Fall 7 times and get up 8 times

This week started off on Monday with a long meeting. Minttu and Eevi had been thinking about concentrating in something else in their lives and on Monday they made their decisions to drop off. Minttu realized that the things she needed to give up on weren’t worth of losing and Eevi felt like she wasn’t that interested that she could be working with this project for 24/7.  We all feel really sad about them leaving; they were a great addition to our group.  We’re so proud of them and appreciate all the work they have done. We’re happy for them to finding out the other things they are dreaming of and we support them fully with whatever they want to do in a future.

This fall has been extremely tough on everybody. There have been so many ups and downs and project GlobeOut has taken its toll on everyone. Even though we had learned so many important things about the industry and building a start-up sometimes the feeling of not going anywhere or nothing is happening, even if we work our butts off, is frustrating. And like one smart man once said, in order to achieve your dreams you need to push through, no matter what. After long talks this week, we realized GlobeOut is our dream and there’s nothing stopping us making GlobeOut successful! J

Falling seven times but getting up 8 times would describe our fall perfectly. We’ve been through so much and finally it starting to feel like the world is on our side.

We got up the 8^th time and it feels good.

We took part in a competition organized by HHPartners, which is a law firm in Finland. They want to help out 5 different start-ups with making Ltd agreements and other different law issues we’re going to be facing. They will help us out with not only giving us our own layer but also with some financial help as well. We are all so very excited about this possibility and this means so much to us. Can’t wait for next weeks’ meetings with them!

For now, adios!

P.S. I know rest of the GTP Group will hate me for posting a Miley Cyrus song, but this is a must post! ENJOY! J

Never give up

So here’s what is going on right now. We had the workshop with this guy. He is brilliant! The workshop we had was probably the most productive thing we have had so far and it really helped us to put our concept together. We now realize that our strength is in visual side and in sociality. Those are our strengths in this kind of business. 

We also heard that one of our main competitors just received funding of 15 million dollars! You could imagine that it would bring us down a bit but it made us realize that (at least in our own minds) we are going to be so much better than they are. So it shouldn’t be so hard to get funding once we have things rolling.

As we mentioned earlier our goal was to get GlobeOut prototype into the travel fair 2012 but that didn’t really work out as planned. Our university representatives said that our concept wasn’t in harmony with theirs and that there were already too many students involved with the stand. Clearly the board wasn’t able to see the benefits of actually showing something that the students have achieved in order to promote our university rather than having brochures. One can only wonder what the use of 40 promoters is when there could be few who actually have something to show for their work. Luckily we still have few aces in our sleeves so we’ll see what happens.

Despite this set back we will continue in process of getting the prototype ready as soon as possible. We will still attend the Travel Fair 2012 so that we can do some heavy networking. We are also considering to attend the Travel Technology Europe 2012 –fair that is held in London. More info: http://www.traveltechnologyshow.com/

Her story inspired us this week:

Working towards our goals

We have been connecting to people to make things happen. Right now our goal is to get the prototype ready for January 2012 so that we could present it at the Travel Fair 2012 on HAAGA-HELIA stand. We have been having a meeting with the team organizing the stand and contacting our Pasila Campus in order to borrow one of their awesome multitouch screens. More info about the screens from: http://multitouch.fi/

Two of us also had a meeting with this guy who works for one of the leading marketing companies in Finland in order to get our marketing and branding planned correctly. We went through multiple slides just so that we could understand the way a brand is build. Oh boy we have a lot of work to do. Next week all of us will be having a workshop with him.

We also decided to take all our online conversations from Facebook chat into Flowdock – a new tool for groups and companies to change information (such as emails, documents, images etc.) and talk online. More information about Flowdock you can find from here: https://www.flowdock.com/

After Slush'11

Slush was awesome and got us fully excited to work some more. We got a bunch of business cards and on Monday the 7.11 we organized them on the computer and sent emails to all our new friends. It was interesting to realize that people were still helpful afterwards. We also discussed on the paperwork for the company’s registration. One of us started to work on that so that once we are ready to put money into business we would have everything ready to be send out. We’re getting closer and closer bit by bit. This is very interesting. We started using Flowdock.com which was introduced to us at Slush. It helps us to inform each other with anything.  All emails and other documents can be posted in one place where every one of us can see it. Check it out, it works for us and they have a 30 days free trial period for everybody. https://www.flowdock.com/

This is what inspired us...

Slush '11

We attended this two day fair called Slush’11 which was held at Kaapelitehdas in Helsinki on the 2^nd and 3^rd of November. Slush is a fair for new start-up companies where they can meet investors and get plenty of new contacts and visibility.

http://www.slush.fi/main/

There were about 2 500 visitors in two days from all over the world. We met plenty of young entrepreneurs as well as founders of big companies. They had two main stages, the other one was for keynote speakers and panel conversations and the other one was a pitching stage. There was a Slush100 pitching competition for new start-up companies. We also applied to it but didn’t get to participate. We think the reason for this was that all the other start-ups were two steps ahead of us with their own companies and ideas. So next year it will be our chance. It turned out to be a good thing as now we got to listen and learn what is correct and what is absolutely not. The most interesting part was listening to others’ ideas. Be aware as a lot of great things will happen in the future, so good luck to all the others.

Besides the two stages there were also around 50 demo tables in the middle where people were presenting their own companies to everybody. There were both start-up companies as well as already exciting companies which were helping out the start-ups. It was really interesting just to go around and talk to other people about their ideas and how they’re managing with their companies.

In general people were really generous and helpful. We talked about GlobeOut to a lot of people and got them really excited about it. We even found a law firm called HH Partners that had an open application for a mentoring program which is designed for start-ups. The conditions were that the start-up company shouldn’t have a lot of money or sponsors (that’s us), a lot of experience (that’s us, again) and hasn’t registered the company yet (that’s still us). This program is called Pro Bono during which the start-up company will have experts in their field helping out the company with all sorts of agreements and things with law and order. After the fair we completed the application and hope for the best as it would be one of the best things ever that could happen to us at this point.

After the first day at Slush there had been organised an after-party for all the participants at the Ahjo Bar & Club in Helsinki. We arrived just after seven pm and got two drink coupons each. They had a special drink for the night called the Slush special which included blueberries and lime squeezed with sugar, smashed ice and vodka. There we met a lot of new people who helped us out quite a bit with their own experiences and advice. The night was a success.

The program during these two days was really interesting but also very hectic. The pitching competition as well as the panel discussions and the speeches happened at the same time so we divided us into two groups. This way we got way more out of everything.

It seems like we are heading in the right direction because gaming and social media is the number one thing now and that industry keeps growing like crazy! Thank you, Slush11’, for giving us an awesome opportunity to learn more and to meet new people. We got a lot of new ideas and contacts and afterwards slept like babies.

This is what inspires us for the next year to come:

Congratulations Ovelin!!! (They have a game called Wild Chords. Check it out!!!)

Greetings from New York City

Now that we are back in Finland is time to update what we have learned. The lecture of Ernest Von Simson was very broadening experience.  It dealt with the meaning of laptops and tablets in the future. We also discussed about the security issues on the Internet. According to Von Simson every single website will be hacked at some point! That’s nuts, isn’t it? The lecture gave us a lot to think and brought new ideas to GlobeOut.com. The market of iPads is enormous in the States and we noticed that we have to concentrate more on the application side of GlobeOut too. After the lecture, we came up with one word that would describe GlobeOut the best. SOCIAL TRAVEL GAME.

We met again with Jonathan Hill on Monday evening. First we went to visit him at the Pace University where we had a chance to talk with his students. They were all really nice and helpful and we got great support from them! In Finland the support of others haven’t been exactly what we wanted it to be and it was nice to notice how helpful the students of Pace University were.  After Pace we headed over to Downtown association with Jonathan Hill and we discussed more about GlobeOut. After few hours of good wine and food we promised to send him some materials about GlobeOut and if he and his students like what we’re doing they might help us out maybe by making the prototype of GlobeOut for us.

So all and all, the week went very well and now it’s time to suffer from great jet lag!

A quick catch up

It's day four in New York and a lot has happened already. Upon our arrival we rented a car for two days and we were driving around Brooklyn, Manhattan and New Jersey doing some sightseeing and shopping. Hilma was driving like a lunatic but so were everybody else too. We stayed few days in New Jersey and Thursday morning we headed over to New York.

Before we got here we had been in contact with this cool professor called Jonathan Hill from Pace University. He was kind enough to arrange some meetings and meet us up. We had a lecture on Thurday night at Pace University with a very intelligent Ernest Von Simson, President and senior partner at Ostriker Von Simson. The lecture was about today's and tomorrows technology in computers, smart phones etc. It was very interesting and we noticed that Finland is way behind with a lot of things. We'll write all about the lecture later!!

Here is a very interesting video called Social Media Revolution that they showed us at the lecture:

4 days here have been absolutely amazing and we felt like the girls from sex and the city when driving with taxis around Manhattan! Pictures and more posting coming soon!!

GlobeOut goes to NYC

This week has been quite a busy one. We have been working like ants to put our idea in order. The key advice that most of the Startup Sauna coaches gave us was to simplify the idea and put it in a package that you can sell. It’s actually harder than it sounds. 

We realized that even though we have made a lot of research about our competitors there is still a lot to do. That’s why we agreed that there is some serious benchmarking to be done and a lot of co-operating companies to be found.

We have been contacting a lot of different universities and other people who could potentially be helpful for us and our mission. We had a Skype meeting with a Latvian gaming startup company which gave us a lot of insight of what we’ll be facing in the future. We even had an interview for a magazine called Signals.

The next week will be so-called intensive week so we all will be off the campus. Minttu will start working with the content of the site while Susanna writes the press release. Eevi, Hilma and Nea will go to New York to do some benchmarking and networking. They will be having a meeting with a Pace University professor and attending a lecture; Made in NY: The intersection of tech, media and entrepreneurship in New York City's technology scene.

All and all this week has been very interesting and we can only imagine what the next week will bring to our way. So stay tuned and hear what happened in New York!

Uhlalaa what a week!!!

So GTP Group is really starting to hit it off. A about a week ago we got an invitation to Startup Sauna. Startup Sauna is a non-profit seed accelerator for new start-up projects from Northern Europe and Russia.

This week on Monday the 3^rd of October we went to Espoo to spend the day with “real” business people. As it was a competition there were altogether 9 business plans competing. The day started off with an introduction on the day and then it was our time to shine. We had prepared a pitch talk for this day and tried it out for the first time to an audience. It was really exciting. Afterwards we had one on one time with five different coaches who reported back on us how we did and what we should do in the future. They were a huge help and the whole day really got us excited and thinking more on the REAL stuff.

On Tuesday we started brainstorming and talking about the most important things. We also decided that we need to think about the areas of responsibilities more carefully. We got our idea pretty clear and even have some new ideas, surprisingly. It’s gonna be awesome.

Stay tuned… this is just the beginning!

This got us inspired this week

Avril Lavigne - Smile

SUPERSUNDAYEXCITED!!

This Friday changed our perspective on working on developing GlobeOut.com completely. The whole week was very quiet, Hilma had an angina and had to be in bed for few days, Eevi had a really bad cough and the rest of the GTP Group wasn't feeling any better either. 

But on Friday afternoon, we were hanging out in Minttu's and Hilma's apartment when we realised that StartupSauna Warmup day was coming up in 3 days and we haven't heard anything from there since we left our application. 

Nea checked her inbox immediately and... just some spam mail. What a disappointment. 

"Congratulations!" was one of the spams, and we told Nea to delete that. But because of some weird reasons she decided to read it. OH MAN, IT WAS FROM STARTUPSAUNA!! WE GOT IN FOR THE WARMUP!! Imagine, if we would have deleted that  e-mail!!!

 After screaming and jumping on Hilma's bed, we realized how much we have to work during the weekend.

 

So, This would be the schedule for Monday:

9.30-10.00 Registration, coffee

10.00-10.15 Explaining the Start-up Sauna concept, introducing the coaches

10.15-11.00 Lesson on "What it takes to built a great startup" (Juha Ruohonen)

11.00-12.30 Start-up pitches and feedback from the coaches

12.30-13.30 lunch break

13.30-16.30 1:1 time with the coaches

16.30-17.00 Wrap-up and announcing the winner

17.00 ----> Networking

Take a look at where we have put our heads into:

http://startupsauna.com/warmups/

We have 3 minutes time for our pitch and 2 minutes for questions. This is an amazing opportunity and even if we don't win, we have won already! 

This weekend we literally have been working 24/7, doing research as much as possible, trying to find answers to questions they might ask us and of course working on improving our pitch. After a long weekend filled with hundreds of cups of coffee, we are feeling pretty confident with what we have came up with. 

Wish us luck!!!

Btw, we wanted to use this song at the end of our pitch, but we realized it's illegal to use it, too sad because it would've been tons of fun! Maybe in some other presentation... :) Well, we HAD TO post it here anyways, Sounds pretty cool, right!! :)

http://www.gobarbra.com/hit/new-171044242e51673cc2ce2f534e8f78cd

What a busy day we had! Nea and Hilma did good job with their presentation, we'll post a video of it later. Minttu, Susanna and Eevi are working really hard on their presentation for wednesdays meeting, let's hope all goes well! Anyways, we figured we have not yet posted any pictures of us!! well, it's about time. Here are some pics of us, our meetings and most importantly, picture of new GlobeOut!

 Here's all of us, the GTP Group. From the right Susanna, Nea, Minttu, Eevi and Hilma

 This is our "office", the second home. We spend here hours and hours almost every day!

 Time for some brainstorming...

 On our first meeting this semester, we got to make brunch. Yammy!!

All the probs from this goes to Nea! amazing work! Well done!

GlobeOut goes creative

Last week we were talking about how the website works and we realized that we don’t really agree about everything. We already had a first version of the layout ready, but then we sat down and started to think about it. It was good but a little bit old fashioned and we realized that we can create something even more amazing. So, we spend Monday evening, and night, brainstorming. We came out with some really crazy ideas and in the end the new layout was created. Now we all are in the same page and even more excited about this!

The whole week has been about being creative and next week will be really exciting. We have two presentations and possibility to get some publicity. Hilma and Nea will give a small presentation about us on Monday. We will film it and post it here and you can enjoy their amazing presentation! On Wednesday Eevi, Susanna and Minttu will give a presentation to IT students and the goal is to get them to join our project. 

 

GlobeOut goes to fairs

Our new family members, Elmeri and Brooke, have been taken seriously into the business. That was totally an excellent idea to get a hard drive and a book to document everything. Now we have every important thing in a same place instead of hundreds of different places. This is a new, more business-like, start for our upcoming company.

This week started with a conversation about what we do what we want to do and how to do it. It took a little time, but was definitely worth it. The more we discuss about things the less disagreement will appear. We also made our own meeting rules and sanction if someone doesn’t follow them. We decided not to register the Ltd. yet when it’s not necessary. It’s more important to put our idea into peaces and analyse it peace by peace. Time for registration will come later.

Next big things we are heading to are Slush conference and Startup Sauna. Slush is the leading startup conference in Northern Europe. Startup Sauna therefore is a program that seeks most promising startups in the Nordics, Baltics and Russia. More information can be read from the links below.

http://www.slush.fi/

http://startupsauna.com/

We have to keep in mind that even though both of those things are great opportunities for us, we might not succeed in them, but we’ll continue seeking other options without giving up. That’s why we have to make other plans for the future. We have to have the plan B with our business and maybe even the plan C.

What we are going to do now is to study and learn, learn and study, that one day we’ll know every single answer to those questions people keep asking. Only then the baby steps can grow.

You don't have to be rich to get what you want. : P

Elmeri & Brooke

Last week was a little bit hectic. We had to sent two of our little globbers to the world and the rest of us felt a little bit lost at first. Thank goodness we pulled ourselves together and got a lot of things done! We contacted tons of people, Minttu was sending e-mails to all the possible bloggers and Hilma and Eevi were contacting different people from the IT industry. It finally feels like we are starting to move on with this project! We made a really interesting benchmarking test online. If you have a new company and you want to benchmark it, this site will definitely help you out!

Startup Genome

P.S. We got two new family members, Elmeri the Portable Hard Drive and Brooke the Book :)

Come together

It’s been a busy week of planning and researching. We have mainly been working with marketing our questionnaire for GlobeOut.com. We had this great idea of making it as an event in Facebook which made it easier to spread it around the globe. And this is what it’s all about. Having new ideas and making them work. Just by creating the event we managed to triple the amount of answers!

You can also help us by answering this marketing questionnaire below and sending it forward:

English version:

http://www.webropol.com/P.aspx?id=554024&cid=136115511

Suomenkielinen versio:

http://www.webropol.com/P.aspx?id=551972&cid=150939159

We also created the schedule for our business plan. Well planned is half done as they say. During our meetings we have been discussing about our future responsibilities towards our company and our customers. It is all starting to come together but we do realize that we are still taking our baby steps in this great world of business.

This is what inspired us this week: 

La gente está muy loca!

Have you ever thought about how much time you spend planning a trip? Well, we did. One day at school we started to talk about how annoying it is to scroll through thousands of different travelling sites when planning a trip. Wouldn’t it be easier to just use one site? We started to brainstorm around and basically that’s where it all started.  After 4 months of intensive working we are at the point now where we have the business plan ready. We’re full of new ideas and very passionate about the upcoming website.

GlobeOut is going to be the global travel portal of the future. It will connect all the travellers around the world in a way that’s never been seen before. It’ll be an easy way to get connected, plan your trips, get information and most importantly to have fun! In the future we hope we can be able to help our users to book for example flights and accommodations.

We are 5 Finnish girls who had a brilliant idea and that is how GTP Group was founded. GTP stands for global travel portal. We decided to create a blog to help us to keep up with the documentation. This is also an easy way for our future users to get to know us and our company.

Hopefully you enjoy this as much as we do and keep up with our weekly updates!

This inspired us today. Kinda lame but made us smile J La gente está muy loca

GTP Group