Denna studie undersöker entreprenöriella egenskaper och deras roll i investeringsbeslut. Processen från idé till förverkligande är utmanande och kräver tid, kompetens och framför allt kapital. Studien syftar till att identifiera och formulera vilka egenskaper som är mest betydelsefulla för riskkapitalister och vad som bedöms när en entreprenör söker investering. På så vis belyses hur entreprenörer agerar vid investeringstillfällen och deras syn på vad riskkapitalister värderar. Syftet med studien är att skapa en övergripande förståelse för de egenskaper hos entreprenörer, särskilt inom svenska startups, som påverkar riskkapitalisters investeringsbeslut. För att uppnå detta syfte inkluderar studien även att identifiera relevanta verktyg och ramverk som kan underlätta förståelsen och identifieringen av dessa egenskaper hos entreprenörer. Detta genomförs med hjälp av en kvalitativ studie baserat på intervjuer från riskkapitalister och entreprenörer. Genom att formulera en kravlista med de mest relevanta egenskaperna och deras betydelse ämnar studien att bidra till en ökad förståelse av detta dynamiska samspel. En viktig insikt från studien är att trots att det finns flera kriterier att beakta vid investeringstillfällen, är entreprenören den avgörande faktorn. Därför är egenskaper såsom förmågan att sälja, självförtroende och uthållighet, bland andra, avgörande för att säkra finansiering och lyckas med företaget. En ytterligare insikt från denna studie är att verktyg såsom due diligence och ramverk som The Big Five kan underlätta för både riskkapitalister och entreprenörer att bedöma vilka egenskaper som är mest avgörande beroende på omständigheterna. / This study investigates entrepreneurial traits and their role in investment decisions. The process from idea to realization is challenging and requires time, competence, and, above all, capital. The study aims to identify and formulate the traits that are most significant for venture capitalists and what is assessed when an entrepreneur seeks investment. In this way, the study highlights how entrepreneurs act during investment opportunities and their perspective on what venture capitalists value. The purpose of the study is to create a comprehensive understanding of the traits in entrepreneurs, particularly within Swedish startups, that influence venture capitalists' investment decisions. To achieve this purpose, the study also includes identifying relevant tools and frameworks that can facilitate the understanding and identification of these traits in entrepreneurs. This is accomplished through a qualitative study based on interviews with venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. By formulating a checklist of the most relevant traits and their significance, the study aims to contribute to a greater understanding of this dynamic interaction. An important insight from the study is that despite the numerous criteria to consider during investment opportunities, the entrepreneur is the decisive factor. Therefore, traits such as the ability to sell, self-confidence, and perseverance, among others, are crucial for securing financing and succeeding with the business. An additional insight from this study is that tools such as due diligence and frameworks like The Big Five can facilitate both venture capitalists and entrepreneurs in assessing which traits are most crucial depending on the circumstances.

We are living in the “Anthropocene” the era in which human activities are responsible for severe damage to the resilience of the ecological and social systems, undermining the Earth’s autopoetic mechanism, integrity and ability to function as a healthy complex adaptive systems. The prevailing societal paradigm for business practices has yet to realise the reality of our current global unsustainable state – and the shift necessary to move us forward collectively. Startup companies have a unique opportunity to gain and leverage competitiveness and attractiveness for funding and customers through sustainability driven business strategies, models and value propositions. This research analyses literature, document and interview data to explore if and how current practices in the Lean Startup contribute to a sustainable society – and how a Strategic Sustainable Development approach might be introduced to enhance the resilience of Lean Startups. Therefore, our key recommendations for Lean Startups that want to introduce an SSD approach are: to raise awareness about the sustainability challenges and opportunities; utilise backcasting towards a vision framed by the Sustainability Principles; focus on fulfilling fundamental basic Human Needs; utilize strategic prioritization questions when pivoting and combine the FSSD ABCD process with the Lean BML cycle. Ultimately, this thesis proposes the use of Strategic Sustainable Trigger Questions to (re)design sustainable business models and value-propositions. We conclude that “asking the right questions - rather than giving answers up front” might spark conversations and innovations in Lean Startups, beneficial for the sustainability of both the individual startup the larger socio-ecological systems.

摘要 進口流行服飾零售在過去十年已經是台灣年輕人間創業的趨勢。因為1990年代開始韓國文化在全球風行，對韓國流行服飾的供給與需求均大幅增加。另一方面，自2008年開始的全球經濟危機造成的低薪與失業問題更影響大批年輕人。他們之中許多人選擇自行創業，而因為較低的進入門檻，進口流行服飾的零售業成為主要的選項。 激烈的競爭造成了零售價降低以及仿冒品、次級品的問題，這些問題也惡化了這些新創立事業營運上的壓力，特別是在現金流和銷售量兩方面。這些年輕人會選擇創立這樣的零售業務正因他們本身缺乏資源，所以在極早期做出合適的行銷策略選擇，將非常的關鍵。 現今的管理理論多針對如何管理已經存在的企業或針對那些手中已有些許資源的企業家探討如何進行資源配置。這些理論中討論創立新事業的策略部分卻很少。我們發現邱志聖（2014）提出的4C策略行銷架構可以提供解決之道，能幫助這些年輕創業者選擇創業的適當策略。 透過4C策略行銷架構分析，我們發現，當進口流行服飾零售業者採用實體店面銷售的方式時，會比採用網路行銷更有機會降低顧客的交易成本。這些成本不只是價格，還包括了外顯效益成本，資訊搜尋成本，道德危機成本，以及專屬資產成本。 在我們的研究中，我們也認知到包曼（2003）提出的「自媒體」觀念可以將業務營運帶向另外一條新的道路。不管是實體店面或是網路銷售的經營者都可以藉由經營本身的「自媒體」來降低交易成本。我們相信，「自媒體」透過改善經營者的4C策略行銷架構，將對未來產生顛覆性的改變。 / Abstract Imported fashion retailer has already been a trend of newly startups among young people in the past decade in Taiwan. Because the increase in global popularity of South Korean culture since the 1990s, both the supply and demand on Korean fashion clothing are increasing dramatically. On the other hand, low wages and unemployment affected lots of young in Taiwan due to global economic crisis since 2008. Many of them chose to start their own business and imported fashion retailer is a major option due to its low barriers to entry. Tough competition leads to low retail price and problems on counterfeit and substandard goods, which also exacerbates the stress on running business of these newly startups, especially on their cash flow and sales. These young entrepreneurs chose to start their retail business due to their lack of resources, so it is critical to make the suitable selection of their marketing strategies in the very beginning. Management theories nowadays paid lots attention on how to manage an existed corporate or how to distribute the resources for those entrepreneurs who already owned some. The literatures on theories regarding strategies to start a new business are disproportionately low. We noticed the 4C Strategic Marketing Analysis (Chiou, 2014) might provide a solution to that, helping these young entrepreneurs to choose a proper strategy starting their own business. Through 4C Strategic Marketing Analysis, we discovered, if imported fashion retailers choose to sell through a retail store rather than online business, they will have better chances to reduce the transaction costs of their customers. And those costs included not only the price, but cost of utility, cost of information search, cost of moral hazard and cost of asset specificity. During our research, we also acknowledged “We Media” (Bowman, 2003) may lead to a new way to run business. Both retail storeowners and online business owner could reduce their transaction costs by running their own “We Media”. We believe, “We Media” might be a game changer through its improvement on the 4Cs of marketing exchange.

The financing phenomenon equity crowdfunding, which is the smallest of the four crowdfunding types, has in recent years expanded quickly. This has led to companies and entrepreneurs that possess limited knowledge about business and are unable to get financed in any other way making their way to this financing type. Their lack of knowledge regarding valuation for businesses has not previously been studied. Researchers has however voiced their concerns regarding valuation for companies on this market, since it has significant implications for the future of the company and the chance for a crowdfunding campaign to succeed. These concerns led to the purpose of the thesis, to study how valuation is conducted in companies that has run equity crowdfunding campaigns in Sweden. To answer this a case study was conducted where seven entrepreneurs, that previously had such a campaign on the swedish platform FundedByMe, was interviewed. This was also complemented with an expert interview with a representative from a Swedish crowdfunding intermediary. During these interviews the entrepreneurs explained why they chose equity crowdfunding, why they chose to offer the amount of equity they did and the valuation process. From this study we can conclude that some of the concerns may be unjustified, even if most of the companies could not get financing in any other way they seem to have a high awareness of the importance of a thorough valuation and in several cases sought external help for this process. Further it can be concluded that the amount of equity offered is closely linked to the amount of capital that the entrepreneur believe they need, but also to keep as many shares as possible to themselves. Another important insight is that the current laws that regulate the area in Sweden is too unspecified and that further regulation is needed to reduce the amount of asymmetric information on the market and to protect investors to a higher degree than today. / Den nya finansieringsformen equity crowdfunding, den minsta av de fyra crowdfundingmodellerna, har under de senaste åren haft en snabb framfart. Detta har dock lett till attföretag och entreprenörer som är ekonomiskt okunniga och ej kan finansiera sig på annat sättsökt sig till equity crowdfunding. Deras okunskap kring värdering har inte tidigare studeratsmen forskare har uttryckt oro kring värderingen av företag inom denna marknad då den harstora implikationer för företagets framtid samt om kampanjen lyckas. Oron kringvärderingsförfarandet ledde till att syftet i denna studie utformades för att undersöka hur dettagår till i företag som tillämpat equity crowdfunding i Sverige. Det har skett genom enfallstudie där sju företag som haft en sådan kampanj hos den svenska plattformenFundedByMe intervjuades. Detta kompletterades även med en expertintervju från enrepresentant för denna intermediär. Under dessa intervjuer förklarade entreprenörerna varförde sökt sig till equity crowdfunding, varför de valde att bjuda ut den del av bolaget som devalde samt värderingsprocessen. Från resultatet av denna studie konstateras att viss oro kandämpas, då förvisso de flesta bolagen inte hade möjlighet att få finansiering på annat sätt,men de hade ändå en god uppfattning kring värderingens betydelse och hade i flera fall tagitin extern kompetens för att assistera med denna. Det går även att konstatera att andelenutbjudet kapital främst är kopplat till det kapitalbehov entreprenörerna upplever att de harsamt en önskan att behålla så många andelar som möjligt i bolaget. En viktig insikt är även attden lagstiftning som finns inom området, i Sverige, idag är alldeles för otydlig och equitycrowdfunding kommer behöva en mycket mer specificerad reglering för att åtgärda denasymmetriska informationen som finns på marknaden samt för att öka det i nulägetbristfälliga investerarskyddet.

Incentives are a well-known concept which primarily are used to motivate, recruit and keep employees within the organization. Financial incentives are associated with monetary reward in exchange for an achieved goal or performance. Non-financial incentives are on the other hand associated with non-monetary rewards such as appreciation, to praise, responsibility, education and evolvement. This essay aims to create an understanding for how the start-up companies are using financial and non-financial incentives. We base our results from an owners perspective and are using five interviews with the CEO of each company. The questions had a focus within incentives as well as recruitment and to keep key competence. The result showed that the start-up companies are mainly using non-financial incentives and that they generally experience themselves to be competitive on the labour market. Though there is a lack of competence within programming in their trade and all respondents agree that the start-up companies is an underdog among the large and more established companies, in the competition of key competence. Since the previous studies within this subject is lacking, we hope to contribute with increased understanding of how start-up companies are using financial and non-financial incentives.

This master thesis deals with design and implementation of a web portal for remote mentoring. It analyzes the issues of e-learning, coaching and mentoring and then defines the target audience and its needs. At the same time, it deals with technological startups and describes the process of building the portal in the context of the startup. The practical part focuses on the development itself, project management and project sustainability.

Social media and their accompanying smartphone apps have opened brands to consumers in unprecedented ways. Of these sites, none, with the exception of Facebook, are more popular than Instagram, a social networking app that is image-centric and image-driven. As a free platform for potentially reaching, attracting, and engaging with millions of consumers, Instagram offers brands an unprecedented avenue for free advertising—all on a relatively level playing field. This means that brands, even startups, have the same access to potential followers as larger, more established brands. This advertising is more fluid, more frequent, and more inconspicuous than traditional advertisements; e.g., magazine spreads, billboards, or commercials. To better understand what elements are commonly found in startups image posts on Instagram, as well as to learn if or how those elements translated to engagement, this study employed a content analysis to deconstruct 438 image posts aggregated from the Instagram accounts of ten U.S. startups. Images were coded for salient image features, viral advertising appeals, fundamental image functions, and creative message segments as outlined by Taylor's seminal advertising model, the six-segment message strategy wheel (1999). Likes and comments were recorded during coding in order to measure engagement. Two approaches to analyzing the data were then taken. First, descriptive statistical analyses were applied to the data to determine how frequently elements appeared among startups' image posts. The second approach involved two phases. In Phase 1, crosstabs were conducted to discover what interrelationships exist among these elements. In Phase 2, a qualitative content analysis of the data compiled from the initial content analysis was conducted to determine if certain schema were commonly manifest among posts with high and low engagement in respects to likes and comments. The subsequent findings indicated that object(s) were the most common image feature, informing was the most common function, ration was the most common image function, and humor was the most popular viral advertising appeal, although as a whole, viral advertising appeals were rarely manifest. The qualitative content analyses suggested that more schema negatively affected engagement than schema that positively affected it, though several important themes and base combinations were perceptible among the top 10 percent of posts in relation to engagement.

The explosive growth of ‘accelerators’ in the United States has given entrepreneurs and their startups the opportunity to pursue seed-stage financing. While the specific economic role of accelerators remains unclear, a study comparing the selection of portfolio companies between accelerators and venture capitalists was performed. A difference of means was performed on the responses per question between the collected 19 accelerators’ response and the 100 venture capitalists’ response, recorded from a prior study. It is found that venture capitalists place significantly more weight, than accelerators, on the potential of the startup’s product or service to be proprietary, to enter a high-growth market with little threat of competition within the first 3 years, and to deliver a high financial return within 5 to 10 years. The results also indicate that both accelerators and venture capitalists emphasize different attributes of the entrepreneur and venture team when considering selection.

Submitted by Automa??o e Estat?stica (sst@bczm.ufrn.br) on 2018-01-16T19:41:11Z No. of bitstreams: 1 CaduCalixtoDeCarvalhoDosSantos_DISSERT.pdf: 2219353 bytes, checksum: 0762e65b5885ef46e7a24b785f1caf20 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Arlan Eloi Leite Silva (eloihistoriador@yahoo.com.br) on 2018-01-22T14:21:51Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 CaduCalixtoDeCarvalhoDosSantos_DISSERT.pdf: 2219353 bytes, checksum: 0762e65b5885ef46e7a24b785f1caf20 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-01-22T14:21:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CaduCalixtoDeCarvalhoDosSantos_DISSERT.pdf: 2219353 bytes, checksum: 0762e65b5885ef46e7a24b785f1caf20 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-10-30 / Competir com players do mercado n?o ? tarefa f?cil, no entanto, as startups tem assumido um papel importante na economia mundial. Nessa perspectiva, este trabalho tem como objetivo demonstrar o potencial de uma startup e sua tecnologia, em rela??o ? players do mercado e suas tecnologias similares existentes, levando em considera??o aspectos como, viabilidade tecnol?gica, financeira e mercadol?gica. Para alcan??-lo, optou-se por uma pesquisa baseada em metodologias e abordagens: ?geis, empreendedoras e inovadoras, a partir de referencial bibliogr?fico e digital, bem como de experi?ncias em ambientes de inova??o. Dessa forma, buscou-se descrever as tecnologias similares existentes tendo em vista a meteorologia no Brasil e no mundo, bem como os representantes e fabricantes dessas tecnologias, no ?mbito das esta??es meteorol?gicas e dataloggers; apresentar a startup e a tecnologia desenvolvida relacionando com os players do mercado e suas tecnologias similares existentes, levando em conta quest?es de viabilidade tecnol?gica e financeira; e analisar as aplica??es da tecnologia desenvolvida considerando a startup e seus mercados-alvo, bem como outros setores. Desse modo, com base nas valida??es e provas de conceito realizadas, pode-se afirmar que, a startup e seu produto/servi?o tem potencial para competir com players do mercado. / Compete with the players in the Market is not easy, however starturps have been assuming an important role in the global economy. In this perspective, this work aims to show the potential of a startup and its technology, compared to market players and their similar technologies, mainly aspects such as technological, financial and marketing viability. To achieve this goal, we chose an research, based on methodologies and approaches: agile, entrepreneurs and innovative, from bibliographic and digital references, as well as experiences in innovation environments. In this way, we seek to describe the similar meteorological technologies in Brazil and in the world, as well as the representatives and manufacturers of these technologies, within the scope of current meteorological stations and dataloggers. Moreover, we seek to present the startup and developed technology relating to market players and their existing similar technologies, taking into account issues of technological and financial feasibility and to analyze the applications of the technology developed considering startup and its target markets as well as other sectors. Thus, based on the validations and proofs of concept, it can be stated that the startup and its product/service has the potential to compete with market players.

Submitted by Automa??o e Estat?stica (sst@bczm.ufrn.br) on 2018-01-16T20:56:05Z No. of bitstreams: 1 MoisesCiriloDeBritoSouto_DISSERT.pdf: 15760989 bytes, checksum: 92d36a4a1cf0eea79794b89c7fd70279 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Arlan Eloi Leite Silva (eloihistoriador@yahoo.com.br) on 2018-01-22T16:15:43Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 MoisesCiriloDeBritoSouto_DISSERT.pdf: 15760989 bytes, checksum: 92d36a4a1cf0eea79794b89c7fd70279 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-01-22T16:15:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MoisesCiriloDeBritoSouto_DISSERT.pdf: 15760989 bytes, checksum: 92d36a4a1cf0eea79794b89c7fd70279 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-07-25 / Neste trabalho ser? discutida a gest?o de inova??o baseada em spin-off acad?mico de pesquisa. Ser? apresentada a startup resultante, COIoT, da Plataforma Samana?, um projeto de pesquisa desenvolvido no Instituto Federal de Educa??o, Ci?ncia e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Norte em conjunto com o Centro Regional do Nordeste do Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais. Al?m disso, ser?o descritos tamb?m os artefatos de propriedade intelectual desenvolvidos e que foram introduzidos no mercado por essa startup, modelada durante o presente mestrado e objeto deste trabalho. Ser?o discutidos os resultados em termos desses artefatos e como os mesmos ser?o explorados comercialmente pela startup, resultando em retorno na forma de royalties ?s institui??es de pesquisa envolvidas. / This work will discuss innovation management based on academic spin-off research. The resulting startup, COIoT, of the Samana? Platform will be presented, as research project developed at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Rio Grande do Norte (IFRN) in cooperation with the Northeast Regional Center of the Brazilian National Institute for Space Research (CRN-INPE). In addition, it will also be described the intellectual property artifacts developed and introduced by the startup, modeled during the present master?s course and object of this work. The results will be discussed in terms of intellectual property artifacts and how such artifacts will be commercially exploited by startup, resulting in a return on royalties to the research institutions involved.