Presentation from MyCQs co-founders James Gupta and Omair Vaiyani to Bioentrepreneurship Master's students at Karolinska University in Stockholm. Covers the importance of scientist entrepreneurs, how to think innovatively and apply lean startup methods to your business idea.

1. Karolinska Institutet!
Entrepreneurship Seminar

2. Plan
• Background & Introduction
• Stories
– Part 1: Framing The Problem
– Part 2: Thinking Differently
• Being a scientist entrepreneur: what are the disadvantages, what
are the advantages? Why should people do it in the first place
• #innovation, #thinking, #entrepreneur, #scientist
– Part 3: Finding and Validating an Idea
• How we came up with the idea for MyCQs after coming across a
problem in our day to day life and looking for a better alternative.
#ideation, #brainstorming
– Part 4: Growing & Scaling your Idea (JG)
• Key Messages
• Q&A / Discussion
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

3. Who Are We?
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

4. James Background
• Medical student, Leeds University
• Studying MSc Health Informatics
• Formerly Chief Technical Officer at JumpIn, a
student taxi booking and sharing app
• Currently Chief Executive Officer at MyCQs
• Director for Doctorpreneurs
• Innovator for Fourmore
• @gupta_james on Twitter
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

5. JumpIn
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

6. Omair Background
• Medical student, Leeds University
• Studying MSc Health Informatics
• Currently Chief Technical Officer at MyCQs
• Advisor for the UK Medical Students’ Assoc
• Technical lead for InnovateHealth UK
• Innovator for Fourmore
• @omairvaiyani on Twitter
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

7. Omair / UKMSA
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani
Medics
Handbook
#1
Medical
App
On
Android
4
days
aAer
release

8. Omair / InnovateHealth UK
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

9. +
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

11. GenderedReacEons.com
@GenderMedKI

13. What is MyCQs?
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

14. Framing The Problem
Story 1
Don’t
set
out
to
start
a
company,
aim
to
solve
a
problem
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

15. “If I had an hour to solve a problem
I'd spend 55 minutes thinking
about the problem and 5 minutes
thinking about solutions”
- Albert Einstein
Framing The Problem
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

16. Framing The Problem
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

17. 80%
of students study by
re-reading chapters of a
textbook until they memorise it
MetacogniEve
strategies
in
student
learning:
Do
students
pracEse
retrieval
when
they
study
on
their
own?,
Butler
et
al
2008.
99%
of students study by cramming
information in the days leading
up to an exam
The
Stats
Framing The Problem

18. Framing The Problem
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

19. “Learning is deeper and more durable when it’s
effortful. Learning that’s easy is like writing in the
sand, here today and gone tomorrow.
We are poor judges of when we are learning well
and when we’re not
When the going is harder and slower and it
doesn’t feel productive, we are drawn to
strategies that feel more fruitful, unaware that the
gains from these strategies are often temporary”
Framing The Problem
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

20. Evidence Based Learning
• Meaningful learning requires effort, not just time.
• Effective techniques challenge you mentally,
forcing your brain to encode, consolidate and
retrieve information in a range of different ways
Framing The Problem

21. The Problem Revisited
• Students are defaulting to
‘easy’ study methods
• Unaware of better
alternatives
• Effective methods require
more effort and take
longer to see results
Framing The Problem
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

22. Encourage
students
to
become
ac#ve
agents
in
their
own
learning,
instead
of
being
passive
receivers
of
informaEon.
The Solution
Framing The Problem
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

23. Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
Story 2
The
importance
of
acquiring
knowledge
and
culEvaEng
creaEvity
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

24. Q: Which is more powerful?
And why?
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

25. How did we figure this out?
Chance?
Trial
and
error?
+
=
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

26. “Creativity is just connecting things.
When you ask creative people how
they did something, they feel a little
guilty because they didn’t really do
it, they just saw something.”
- Steve Jobs, Wired 1996
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

27. Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

28. Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

29. Chance?
Trial
and
Error?
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

30. • In pure trial and error, you’d have to try
millions of different things
– Try a different brand of toothpaste?
– More toothpaste, less toothpaste?
– Warm the toothpaste first? What temperature?
– Combine the toothpaste with something else?
• Expertise in a field greatly narrows the
spectrum by excluding things that definitely
won’t work
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

31. Connecting the Dots
Buffer,
The
Secret
to
CreaEvity,
Intelligence
and
ScienEfic
Thinking
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset

32. The human brain is a connector
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

33. We’re wired to see meaning and patterns
(even when they aren’t there!)
Liu
et
al,
Seeing
Jesus
in
toast:
Neural
and
behavioral
correlates
of
face
pareidolia
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset

34. Strawberries
are
soA
Straws
are
hard
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

35. GamificaEon
Mobile
technology
Personalised
Content
Spaced
RepeEEon
Peer
learning
Crowdsourcing
Social
Networking
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset

36. MyCQs
“What I cannot create, I do not understand”
– Richard Feynman, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1965
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

37. A Scientific Degree teaches…
• Technical knowledge of your domain
• How to critically analyse data and interpret
evidence
• Intellectual discipline
Highly valuable in business
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

38. Forbes 100 CEOs
Forbes,
DNA
Of
Fortune
100
CEOs
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset

39. Low
Hanging
Fruit
&
Barriers
to
Entry
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

40. “The future belongs to those who
learn more skills and combine
them in creative ways”
- Robert Greene, Mastery
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

41. Medicine
Technology
Enterprise
What
we
do
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

42. Medicine
Technology
Enterprise
cool
stuff!!
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

43. Key Point 1
Being
a
scien#st
is
about
being
analy%cal
–
gathering
deep
knowledge
and
exper#se
in
a
specific
domain
Being
an
entrepreneur
is
about
being
crea%ve,
and
combining
knowledge
from
different
fields
in
unique
ways
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

44. Q: What do you see?
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

45. Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

46. Scientists & Entrepreneurs
The
Great
Divide?
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

47. Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

48. “In order for us to truly create and
contribute to the world, we have to
be able to connect countless dots,
to cross-pollinate ideas from a
wealth of disciplines, to combine
and recombine these pieces and
build new castles”
- Maria Popova
Brain
Pickings,
Networked
Knowledge
and
Combinatorial
CreaEvity
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

49. Collect as many dots as possible!
Buffer,
The
Secret
to
CreaEvity,
Intelligence
and
ScienEfic
Thinking
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
|
@gupta_james
|
@omairvaiyani

50. Key Point 2
Everything
you
learn
about
shapes
the
way
you
experience
the
world
Don’t
s#ck
rigidly
to
one
discipline:
let
your
curiosity
wonder
and
make
connec#ons
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

51. Some ideas…
• Programming
– Lets you create from your bedroom!
• Neuroscience & Psychology
– How people think
• Biology
– Nature has been running experiments on what works
for millions of years!*
• Philosophy
– The foundation of all knowledge
• History
– Ideas throughout time and drawing parallels to modern
life
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
|
@omairvaiyani

52. Create a Stream of Great Content
Twitter
• Use it!
• Follow interesting people from various fields
• Custom, curated newsfeed for your
interests
• ‘At a glance’
Others: Feedly, Pocket etc
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

53. Key Points
• Scientists have great domain knowledge of
complex fields ripe for innovation
• They also have good ability to interpret data
critically
• Now you need to focus on letting yourself think
creatively as well as analytically
• This means feeding your mind with knowledge
from other fields – giving yourself a unique filter
to experience the world through
• Once you do this you’ll see things other people
don’t
Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
@mycqs
|
@gupta_james
|
@omairvaiyani

54. The Startup Cycle
Part 3
Start
up.
Cash
in.
Sell
out.
Bro
down
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

55. The Startup Cycle
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

56. Early
screening
• CompeEtor
analysis
• Who
else
is
in
the
market
• How
successful
are
they
• How
their
idea/service/product
differs
• No
compeEtors?
• WHY?!
• Quit
while
you’re
ahead
• Or
seize
the
gap
The Startup Cycle
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

57. Lone
wolf
or
The Startup Cycle
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

58. Fail
fast
Headd,
B.
Redefining
Business
Success:
DisEnguishing
Between
Closure
and
Failure,
2002
#
Shane,
S.
Startup
Failure
Rates
–
The
Real
Numbers,
2008
Phillips
&
Kirchhoff.
Small
Business:
CriEcal
PerspecEves
The Startup Cycle

59. Disprove
inferiority
The Startup Cycle
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

60. Aim
to
disrupt
The Startup Cycle
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

61. “If I had asked people what they
wanted, they would have said
faster horses”
- Henry Ford
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani
The Startup Cycle

62. How
did
we
do
this?
The Startup Cycle

63. Passive
Feedback
The Startup Cycle
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

64. Ac#ve
Feedback
Q: How do you study at present?
“Lots of reading from
textbooks”
“Repeat until I can write out the
whole doc. Do absolutely no
revision for anything the day
before an exam.”
“Everything as it helps prevent
boredom”
Source:
MyCQs
Survey
of
25
students,
August
2014
The Startup Cycle

65. Market
Research
Source:
MyCQs
Survey
of
25
students,
August
2014
The Startup Cycle

66. Compe#tors
• Found
many
offering
aspects
of
MyCQs
• Social/Peer-­‐to-­‐Peer
• Quiz
creaEon
• Good
User
Interface
• None
covered
all
areas
-­‐>
Gap
in
the
market
The Startup Cycle
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

67. Trend
analysis
• Monitor
updates
• Adapt
to
changes
Site
update,
bounce
rate
down
from
70%
to
10%
The Startup Cycle
@mycqs
|
@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

68. Trend
analysis
The Startup Cycle
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

69. Remaining
ahead
of
the
curve
• Spaced-­‐repeEEon
• Personalized
learning
The Startup Cycle
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

70. Hype Cycles
The Startup Cycle
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

71. Scaling your Idea
Part 4
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

72. So…
• You’ve come up with an idea that adds
value to your life
• You’ve tested it and are reasonably sure it
can add value to other people too
• How can you develop this idea and spread
it to as many people as possible?
Scaling your Idea
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

73. Scaling requires money!
Scaling your Idea
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

74. Instagram
Scaling your Idea
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

75. Hockey Stick growth
Scaling your Idea
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

76. Hockey Stick growth
Costs
far
outweigh
revenue
Scaling your Idea
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

77. Downloads
When
we
first
launched,
8
downloads
a
day
at
£2
Made
it
free
one
day…
Scaling your Idea
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

78. Downloads
Scaling your Idea
13,000
downloads
from
people
all
over
the
world!
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

79. Scaling your Idea
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

80. User
Demographics
45%
18-­‐24
–
students
27%
25-­‐34
–
postgraduates,
professionals
Scaling your Idea
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

81. Viral Growth
Scaling your Idea
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

82. Where is your business value?
Value
Network
Content
Revenue
Partnerships
Team
Brand
SoAware
Scaling your Idea
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

83. Currently valued at $40 billion
hsp://www.cnbc.com/id/102243201#
Why?
Scaling your Idea
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

84. Currently valued at $40 billion
Why?
Scaling your Idea
Value
Network
Content
Revenue
Partnerships
Team
Brand
SoAware
@mycqs
|
@gupta_james
|
@omairvaiyani

85. Currently valued at $40 billion
Why?
Scaling your Idea
Value
Network
Content
Revenue
Partnerships
Team
Brand
SoAware
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
|
@omairvaiyani

86. “If we can get you a car in five
minutes, we can get you
anything in five minutes”
- Travis Kalanick, CEO of Uber
Scaling your Idea
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
|
@omairvaiyani

87. Investment
Funders
&
Founders,
How
Funding
Works
Scaling your Idea

88. Main Types of Investment
• Friends & Family
– Easy to get in the beginning
– May cause tensions
• Angel Investors
– Add experience you may not have
– Can help open doors and make connections
• Venture Capitalists
– Expect high returns
– Step in clauses
• Crowdfunding
– Emerging model
– Can be very good for some businesses
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

89. MyCQs Investment
• £5,000 (50,000 SEK) in grants so far
– University
– Education Technology charity
• Bootstrapping has let us get unusually far
by ourselves
• Skipping angel investors, looking for VC
investment ~£250,000 (2.5M SEK)
• BUT…
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

90. “How will you balance running a business
with your degree?”
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

91. @mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

92. Continuity Plan
Phase
1
• Feb-­‐Sept
2015
Phase
2
• Sept
2015
–
June
2017
Phase
3
• June
2017
–
2019
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
|
@omairvaiyani

93. Summary
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
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@omairvaiyani

94. Part 1: Framing the Problem
• Framing the problem accurately is vital for
finding a solution
• Conduct surveys, look for existing data
online
• Read around your subject
• Qualitative AND quantitative both helpful
@mycqs
|
@gupta_james
|
@omairvaiyani

95. Part 2: Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset
• Your scientific background is immensely
valuable in business
• Cultivate your creativity by learning about a
range of different fields
• Allow your mind to make connections in
unique ways
@mycqs
|
@gupta_james
|
@omairvaiyani

96. Part 3: Finding and Validating Your Idea
• Fail fast: test your riskiest assumptions first
and modify your business plan as
appropriate
• Constantly test various aspects of your
product and monitor the results
• Stay ahead of the curve!
@mycqs
|
@gupta_james
|
@omairvaiyani

97. Part 4: Growing your Business
• Bootstrapping can be a great way to retain
control of your business
• You don’t need to think about monetisation
right from the start, but do start to test
different models out and consider where
your business value comes from
• Start to plan investment early: can take
6-12 months to secure
• Choose investment that suits your business
@mycqs
|
@gupta_james
|
@omairvaiyani

98. Final Words
• Hard work, but a lot of fun!
• You get to be your own boss, have freedom
to do what you want
• But a lot of responsibility!!
• Scientist-Entrepreneurs is a growing
movement!

99. Helpful Resources
@mycqs
|
@gupta_james
|
@omairvaiyani

100. Organisations
• Doctorpreneurs (doctorpreneurs.com)
– Resources, support and events for medics &
scientists interested in enterprise
• Fourmore (fourmore.eu)
– Mobile hackathon / think tank that takes people
from a wide range of backgrounds and puts them
in a team to work on healthcare problems
• Kairos Society (kairossociety.org)
– International network of young entrepreneurs
interested in healthcare, education and clean
technology.
@mycqs
|
@gupta_james
|
@omairvaiyani

101. Websites
• Buffer Blog (blog.bufferapp.com)
– Buffer is a social media management startup, they
publish a lot of amazing blog posts on creativity,
entreprenership etc, well worth a read!
• GrowthHackers (growthhackers.com)
– Community articles on startups, growth, enterprise
etc
• Reddit Startups (reddit.com/r/startups)
– Active community of entrepreneurs
• VentureBeat (www.venturebeat.com)
– Great, well respected authority on enterprise
related topics
@mycqs
|
@gupta_james
|
@omairvaiyani

102. Books
Enterprise & Startups
• The Lean Startup, Eric Ries
• Mastery, Robert Greene
Healthcare
• The Innovator’s Prescription, Clayton Christensen
• The Checklist Manifesto, Atul Gawande
• The Rise and Fall of Modern Medicine, James Le Fanu
Neuroscience & Psychology
• Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning, Peter Brown
• Blink, Malcolm Gladwell
@mycqs
|
@gupta_james
|
@omairvaiyani

103. Podcasts
• The Joe Rogan Podcast
– Not business related but a huge range of guests
from fields such as neuroscience, history, cognitive
psychology etc giving overviews of their work in a
very accessible way
• Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History
– Key events and movements in history brought to
life and their relevance to modern day examined by
a self-proclaimed ‘amateur historian’
• Entrepreneurs Only by Experience Ambition
– Relatively new podcast consisting of interviews with
entrepreneurs in different fields.
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
|
@omairvaiyani

104. Articles
• Finding Your Niche (James Gupta)
• What researchers who want to be
entrepreneurs need to know
• The Biomedical Dropout Club
• Why I encourage students to create
startups
• The Secret to Creativity, Intelligence and
Scientific Thinking: Being able to make
connections
@mycqs
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@gupta_james
|
@omairvaiyani

105. @mycqs
|
@gupta_james
|
@omairvaiyani
Cliché,
but
True!

106. Slides
bit.ly/ki_careers_mycqs
MyCQs
mycqs.com !
@mycqs
QuesEons,
Comments?
Follow
James
on
Twiser
@gupta_james
or
email
him
james@mycqs.com
Follow
Omair
on
Twiser
@omairvaiyani
or
email
him
omair@mycqs.com