How Pioneers 2017 made me realize what it means to build a futuristic product
The Pioneers17 conference in Vienna last week was simply BIG. Both in terms of the venue and the presented ideas. It's a place filled with people who focus and care about the future.
The futuristic overlap was indeed the main topic that resonated throughout all talks. Namely this quote:
“The future is already here — it’s just not very evenly distributed.”
- William Gibson (1993)
While many startups, talks, blog posts, mentors and even startup accelerators emphasize finding the PROBLEM you're trying to solve, not many people talk about even distribution of your solution.
In fact, this was my first encounter with investors and businessmen who didn’t focus mainly on profit, but (maybe seemingly) more on change and impact on our future. Consequently, if you want to alter the future of the human kind, you can’t think only in abstract concepts like “problem” or “growth,” but you need to break it down to ordinary people no matter how diverse they are.
This down-to-earth approach focuses on cutting out the obstacles that prevent all people from using your product (your solution to their problem). It was incredible to see companies and thinkers who consider this approach already in the phase of designing the product or service and not only later when all Western markets are saturated.
To give you an idea what I mean, I selected a few different and indeed quite disruptive companies who pitched at Pioneers17.
Apiject
Did you know that reuse of syringes kills 1.3 million people each year? Marc Koska came up with a low-cost syringe that can’t be used twice. His idea marks the whole checklist of what I believe is a visionary business.
- You have a big problem;
- You have a very elegant solution based on the smart design with low cost.
This design-based approach reflects in other products from Apiject, like lightweight plastic containers for liquid drugs and others. Make sure to check out his TED talk.
Marko Russiver, a former creative director, once noticed, that doctors are often uninformed when it comes to new medical approaches. After calling to professors from all sorts of academic institutions and universities from Oxford to Tokyo, he found out that most of these people agree that they don’t really know what are other thinkers and institutions working on until something gets published.
“The most brilliant minds in the world not collaborating is very scary thought for me.”
- Marko Russiver
So Marko came up with a research funding platform that would allow scientists collaborate and review each other work already in the research phase. He recently got the support of the Dubai government, so I’d guess he might be onto something.
These guys have a functional AI for comparing medical reports to help oncologists make more informed decisions when it comes to cancer treatment. Unlike IBM’s Watson, these guys didn’t burn millions of dollars in research and development, and they already have a working product. They say, their results are actually better than Watson. If you know someone who's been recently diagnosed with cancer, please pass this link onto them.
“One doctor has the capacity to read up to 200 scientific papers on cancer treatment per year. That’s not enough. Mendel.ai is like Jarvis for the oncologist.”
- Karim Galil
Jon von Tetzchner was one of the co-founders of Opera Software. Now after 17 years since the Opera browser launch, he’s building a new browser called Vivaldi.
“We’re building a user-centric product. We see all users — even the smallest and weakest ones (those with bad internet connection and bad screen resolution), and we make them matter in the crowd by adapting to them.”
- Jon von Tetzchner
BTW, if you’re looking to read a bit on bringing products to progressively larger markets, have a look at Crossing the Chasm.
Not pumped about better future yet?
Okay, let me introduce you to some people who can talk to autistic kids or edit DNA.
Ron Suskin is a Pulitzer-winning journalist, and teacher of narrative and justice at Harvard Law School. He wrote a book about how he found a way to understand and become closer to his kid. A movie based on this book was recently nominated for the Academy Award. Have a look at why it’s so special.
Dr. Rachel Haurwitz
Her company Caribou Biosciences found a way how to efficiently edit genoms. She believes making the food we grow tastier and resistant to bad weather or different attitudes (hand in hand with less food wasting) will play a critical part in the population boom.
Mr. Templeton is a professor from Singularity University who writes and researches the future of automated transportation at Robocars.com and worked for two years on Google’s team building these cars. He talked a lot about autonomous vehicles that are already working all around the world. However, the most important part of his talk were the implication of this market.
Let’s have a look at one example. Imagine that 90% of all cars in the world are autonomous. They can come in when we need them and when we don't they can park outside the city. So, what will happen to parking lots? These places in the core part of cities might be turned into parks or build upon. In any case — buying parking lots might turn out to be a good investment… Yo, where’s my wallet at?
FYI if you like autonomous cars, check out Brad’s blog.
These guys built world’s first electric vertical take-off and landing jet. They already have a working prototype. I mean come on — how cool is that? FYI, check out how they image the future of transport.
If you’re considering to changing your LinkedIn job title to something that that has “Growth Hacker” in it, make sure to check Andrew’s blog. He’s the Head of Rider Growth at Uber. He is an advisor/investor for tech startups including AngelList, Barkbox, Boba Guys, Dropbox, Front, Marco Polo, Gusto, Kiva, Product Hunt, Tinder, Workato, and others. Quite a list, eh?
He told us to forget about those tips and tricks articles about growth since they are only short term tactics and that we should focus on long term strategies, that have been been invented decades if not 100 years ago. And what are these ancient things? You know them all: growth hacking, virality, content marketing, etc.
Therefore he suggested us to read an old school bible of really innovative marketing strategies: My life in advertising (written by a guy who invented the coupon and stunt marketing!).
“You don’t have to be afraid that people would steal your idea and build what you’re building first. They won’t because they don’t trust your idea as you do. Plus if you see competition and worry that you’re not the first, don’t be. I mean, was Tesla the first electric car? Google the first search engine? Facebook the first social network?”
- Andrew Chen
And that’s a wrap
I have high hopes that (at least European) investors are shifting their focus to on existential problems of the human race and less on rainbow filters. So in case you have a startup in energetics, biotech, healthcare or transportation, your time is now.
The future is already here. However, we still need to work on the distribution part.
