Q&A with Kenneth from Let’s Play

What is your business idea?

Let’s Play is a mobile application for sports matchmaking, where people can easily organize and participate in user-made events. Quite often it can be difficult to gather enough people, who are interested in and able to meet up and play a casual game of basketball, football, beach volleyball or similar activities. To solve this problem, we have developed an app, Let’s Play, which enables people to go out and be active, meet new people and have some fun in the process. If sports are not really your thing, then no worries, there is no limit to what kind of activity type you can host or join!

How did you come up with your business idea/How did the idea of becoming an entrepreneur arise?

Ever since I was a young kid, I have always wanted to become an entrepreneur and hopefully create a startup, that could end up being my primary job. I suppose it is because many members of my close and extended family are or have been either entrepreneurs or self-employed at some point in their careers.

I came up with the idea for Let’s Play several years ago, since me and a couple of friends frequently wanted to go out and play a game of football in Jomfru Ane Parken or beach volleyball in Vestre Fjordpark in our spare time, but we quite often experienced the problem of not being able to gather enough people who wanted to or were able to meet up that day. I realized that there are many others that have the same issue. I figured that making a social sports community on an app would be a possible solution.

So instead of all of us just staying a home, I wanted to try and solve the problem. 

Also I have quite often seen people approach others, who are already playing a game, and asking if they could join in, but unfortunately being turned down and disappointedly walking off instead. I hope that the app would be able to reduce the amount of people who experience this and give more people a good social experience of playing sports with others.

What is the best/most exciting part about being an entrepreneur?

The best part about being an entrepreneur is being able to work on something you are deeply passionate about and having the exciting opportunity of creating something from scratch instead of doing minor incremental improvements to existing products in large corporations. Additionally, it is very exciting that the tasks that you work on vary greatly from day to day and you get to be involved with every aspect of the business, from product development to marketing.

What has been your biggest success/challenge so far?

The biggest challenges have been learning how to develop and program the mobile app and of course the very large task of marketing the app to create awareness and establish a sufficient userbase. Therefore, being able to launch the first functioning version of the app and getting great feedback on the concept from potential users, is what I view as being the biggest successes.

How do you use your academic skills as an entrepreneur?

Since I study Entrepreneurial Engineering, my degree is highly relevant, and I therefore use many of my academic skills as an entrepreneur. My background in mechanical engineering has also been highly beneficial because I believe that the problem solving and engineering mindset enabled me to attempt learning how to develop apps on my own, even though I had not experience in software development.

How do you manage to combine your startup with your studies?

Fortunately, the study curriculum in Entrepreneurial Engineering is very flexible and we are encouraged to work on our own ideas in our semester projects. Last semester I presented my startup and the app to my study group, and they were convinced that it was an exciting idea and therefore agreed to work on Let’s Play in our semester project. Next semester I am doing an internship in my own startup, which is also greatly encouraged in my degree. In addition to this I however spend a large portion of my spare time on working on the startup.

Where is your startup today, and where do you see your startup going in the future?

I quite recently started marketing the app and therefore the app currently only has approximately 350 users, but since I will start focusing my efforts on marketing the app and spreading awareness, I hope that this number will grow rapidly. At the same time, I am trying to recruit new team members to accelerate the development of the startup and hopefully make it a successful venture.

What is your best advice for other students who are considering becoming entrepreneurs?

My best advice is that if you have an idea, you are passionate about, just give it a go!

The worst thing that can happen is, that you fail and learn from your mistakes.

Anything is better than doing nothing! Additionally, I would strongly recommend becoming part of the Startup Program at AAU. They can assist with many of the things you need help with and very importantly help you stay on track to trying to reach your goals.