What I took away from the Young Entrepreneurship in B2B Environments conference – By Joshua Clamp, Merlin DC
With only 7.6% of early-stage businesses currently being owned by 18-24 year olds, the UK has the potential for drastic growth in the number of young people becoming entrepreneurs over the coming years. Increasing this figure is the challenge that Luca Schnettler, founder of HealthyHealth, is trying to tackle. Hosting the event Henkel x HealthyHealth – Entrepreneurship in B2B Environments, at the Founders Factory on 12th September, Luca and guests discuss the need for young, dynamic input within the world of innovation, and provided useful insights for young entrepreneurs to encourage them on their startup journeys.
At the age of 19, Luca founded HealthyHealth, a startup looking to digitalise health assessment. Customers simply share their digital data so that the HealthyHealth algorithm can calculate an accurate and individualised medical risk profile, removing the need for lengthy questionnaires and doctor’s visits. Whilst providing a valuable service to consumers, HealthyHealth also partners with Health Insurance companies to streamline their underwriting journey, improving efficiency and reducing cost through automation. This is a great example of how, by bringing a fresh perspective and a shift in thinking to a well-established industry, young entrepreneurs can provide a valuable service to businesses. His passion for inspiring young entrepreneurs to consider developing a B2B startup led him to host this event at the Founders Factory, which had a number of guest speakers, and opened the floor to a selection of high-growth startups doing just this.
The first guest was Brent Hoberman; co-founder of Lastminute.com, Firstminute Capital and Founders Factory, and co-chair of the Prime Minister’s recently formed Business Council.
To date, the technology businesses Brent has co-founded have raised over $65m. Having started his entrepreneurial career with a B2B business, co-founding Lastminute.com at the age of 29, Brent was able to share some valuable insights for aspiring young entrepreneurs.
He described the challenges he faced in these early days, emphasising the enormity of the problem of getting the four major airlines in the UK to give this new company the cheapest flights. Brent describes how playing on psychology by claiming that he was “Representing the future” was key in persuading these big companies to work with his startup. Another key convincer was the fact that the startup was equipped and ready to operate entirely within the company’s existing system, making it profoundly easy for the airlines to get on board (pardon the pun!). Finally, Brent explains, a well-thought-out bluff may be what it takes to convince C to join what A & B have “already signed up to”.
A thought-provoking comment that Brent made comically, but with a hint of sincerity, was that “Not knowing too much”, may offer an advantage. Playing on the idea that ignorance is bliss, he hinted that knowing how hard it would have been before starting may have meant that he never would have done it. Ultimately, “outrageous ambition”, coupled with “unreasonable persistence”, are key for any aspiring entrepreneur.
Founders Factory, co-founded by Brent, is an assembly of industry-leading corporates and a team of 60 operators which help startup founders build great companies. Since its birth, it has accelerated 96 startups, and incubated 22. Founders of the Future, a branch of Founders Factory, focuses on bringing together a pool of young, diverse and exceptional entrepreneurial individuals who they anticipate will build tomorrow’s high impact sustainable startups. Through running programmes, hosting events and providing the necessary tools, Founders of the Future provides a valuable opportunity for those looking to become future leaders of the digitalised tomorrow. Some of the ways this invite-only community of future founders expands is by hosting a yearly startup competition for young entrepreneurs under 25 (The F Factor), and by running innovations workshops and ‘hackathons’ with corporates.
A similar programme to that run by Founders Factory, is the Henkel X open innovation platform, where a strong, diverse network of partners and experts share knowledge, views and ideas in order to push innovation and explore disruptive new business models, accelerating Henkel’s entrepreneurial transformation.
Henkel X founder Dr Rahmyn Kress is also an activist in the encouragement and facilitation of young entrepreneurs, and was therefore Luca’s next guest.
Whilst being a powerful believer in the value of startups, Kress maintains that there is always a place for the corporate – when done right. Coupling the corporate with innovation, he believes is the key to progression. Specifically, Kress detailed the importance of seeing digital transform not as a progression in the complexity and application of tech, but as a change in mindset. In this way, it is the progressive attitudes of corporate minds that must lead, and the physical digitalisation that then follows. For, the startup marrying with corporate, ultimately, is not about the cheque. It is about the opportunity and guidance that these entities offer.
He talked about the fact that parents today, if asked by their 17/18-year child, “will you invest a small amount of money into a company I would like to start, instead of funding my degree?” will likely look down upon or reject such as seemingly silly proposal. Rahmyn argues that our education system is broken, and the mundane production line of graduates is limiting the number of young entrepreneurs, and in turn limiting potential innovation. He went on to say, if the parent knew the precise, real sum of the 3-year degree, a parent may think twice about such a request.
Another insight into the life of an entrepreneur provided by Kress centred on the unintelligent approach of ‘fail fast’. This phrase, often heard in the entrepreneurial space, proposes the idea that extensive testing and incremental development are essential if you want to rapidly determine the value of an idea. An important goal of the philosophy is to cut losses when testing reveals something isn’t working and quickly try something else, a concept known as pivoting. Kress discusses the misconception of this phrase and explains that to succeed, we must indeed be open to failure, but the intention is to ensure we are learning from our mistakes as we tweak, reset, and then redo if necessary. Kress described the importance of taking well-calculated risks, as opposed to doing as much as possible in the shortest amount of time.
The night also gave an opportunity for 3 startups; UALA, Happy Helper, and Pentatonic to talk about their journeys as entrepreneurs providing B2B products to existing businesses.
The first of these, UALA, provides a price comparison site for salons and other beauty services in Southern Europe. Co-founder Alessandro Bruzzi described the potential of precise interpretation and use of data to transform B2B2C interactions and facilitate growth. Providing a platform for previously isolated salons gave such companies an online presence, and enabled greater quantities of data to be collected. With the right application, this data provided new opportunities, such as business performance monitoring. The product producers and service providers could now be supplied with information on large-scale customer trends and preferences. Furthermore, with the introduction of AI, UALA hopes to ameliorate the customer booking process and automate product and service provision.
The second of the three, Happy Helper, is a Danish company which began by addressing a problem relating to household cleaning. Co-founder Dennis Forchhammer was part of a team that noticed an apparent lack of trust in potential consumers of cleaning services towards strangers being in their home. They also realised that a fully legal, more formal cleaning service was expensive, and was often difficult to arrange and book. By providing a framework for the unstructured “black market” of cleaning services, Happy Helper sought to solve this problem. They produced a platform on which cleaners could register their services, they would be checked, there would be a reasonable price, and a structured but efficient booking process would be provided – safely and securely connecting helpers and bookers. The success of this venture led to its expansion into other services – for example, having paired with Coop Danmark, the biggest retailer of consumer goods in Denmark, Happy Helper developed a service for accepting deliveries and groceries on behalf of the booker.
Pentatonic, the final startup of the night, is dedicated to solving the increasing waste problem faced by producers. Currently, 300 million tonnes of plastic are produced globally each year, and this number will undoubtedly rise. Working with large B2C companies such as Nike, Starbucks and Stella Artois, Pentatonic facilitates quality product development made entirely from post-consumer materials. From making drinking glasses out of broken phone screens, or even jewellery from cigarette waste, they believe that “our future is rubbish’’.
The variety in the high-growth startups seen at this event sheds light on the growing number of possibilities for B2B businesses. With the right guidance, from the Founders of the Future programme, the Henkel X platform, or an increasing number of other accelerators, young entrepreneurs with the drive, ingenuity and passion have a better chance than ever before to succeed.