Today's Entrepreneur: Daniel Mattes

No. 1 mistake: Not learning from mistakes

Today's Entrepreneur  is Daniel Mattes, CEO and founder of Jumio Inc. According to his VEQ, Daniel is a thought leader and is good at networking and product management.

Vator’s community is the home to entrepreneurs who embrace their passion and follow their dreams. Our profiles allow members to express themselves by sharing their interests, lessons learned, as well as bits and pieces of their roller-coaster journey.

These profiles give entrepreneurs an opportunity to showcase themselves and tell their story. So if you are an entrepreneur, a serial entrepreneur, or even an aspiring entrepreneur, we'd like to hear from you.

I am a(n):
Entrepreneur

Companies I've founded or co-founded:
Auftrag.at, Jajah Inc

If you are an entrepreneur, why?
I want to change the world.

What's most frustrating and rewarding about entrepreneurship/innovation?
If you really mean it, you have to move to the US and establish a network, there are lots of networking events every day. A start-up should consider when and to whom they want to sell, arranging the technology development accordingly. Don't sit down and hope you are going to set up a 10 billion company, set up 10 companies and sell them for 100 million each. That is more realistic.

What's the No. 1 mistake entrepreneurs make?
not learning from mistakes

What are the top three lessons you've learned as an entrepreneur?
The most important thing is to test your product on the market. You have to produce a prototype, and that is when you have to sit there on weekends and programme. As long as I am honest with the cosumer, I can launch a product which is on 80 percent complete. That is the Beta version with a lot of mistakes, ask for feedback to improve it! Many businesses wait too long to launch. This is my second tip, if you see that it doesn't work, get rid of the idea and try the next thing. You can't predict the market. It is important to focus on the right strategy and partners, try to concentrate resources and close deals that are strategically smart. The third point is very important for me. People have to stop believing that they are going to build the next Facebook. This is day dreaming. You might of course be lucky, but it is more realistic to focus on a solid company which creates steady revenue. You might be able to sell it one day for 50 or 100 million. That is a better goal. It is good to be a believer, but you have to be realistic along the way.