Simon Blonér – Attestonline
Simon Blonér - Attestonline #1
Describe yourself and your project. How did you get the idea?
I’m creating a system that helps businesses managing their invoices in their ERP-system, in an easy way online. The idea came to me while talking to business owners, I found out that many of them where in need of a tool to manage their invoices, but couldn´t find any solution that satisfied their needs. Therefor I’ve decided to create a tool to fill this need and hopefully save both money and time for the users.
Who are you? Previous education/jobs/ experiences etc.
My name is Simon and I’m currently studying Informatics at Lund University. During the past year I’ve been working part time with helping customers extracting and analyzing their data from Visma Spcs.
What will you do during these three months? How will you spend the time?
The summer will be used to create a MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and pilot testing it with a few companies. Hopefully a launch of the system will be ready just in time for this autumn.
What do you expect to achieve during Leapfrogs?
The goal is to have a product created of high enough quality for launch.
Simon Blonér - Attestonline #3
How did you experience the three months?
These months have been such a great time, as I have been given the opportunity to dedicate myself 100% into creating a MVP (minimum viable product). It’s not yet completely finished, but most functions are ready and I feel it’s getting closer by the day.
To sum it up the project has been both super fun and given me more knowledge on how to run a business.
What has been hardest/most enjoyable?
The most challenging aspect has been to estimate how much time developing different areas of the application would take. As common in the IT industry, I managed to underestimate how time consuming creating some of the components would be. For myself I find the most enjoyable part has been the growth I’ve seen in my own capabilities in creating better code.
Did it go as expected? Will you continue working on your project in the future?
I will certainly work more on my project during the fall as we are expecting to have our first customers trying out the system in September. One could say these three months have made me a craving and I want more.
What would you say is the most important lesson learnt while working on your project?
First of all, like said before everything is always more time consuming that you expect when it comes to creating something new, so add some extra time in your planning. Secondly the work went a lot faster when I researched the web for better tools to solve my problems such as PhpStorm, therefore I would recommend people to invested time in finding the right tools.
Do you have any tips to other ”new” entrepreneurs?
Focus and stick to your schedule, some hot summer days this can be a challenge but you must be disciplined if you’re to reach your goals. As many have said before running a business isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. But most importantly try to have loads of fun in the process of creating your business, else you won’t wake up 8 am the day after a failure to continue the grind towards success.