Learnings from founding a computer vision startup

Till Quack (kooaba) & Jan Erik Solem (Polar Rose)

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Founded 2006, 10 employeesFounders: Herbert Bay, Till Quack, Luc Van GoolLocation: Zürich, Switzerland

Object recognition for consumer applicationsOn mobile and web

Spin-off from ETH ZürichStill close relations to ETH

kooaba makes images smarter

Mobile Search (since 08/09)

Auto-tagging (Q2 2010)

(more about products during talk)

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Till Quack

PhD with Prof. Luc van Gool (graduated in 2009)

Research interests: Object Recognition + Internet + Mobile

kooaba founded during PhD

Interests in innovation, product design etc.

Two former companies (e.g. mosaickr.com with T. Weise and S. Saur. Sold in 2010.)

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Founded 2004, 15 employeesMalmö, Sweden: HQ, management, computer vision

Warsaw, Poland: products, infrastructure

Sophia-Antipolis, France: computer vision

Spin-off from Lund University.

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Face recognition for mobile, desktop and web

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Jan Erik Solem

PhD with Profs. Anders Heyden and Fredrik Kahl(graduated in 2006)

Research interests:large-scale vision, object recognition and visual retrieval

Polar Rose founded during PhD

Interests in entrepreneurship, Web and mobile

What to expect

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Flickr:kate at yr own risk

What we learned along the way

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Flickr:Pete Prodoehl

What’s special about Vision startups

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Discussion between JES and TQ - and you

Flickr: Katie Stine

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Lots of pointers to resources

Flickr:Ramkarthikblogger

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Syllabus1. Why a startup? JES / TQ 215-230

2. The business idea JES/TQ 230-245

3. Business plan: what and who to write it for? JES 245-300

4. Team JES 300-315

5. Funding: who and how to ask for money JES 315-330

Coffee Break 330pm-4pm

6. Product design: finding out what people really want TQ 400-430

7. Business models: how to make money? TQ 430-450

8. Software engineering: doing research vs. delivering a product TQ 450-520

9. Marketing & sales: getting people to know & buy your products TQ 520-545

10. Competition and positioning: OMG, Google is doing the same thing! JES 545-600

Let’s start!