Presented on 6/11/2012 at http://failconference.be in Ghent, to help break the 'failure taboo' on in Belgium. Entrepreneurial lessons by Toon Vanagt from his ventures so far...

1. Toon Vanagt (@Toon)
Chronic Entrepreneur
Source: http://www.gapingvoidart.com/fail-p-2396.html

2. Exhibit A:
Business problem in 1998:
• Underutilized X86 servers in datacenters, full
of racks, full of identical hardware…all running
different OS-versions and applications.

3. Exhibit A:
Image by Vmware.com (2006)
Solution in summer of 1999
• Add ‘abstraction layer’ software between hardware
and Operating System and name it ‘virtualization’…

4. Exhibit A:
http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=virtualization&date=1%2F2004%20106m&cmpt=q
Issues (while pitching to VCs in Silicon Valley):
• Too early Laughing VC: “…not a single CIO will trust your mystic layer. They want to
know which disk holds their files and which processor computes their transaction…’
• No credible team
• No track-record
• No working prototype

5. Exhibit A:
Lessons:
• Timing is everything
• Consulting doesn’t count as ‘track-record’
• Get a sparring partner / team
• Build a credible prototype or mock-up:
my ‘virtualisers’ later became known as ‘hypervisors’…
• Hold on to your domains in case of failure

6. Exhibit B:
Business problem in
December 1999:
• Find reliable
contractors and
compare quotes to
improve my house in
down town Brussels.

7. Exhibit B:
Solution launched in spring 2000:
• Casius technology platform is the
leading online marketplace in the
Benelux to connect consumers with
pre-screened residential contractors
and home service professionals.
• Casius offers the most effective and
targeted Internet marketing solution
for residential contractors while
providing consumers with better
choices and guarantees for their
home improvement projects.
• Service is free for homeowners.

8. Exhibit B:
Issues:
• We burned 4.000.000 EUR of VC money to
build a 1.850.000 EUR turnover business…
• Chicken-Egg dilemma when you need to
build a national network
• Off-line marketing is a very expensive way
to convert on-line leads
• Human ressources are a crucial bottle
neck, but also your core asset
• Too many founders (5 ‘chiefs’)
• Unfocussed: lots of money in the bank
makes it very hard to kill your darlings, cut
fancy features and skip your wishlist

9. Exhibit B:
Lessons:
• Well timed for first dot.com bubble
• Founders quiting day jobs shows commitment &
dedication to VC
• Business plans are bull shit, but you need them
anyway
• Tiny % of a huge market seems solid ground for
business plan
• “Sweat for equity” stinks!
• Cash is more important than your mother
• Grow slow if you can’t scale fast

10. Exhibit B:
More lessons:
Gravity does not apply to your sales funnel!
• It takes hard work to ‘squeeze’ those leads
UP in order to win & keep customers

11. Exhibit C:
Problem:
• Very expensive roaming fees
on mobile phone calls, while
national ‘family’ subscriptions
are cheap and ‘unlimited’…

12. Exhibit C:
Solution offered in Februari
2006: Get your personal
telephone gateway with a
mobile ‘family’ subscription
on VoIP platform (eg Skype).
Name it the Internet Phone
and abbreviate it to
“IPhone”…

13. Exhibit C:
http://www.google.be/trends/explore#q=iphone
Problems
• Timing (roaming fees got cheaper)
• Impossible to keep up with undocumented
software releases of third party VoIP providers
(Skype, Google Talk,…)

14. Exhibit C:
Lessons:
• Business case evaporated when
European commission limited those
telco roaming ‘robbery’ fees
• Never build your ‘physical’ product on
top of undocumented software
platforms you don’t control
• Hold on to your domains in case of
failure

15. Exhibit D:
Problem in 2011:
Why is it so hard to
find comprehensive
business information for
Belgian companies?

16. Exhibit D:
Solution launched in April 2012:
Search engine & monitoring tool for business
information that is:
• Intuitive
• Easy & fast
• Using centralized info
from public Belgian government websites

17. Exhibit D:
Issues:
• Legal hurdles: Outdated privacy laws with respect to big data
technology and commercial information brokers
• Conflict of interest for government agencies: Free Open
Data versus Closed Belgian company info
• High entry barrier: KBO/BCE sells a daily copy of its database to 6
commercial information brokers for 100.000/year. Belgian companies have
to publish official data and must pay for entering these updates too…

18. Exhibit D:
Lessons
• Legal hurdles are very slow and
uncertain to overcome
• Nowadays it is easier to build a
lean technology start-up than a
decade ago…

19. Failure is a consequence of risk taking.
My 5 most valuable tips to limit risk:
1. Focus
2. Pivot
3. Focus
4. Pivot
5. Keep it fun to enjoy the ride

20. You’ll fail until you succeed
Source :http://www.gapingvoidart.com/fail-often-p-2405.html
© & contact:
Toon Vanagt
toon@data.be
Ghent 6/11/2012 +32 479 27 29 29
FailConference.be @Toon