium is pretty wet & windy but today it's Californian weather.

Anyway, professionally I've been pretty busy with building tech startups. I was a co-founder of cloudalize.com which I left after 4 years to work on new ventures such as magnax.com. I'm also helping other startup founders just because I believe it's important that Belgium (or the Belgian youth) needs more positive entrepreneurial successes.

I'm mainly "specialised" in early-stage sales & marketing for technology transfers (University teams working years on new technologies need entrepreneurs to go from technology --> marketable product --> business.

I picked up the MF book via one of the podcasts I was listening to, don't remember which one. In any case, I'm totally aligned with MJ's vision so eager to get aboard here.
Feel free to reach out if applicable.
Best,
Daan
ps; sorry for the typo's.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[hatedsalesrep]

Welcome @DaanM. That's awesome, Belgium is a beautiful country and a huge distribution hub.

I'm going to annoy you right away though and ask..When you work on technology start ups as an entrepreneur, how much tech do you really need to have? Like what is the difference between a "full-on programmer" and a "tech entrepreneur". I don't want to spend to much time learning but I never know what the sweet spot is.

 

[DaanM]

Welcome @DaanM. That's awesome, Belgium is a beautiful country and a huge distribution hub.

I'm going to annoy you right away though and ask..When you work on technology start ups as an entrepreneur, how much tech do you really need to have? Like what is the difference between a "full-on programmer" and a "tech entrepreneur". I don't want to spend to much time learning but I never know what the sweet spot is.

Hi, no problem.
I think I understand your question.

From the tech geeks, I expect that they are building a must-have technology and that they understand the market where the new technology fits. But going from technology to business requires a bit more than tech alone (product road mapping, sales and marketing preps, early funding, biz incorporation etc. ) So that's where I come in.

Now, I have an engineering background myself so I'm able to dig into the new tech and extract the value propositions which are important for early customers and investors.
But to be honest and to answer your question, I didn't know much about cloud computing when we started Cloudalize and I didn't know much about wind turbines when we started Magnax. That didn't stop me from becoming knowledgeable of the tech and start working on customer development. Technical knowledge is everywhere so that's never the difficult part. (as long if the CTO knows the tech very very good). Your (my) job is to make sure that the market understands the potential value.

 

[hatedsalesrep]

Hi, no problem.
I think I understand your question.

From the tech geeks, I expect that they are building a must-have technology and that they understand the market where the new technology fits. But going from technology to business requires a bit more than tech alone (product road mapping, sales and marketing preps, early funding, biz incorporation etc. ) So that's where I come in.

Now, I have an engineering background myself so I'm able to dig into the new tech and extract the value propositions which are important for early customers and investors.
But to be honest and to answer your question, I didn't know much about cloud computing when we started Cloudalize and I didn't know much about wind turbines when we started Magnax. That didn't stop me from becoming knowledgeable of the tech and start working on customer development. Technical knowledge is everywhere so that's never the difficult part. (as long if the CTO knows the tech very very good). Your (my) job is to make sure that the market understands the potential value.

Ok thank you for the reply. It seems like as long as you can understand the concepts if need to be, then you dont have to be a "tech geek".

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.