YPlan

We met Vik from YPlan a couple of nights ago. Vik is one of the co-founders, with Rytis. Together they have launched this app called YPlan a couple of months ago. I organised an evening with him as a part of Bocconi Alumni’s Entrepreneurship Series.

I am a big fan of the App. I think this is the sort of app that should be on the home screen of every Londoner’s iPhone. It markets to you events / things happening in London within the next 48 hours.  I like the app because it has a very sleek design and because it gives you access to a short list of events that (1) have availability and (2) that you feel have been somewhat “due diligenced” by someone at YPlan. You don’t find a 2-for-1 happy hour deal at the pub around the corner from work, but a chocolate walking tours of London or gigs at White Noise in Hoxton.

Going back to the evening, Claudia, another startup founder, offered to interview Vik for us. By the end of the evening, she probably managed to go through less than a third of the questions she had prepared. The people who were attending the event were very active in interrupting the discussion with their questions. The hour we had budgeted for the discussion flew by in no time.

What turned out to be the most interesting aspect of the evening to me was a brief discussion I had with Claudia before the event officially begun. What Claudia found the most fascinating of Vik and Rytis’ experience was the lack of a large pivot in their idea. The transition of Vik and Rytis into entrepreneurs seemed smooth: they left their jobs, went on holidays, read a lot of books on how to become entrepreneurs, did a lot of networking, short listed their favourite idea from a long list and… stuck to it. And so far they have been very successful.

The discussion with Vik in the evening turned out to be different: the people who came to listed to him were in the end more interested in the operational side of his startup rather than the path that lead him there. What I took home with me is the impact that a thorough and thoughtful preparation can have on making a leap. Read books, listen to people’s opinions and them weight them against your own.

I loved reading Vik and Rytis’s blog before the evening. Here is the link to it  – http://2founders.com