Stories

Cloud Park Adventures / Episode 2

Algorithm Scientists Found a Startup

What could possibly happen when a group of algorithm scientists decides to found a startup company? This episode of Cloud Park Adventures reveals the dark side of algorithm business. Based on a true story.

Algorithm Scientists Found a Startup. (Cloud Park Adventures 2, cover page)
Once upon a time, there was this research team which spent years in the research chamber studying algorithms. (Cloud Park Adventures 2, page 2/21)
One day, they came out with an algorithmic innovation! (Cloud Park Adventures 2, page 3/21)
The research group decided to found a startup to commercialize their algorithms and got some seed money from a business angel. (Cloud Park Adventures 2, page 4/21)
They hired a skillful team including software developers, sales, marketing and the CEO. (Cloud Park Adventures 2, page 5/21)
All these people had quite different perspectives to the business. (Cloud Park Adventures 2, page 6/21)
They selected a narrow market segment to focus on and planned a product for it. (Cloud Park Adventures 2, page 7/21)
After some hard work, the R&D team was ready to release the first product version! (Cloud Park Adventures 2, page 8/21)
Selling the product wasn't that easy after all - the customers felt that it was too complex. (Cloud Park Adventures 2, page 9/21)
The bold and loud marketing message of the rivals made their product look weak. (Cloud Park Adventures 2, page 10/21)
The investor became impatient and demanded to speed up the work. (Cloud Park Adventures 2, page 11/21)
Heavy investments soon led to cash crisis and the company was forced to raise another investor round. (Cloud Park Adventures 2, page 12/21)
The second version of the product included many features wished by customers or copied from rivals. (Cloud Park Adventures 2, page 13/21)
Eventually they faced the 'iceberg effect' and their core innovation was no longer visible in the product. (Cloud Park Adventures 2, page 14/21)
The research team tried to suggest ways to fully utilize their brilliant algorithms but they didn't fit to the current business model. (Cloud Park Adventures 2, page 15/21)
They realized that most of their new algorithms were not used in the product and probably overlapped with research by other companies. (Cloud Park Adventures 2, page 16/21)
Finally they reached the point in which new research ideas were no longer needed and the research budget was cut. (Cloud Park Adventures 2, page 17/21)
The personal benefit of algorithm scientists turned out to be quite poor compared to the others. (Cloud Park Adventures 2, page 18/21)
The company was a success but the algorithm scientists were not yet satisfied. (Cloud Park Adventures 2, page 19/21)
The algorithm scientists decided to try again with some other way to commercialize algorithms. (Cloud Park Adventures 2, page 20/21)
Thank you for watching the second episode of Cloud Park Adventures! See also 'The Smarter way to Commercialize Algorithms' by Cloud'N'Sci Ltd at SlideShare. (Cloud Park Adventures 2, page 21/21)


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