Talk given at Thingscon in Berlin on May 3rd 2014.

1. Just because you can
doesn’t mean you should.
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino
@iotwatch
Thoughts on smartness &
entrepreneurship in #iot

2. CEO of Tinker London
2007-2010
Good Night Lamp
2012-
designswarm
2011-

4. This talk in one slide
We aren’t even close to #iot being
mainstream.
A lot of men are designing things for
women…again.
Investors are the meatgrinder of the
industry
Success is a complicated thing.

5. “IOT IS EVERYWHERE!”

6. We are part of a continuum
Human-Computer Interaction
Ubiquitous computing /
ubicomp
blogjects
Smart (insert noun)
Internet of Everything
Industrial Internet
Internet of things
Wearables
Connected products
…..
NORMAL LIFE

7. But we’ve been there
before.

13. Smart vs connected.

14. Latent issues

15. OR

16. OR

18. We’re not there yet.

19. Innovation
Diffusion
o Communication channels (subjective
perceptions)
o Time
o Social System (role of opinion leaders &
change agents)
4 ways to spread new ideas

20. o What TechCrunch / The Verge / GigaOM
say
o Time
o If people invest in you and retailers know
what to do with you
4 ways to spread new ideas

21. YOUR
STARTUP

22. The forbidden apple of
crowd-funding
A convenient way for investors to ignore you
early on (you may not need them anyway)
A quick way to do market research.
Not a replacement for real PR.
You become part of a market, people want
to make money from you as an entrepreneur.

23. YOUR
STARTUP
INVESTORS

24. We are educating investors.
Early days for investors who have been
investing in web for over 15 years.
Most tech investors focusing on industrial /
B2B
Consumer-focused investments are led by
US funds (Foundry Group/Tech Stars)

25. Aquihire or death?
It used to be people were afraid of starting
businesses because most would fail within 2
years. Now they can sell it and look
successful!
Berlin & London have some examples of
this.
We are meat for SF’s more successful
businesses.

26. The role of experts
Supply chain & retail are known skillsets but
are different communities
Electronics engineering isn’t easy to find & is
expensive but will help design something
scalable
A 20 something or a graduate can’t help you
with either.

27. Pacing yourself
Incubators & accelerators are often too short
& shouldn’t put you off your course.
It takes 3 years to really be known in all
markets but also be boring to some.
Decide if you’re a one product company or a
products company. (Lava Lamp vs Apple)
Both can be successful.

28. Merci! Grazie! Danke.
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino
@iotwatch
@Liquid_con
@ConnectedIOT