Magnús Ragnarsson

Magnús Ragnarsson (I really liked this picture, he looks good doesnt he?)

LaufForks_Heimasida6_900x514Magnus Ragnarsson was the host of Startup Iceland 2012 and we requested him if he would oblige us the same service this year for Startup Iceland 2013 and he agreed. Yay! Thank you Magnus. Magnus has been part of the media, entertainment and startup scene in Iceland since the very beginning days of OZ and Lazy Town etc and in addition to that he is avid cycler and is organizing the WOW Cyclothon. He pointed me to a new startup in Iceland called Lauf that has designed a shock absorber for bicycles that is 500 grams lighter than the competitors out there and it is all carbon fibre based there is no metal involved. I am no cyclist or know anything about bicycles but the design of this shock absorber is pretty cool. I think this startup has potential, that being said, I always come back to the same notion that it is not the idea or the product or how ingenious the solution is, it all comes back to how well you sell the story, tell the story, in what platform you tell the story and do you get attention from the main stream media to attract potential partners, investors and customers. Talking to Magnus it looks like this startup is going the same route as many startups in Iceland, i.e trying to figure out how to make this thing rather than trying to figure out how to sell this thing. I think Lean Methodology to sell this is best way to build a company. That being said, maybe the founders are doing that and I don’t have enough information to say what they are doing is right or wrong. I believe very strongly that there is a lot more to building startups and companies than a great idea. Anyways, check it out. The global bicycle market is massive multi billion dollar industry and providing parts to that industry is not a bad business.

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