Jumpstarts

Friday afternoon. A meeting room somewhere in Amsterdam erupts in applause. In the room: four investors, witnessing a pitch for a completely new kind of coffee maker. Also in the room, the product team: the pitch owner, an industrial designer, and a couple of prototypers.

The applause is real enough: some of the investors are on board right away. The pitch, built around a set of prototypes including a 3D-printed coffee machine with sensors and a round touch display, a mobile app, and a web based marketplace, more than convinced them. It marks the start of a rollercoaster startup journey.

This pitch was not the culmination of a year-long project. Instead, it was the outcome of a single week that started with nothing but ideas and an itch. The week’s outcome was an evocative prototype — but more importantly, it created the kinetic energy needed to set a big visionary plan in motion.

This single week was what we at Q42 call a jumpstart. 

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Jumpstarts