Everyone knows that making a startup succeed can be a tumultuous ride. Wouter Robers, the Validator of YES!Delft, understands this all too well. As a co-founder of three startups, he now assists early-stage startups at YES!Delft with their validation process and product-market fit, drawing from his extensive experience. In this article, Wouter discusses the key lessons that we can learn from his first startup journey.
Epyon: the initial idea
In 2006, mobile phones were less sophisticated than they are today. You could make calls, send texts, and play Snake, but that was about it. The upside? The battery lasted for days. The downside? It took forever to charge them, typically 10 hours. Especially when traveling, there wasn’t enough time to recharge cell phones.
Wouter and his co-founders, who were finishing their studies at Delft University at the time, wanted to reduce that charging time with their company, Epyon, to build a fast-charge battery. They hoped that major cellphone companies would adopt their innovation. However, companies were reluctant to change their designs, leading to the first pivot in their plan.
Lesson 1: Don’t be afraid to pivot
Epyon’s next step was to create a portable charging point. They developed a fast-charging power bank that could recharge itself within sixty seconds. A traveler could then use that power bank to recharge a cellphone while on the go. The idea was met with enthusiasm, leading Wouter and his co-founders to develop the product and travel to China to produce 120 fast-charging power banks.
The result was a fast-charging power bank with a USB port (rare back then) and cables to facilitate charging anywhere in the world. It was time to sell. However, six months later, not a single power bank had been sold. Why? The power bank cost around 60 euros, which seems like a bargain now, but it was a price distributors were unwilling to pay back then.
Lesson 2: Validation is key
Many ideas start with assumptions. There’s nothing wrong with that – except when they are not validated. Wouter:
We assumed our idea would work. In hindsight, we should have gone to the airport to ask at least fifty businessmen their opinions.
So, did they give up on their first startup adventure after nearly three years? Of course not. Enter pivot three!
Lesson 3: Solve the right problem
The co-founders of Epyon asked themselves a crucial question: “Who is losing money due to slow charging?” They discovered that industries operating around the clock, such as airports and supply chain businesses, were affected. Cleaning machines and pallet trucks took considerable time to charge, prompting the co-founders to redesign their product into a fast charger for these machines. Testing this idea with a few pilots proved successful. The next step? To seek additional funding to speed up the process.
Lesson 4: Be open to other perspectives
An investor showed interest but suggested a more clean-tech approach to the business. Taking the future into consideration again, entrepreneurs have found a solution for electric cars. Electric vehicles were still in their early stages in Europe, while Japan pioneered fast-charging car options. This motivated the entrepreneurs to set a new goal, shifting their focus from mobile phones, cleaning machines, and pallet machines to fast-charging electric cars.
They constructed a fast-charging station for electric cars and sold them in limited quantities as demand only slowly increased.
Lesson 5: Sometimes, you must let go of your favorite ideas.
Due to their extensive knowledge and experience, Epyon could have implemented numerous features in the fast-charging electric stations. However, most of the necessary technology was already built into the car. Wouter commented:
It felt weird to just walk away from a lot of knowledge that we built up over the years and basically build a “dumb” charger, but holding on to that would have prevented us from seizing this opportunity.
Lesson 6: See when an exit makes sense
In 2011, Estonia launched a tender to upgrade its infrastructure with electric charging stations. Soon, Epyon received requests for 250 fast chargers from various parties. It provided them with two choices: either to scale up to build those 250 charging stations, with the likelihood of having to scale down again the following year, or to sell their startup to another company. As scaling down a business is difficult, they decided to sell their company. Ultimately, ABB acquired Epyon. Wouter:
Well, it wasn’t that obvious at the time. Sometimes a decision only makes the most sense afterwards. It was a time when the company’s value was high, and costs were about to shoot up.
Lesson 7: Timing is crucial
Wouter concludes: “You can be too early with your idea, which is as bad as being too late for a startup. We had to pivot a few times because society wasn’t ready for our concept yet. Fortunately, we had multiple revenue streams from the start due to our commercial mindset. Also, it’s important to keep your eyes open for opportunities. We knew much about fast-charging batteries and had the technology for them. Still, we never expected to end up creating fast chargers for electric vehicles or finding an excellent opportunity to sell the startup.”
Do you have a brilliant idea that could potentially change the world within a few years? Don’t forget to validate your solution and join the YES!Delft Validation Lab. In just 10 weeks, you will learn everything you need to know to find the right product-market fit.
Click here for more information about the YES!Delft Validation Lab.
