Gustav Säfwenberg - Horisont Design

Describe yourself and your project. How did you get the idea?

A couple of years ago, I found out that there existed solutions to wirelessly charge items. The proposed solutions back then involved a separate charging pad you connected to a power source and the wireless charging area was limited to the pad. I thought, why not integrate these pads into the furniture instead and develop a free positioning solution that makes the whole furniture a wireless charger for your phones and laptops. And so I did!

Who are you? Previous education/jobs/ experiences etc.

My name is Gustav Säfwenberg and I am 25 years old. I was born and raised in Uppsala but in 2010 I decided to move to Lund and study Industrial Engineering and Management. During the last couple of years I have tried different kinds of jobs, I’ve done an internship at a management consulting firm, worked as Business Developer and also been an investment assistant at a venture capital firm. But working with my own idea is the most fun so far!

What will you do during these three months? How will you spend the time? 

I will work on the webpage for the company as well as build our first prototype in a workshop. I will try to find a cabinetmaker that can help us create the table. I will also try and help my partner develop the technique used in the tables as much as I can. Other than that there will also be some planning of marketing strategies and how to keep going forward after the leapfrog months.

What do you expect to achieve during Leapfrogs?

During these three months, our webpage will be up and running as well as a finished first prototype of a table where all the technique works as its suppose to. We will also have a final design for our first product that will be for sale, a nightstand table. We hope the nightstand table will be available for sale during the fall of 2015. 

Gustav Säfwenberg - Horisont Design #2

Tell us what you have done on your project so far during the Leapfrogs time.

During this first 50 days, the website is more or less completed. It will be launched in the end of July. Other than that, we have been working on the technology to make it more efficient and we have been in contact with a wood workshop that will help us create our first prototype. Our first preliminary design for an office desk is almost done and will be discussed with the workshop how we can manufacture it.

Has everything gone according to the plan? Has anything unexpected occurred? Has something been easier/harder than expected? 

It has more or less gone as according to plan. We have made a change in our game plan after the last workshop with Board of Innovation and now we try have a more lean approach in our business. Some tasks have been harder mainly due to many people we want to get in contact with are on vacation which makes some task take more time than expected.

What will you focus on during the remaining time? Will you follow your original plan or has anything changed along the way? 

During the remaining time we will mainly focus on manufacture a physical prototype. We will also analyse what potential customers value the most in our offerings and try finding a sustainable business model. We have some ideas of a more innovative business model but we aren’t ready to share those thoughts with anyone else yet! Starting a dialogue with potential customers and evaluate our value proposition together with the customers will also be in focus. 

Gustav Säfwenberg - Horisont Design #3

How did you experience the three months?

It was three challenging but very fun months. It was really nice to work with something that is your own idea and didn’t have to listen to anyone else on what to do and prioritize. In the beginning I was a bit unused to the fact that no one else could tell me what to do and what to prioritize but now I enjoy being my own boss and make the decisions I find most important.

What has been hardest/most enjoyable?

The hardest part was the fact that there was no one around you who told you what you were supposed to do. You just had to go with your gut-feeling and see if it was the right decision. What I enjoyed the most is the transformation that has happened during these three months, in the beginning of the summer the business was more or less an idea and now it has become real with physical outputs! And I feel very proud of myself for accomplishing that.

Did it go as expected? Will you continue working on your project in the future?

In many aspects it went as expected but in some it didn’t. What I’ve definitely realized during these months is that everything takes so much more time than expected. We will continue with the project and we have an interesting future in front of us. There are still some obstacles that we need to solve before we can start selling our product. Our focus during the autumn is to find seed capital to enable production of our first product.

What would you say is the most important lesson learnt while working on your project?

The most important I’ve learned is that there are no “correct” or “wrong” way of doing things. Instead of analyse every single option just go with a decision and learn from your mistakes. If it didn’t end up as you expected just redo it with another approach and hope it turns out better this time. The easiest way to learn is to make decisions and see what happens rather than hypothetically analyse every single outcome of every decision. If you do that the process is going to take so much more time.

Do you have any tips to other ”new” entrepreneurs?

Just do it! As the Nike slogan says. The easiest way to verify if your business idea works is to start with it. And try to challenge and verify every assumption you have made in your business idea to see if it is viable and a correct assumption to support your business idea. Try to focus on a small part of your idea at first instead of trying to fix everything at the same time. If you e.g. have a physical product focus on creating a prototype before you try to build your supply chain around it.