To wrap up the month, we picked some highlights from Tiburon-TV’s September posts - inspiring interviews and great presentations from events like IFA, next banking and Mobile Monday Berlin.



With „Inside The Scene: IFA“, Tiburon-TV’s Viktoria takes you inside the world's largest Consumer Electronics trade fair. The video summary includes interviews with business experts offering great advice for web-based entrepreneurs and is just fun to watch!



Bochum-based GLS-Bank is one of the Banking 2.0 pioneers: The first social and ecological bank in Germany uses Twitter micro-blog posts as well as a Corporate Blog to communicate with customers. In his presentation at the next banking conference, Head of Online Marketing Johannes Korten unveils GLS-Bank’s online strategy.



Here's how you can save money in this economy: Get a free download of mobile price comparison service woabi, check product prices and then make the most cost-efficient purchases. In his talk at Mobile Monday Berlin, Hoeddi Tryggvason tells you all about the brandnew mobile shopping service.

That’s all for now – see you in October with more presentations and interviews covering the European startup scene!

In today’s „Top 5“ edition, Tiburon-TV is looking at new and innovative approaches to education. Myngle, Busuu, Lingueo and sofatutor are all about learning the Web 2.0 way, whereas Twidox offers lots of precious resources for educational institutions.



Multi-awards winner Myngle.com operates a platform for online language education combining quality teaching and community. The Netherlands-based startup was founded by ex-eBay and Berlitz language company employees. Myngle asks people to pay about 300-400 Euro up front for lessons and thus is booking 20,000 Euro per month.



Language learning community Busuu.com is a project of the UNESCO’s year of learning languages. Madrid-based Busuu uses an integrated video-chat application where students can connect with native speakers for free. The startup has been nominated twice for the European TechCrunch Awards.



Another marketplace for learning languages is Lingueo.com. Courses in more than 40 languages can be taken in a personalized class any time, any place. You do not have to download anything and the only things you need are a microphone and a webcam.



Sofatutor.com is a virtual tutoring system with user generated videos for pupils and students. The Berlin-based interactive video platform has been launched in March 2009 and offers more than 1700 tutoring videos. Click here to watch a two-minute pitch from Plugg conference.



Twidox is another startup targeting the education market - although not a traditional learning website. The free online library offers an open education resource feature where universities can create a university system to share all their learn material, lecture handouts and research similar to MIT’s OpenCourseWare.

Next Monday is all about Social Networks. Have a great week!

There’s a lot of movement in the mobile entertainment market - the most popular gaming titles are now available in special versions for smartphones and other mobile devices to provide gaming fun anytime, anywhere. Tiburon-TV today introduces five promising players in the mobile gaming market: Zed, exozet games, sMeet, gimigames and urban team with FastFoot-Challenge.

Zed is the world’s Number One in mobile entertainment in terms of revenue and geographical presence. The company holds a portfolio of more than 200 games compatible with the majority of handsets on the market. At the end of the year Zed will start its own movie called „Planet 51”

Ever wanted to play your favorite adventure game or boardgame in a mobile version? Berlin-based exozet games develops and produces mobile versions of popular gaming titles - boardgame adaptations like Ingenious and Settlers of Catan as well as PC and console games. Click here for a exozet presentation from Mobile Monday Berlin.

Online gaming platform gimigames has just been launched about one month ago: To start with, the Berlin-based company offers three brain jogging games – “Super Sudoku”,  “Moneymemo” and “Captain Math”. For every new player gimigames offers one Euro as a starter gift…

sMeet is a social virtual world like Second Life and Habbo Hotel. It allows you to create your own 3D look, furnish your own rooms, entertain yourself and show off your singing talents on the sMeet screens. You can meet with your friends as well as with new people and even get virtually married in sMeet! German startup urban team has won the "Best Real World Game" Award 2009 with its pilot project FastFoot-Challenge. The various players of the GPS Multiplayer Action Game have 25 minutes to catch the Protagonist – each of them equipped with a GPS enabled mobile phone. Click here to watch the FastFoot-Challenge trailer.

Next Monday: "The Five Most Promising Educational Startups"

Click here to watch earlier "Top 5" posts...

From new online services to software applications - there are plenty of bright innovations from startups to enhance the mobile experience. In today’s edition of “The Top 5”, Tiburon-TV introduces five intriguing mobile companies with promising products: Goojet, Nulaz, Yoose, Campfire with CATOOZ and barcoo.



Mobile Widget and Communication Platform Goojet offers direct access to a real-time feed of news, blogs, videos and user-generated posts tailored to the preferences of its users. Goojet runs on 400+ devices and has become the #1 mobile social media in its home market, France. The startup has just raised its second round of financing to the tune of €6 million.



With interactive location based service Nulaz you can see where your friends are, share locations, view local info as well as send and receive messages. Amsterdam-based M2Mobi has just released Nulaz 0.3 with a completely touchable interface that will allow you to go through the whole application without any keyboard. Click here for a Nulaz pitch from Plugg conference.



Berlin and Singapore-based Yoose is introducing a new location-aware mobile couponing ecosystem. Without cluttered wallets, coupons, loyalty cards, shopping lists, and the like can be kept in your pocket on your cellphone. Click here to also watch a Yoose pitch.



Danish Campfire A/S offers an interactive comic book service for mobile handsets called CATOOZ. All comics on the mobile comic platform are digital adaptations of well-known printed stories, but with added sound and vibration effects. The service is currently available in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Germany.



Barcoo offers transparency to consumers during shopping: After having scanned the barcode of a product with a cell phone camera, the shopper gets specific information on the scanned product - price comparisons, user ratings, allergy and organic information as well as information concerning sustainable consumerism.

Next Monday will be all about the gaming industry, introducing “The Five Most Promising Gaming Startups”. Click here to watch earlier episodes of “The Top 5”.

These five tech startups took a big step toward becoming self-sufficient, independent adults out in the real world. They transitioned from good, small companies to real grown up companies: StudiVZ, sevenload, Habbo Hotel, Jaiku and eBuddy.

Berlin-based StudiVZ is by far the largest social network in the German-speaking world, covering Germany, Belgium, Austria and Switzerland. StudiVZ’s 14 million users are on three social networks for different target groups: StudiVZ.net, SchuelerVZ.net and MeinVZ.net. StudiVZ was acquired by the German publishing group Georg von Holtzbrinck in 2008.

Sevenload is one of the world’s leading social media platforms for photos, videos and interactive shows. Among user generated content, sevenload is hosting over 1,000 web TV shows in their channels. The Web-2.0 media platform is currently available in twelve languages and offers localized country portals. Finnish Habbo Hotel is a social networking website aimed at teens from around the globe. By purchasing virtual furniture, users can design their own Hotel rooms and create a virtual hangout for themselves and their friends. The service has been created by Sampo Karjalainen and Aapo Kyrölä in 2000 and since then has been expanded to include 32 online communities.

Another grown up company from Finland is online microblogging service Jaiku: Founded in February 2006 by Jyri Engeström and Petteri Koponen, Jaiku was purchased by Google in 2007.

Online messaging aggregator eBuddy offers a Web Based as well as a Mobile Messenger (click here for a free download from the Apple App Store). A new version of eBuddy Mobile Messenger has just been released.

Coming next Monday: "The Five Most Promising Mobile Startups". Click here for earlier "Top 5" episodes.

These women want to do it their way. They started a company and run it the way they think a company should operate. In today’s „Top 5“ edition we introduce five bold female entrepreneurs and their promising internet startups: Kerstin Schilling with Intershop/AdiCash, Dania Gerhardt from Amazee, Danielle Grossi with smeepe, Marina Tognetti with Myngle and Tina Aspiala from eat.fi:

Kerstin Schilling - CEO of cash bonus program AdiCash and co-founder of Intershop Communications - says there are important style differences between male and female business leaders. She is convinced that women are „better in investments because they are more focussed on output“ and finds that „like in nature women are ‚the grey ones’, those who are doing the job behind it.“

Dania Gerhardt is co-founder and „operational and financial wonderkind“ of Social Collaboration platform Amazee.com. „Women really do talk more than men“ Dania says. „It is crucial that they use their inter-personal communication skills to get in contact with the right people and to approach them in a different way by using their female side.“

Danielle Grossi was a normal employee in IT for ten years before she co-founded online portal smeepe.net. She describes herself as somebody who has what it takes to be an entrepreneur and states that persistence more than anything else is responsible for success. „A woman should follow her dream and do what she feels is the best for her“ she says. „Whatever it is, if it’s starting a company or starting a family.“

„E-Learning Queen“ Marina Tognetti left the corporate executive track to become entrepreneur of global language e-learning marketplace Myngle.com. Marina is a passionate traveler, spent one year backpacking through Asia as well as traveling to many different countries around the world. She says she always tried to maintain a healthy balance between mind and heart, working with her mind, making choices with her heart.

„Women need to get over their fears of being not qualified enough. More men are willing to do things they aren’t ‚technically’ qualified for“ finds Tina Aspiala, founder of Finnish restaurant search and review site Eat.fi. She encourages women to feel the fear and do it anyway. Says Tina: „Those who say you can’t be doing it should get out of the way of those who are getting it done.“

Stay tuned! Next Monday we’ll be looking at „The Five Most Promising Grown-Up Startups“.

Do you ever struggle for inspiration...the spark you need to be innovative? Here are five bold authors and visionaries and their thought-provoking books: Jeff Jarvis, Don Tapscott, Rafi Haladjian, Henriette Weber and Tara Hunt.

Jeff Jarvis’ exceptional book „What would Google do?“ isn’t really about Google but about the major changes that we are going through right now both in society and in the economy. It offers valuable insights for anyone seeking to participate in the Internet culture and to maximize the opportunities that exist in the Google era.

Don Tapscott’s „Wikinomics“ is a brilliant guide to one of the most profound changes of the twenty-first century: Mass collaboration and the growth of massive online communities. It illuminates how collaboration and communication technologies are democratizing the creation of value: The more you share, the more you win.

French-Armenian businessman Rafi Haladjian is passionate about pervasive networks and smart objects: His company Violet created the first internet connected rabbit Nabaztag and intends to connect every single object surrounding us to the network thereby building the Internet of Things.

Social marketing rebel extraordinaire Henriette Weber from Toothless Tiger draws parallels between rockbands and businesses, rockstars and employees. Her e-book „Why every company should be a rock band“ has been filmed by Andrea Vascellari and can be downloaded for free here.

„Whuffie“ is Tara Hunt’s word for social capital in the Web 2.0 landscape. With „The Whuffie Factor“ the cofounder of community-marketing consulting firm Citizen Agency offers a strategic guide for anyone interested in using the power of online social networks for business success.

Female entrepreneurs have it tougher than men: Next Monday we'll be introducing "The Five Most Promising Female Entrepreneurs". Stay tuned!

What’s hot in the cooler Northern European regions? Today’s edition of „The Top 5 Nordic Startups" includes ViaEuropa, CAMPFIRE A/S, HammerKit, XIHA Life and Scred.

ViaEuropa is the world’s leading Open Service Exchange Operator of Broadband networks. Based on the southern tip of Sweden, ViaEuropa is proving that next generation broadband infrastructure is best built by an Open Service Market Economy. It is therefore not astonishing that CEO Jonas Birgersson is one of the most hated people in the Telecom sector since many years...

Young adults are the primary target group of Copenhagen-based CAMPFIRE A/S: The global future company owns the brand Catooz - an interactive comic book brought to mobile phones. The above pitch with CEO and founder Glenn Lau Rentius is from Le Mobile 2.0 where the company won the Zapping 2009 award.

You can think of Finnish company HammerKit as the IKEA of the web: The HammerKit application assembly platform allows to build complex web applications without the need to know how to program code. Look out for sneek peeks of Version 4.0 in the coming weeks! To learn more about the web service development platform watch Managing Director Mark Sorsa-Leslie describing HammerKit in this pitch from Plugg conference.

XIHA Life, the world's leading multilingual social network last week launched a second-generation version of its platform. XIHA – co-founded by Jani Penttinen - allows you to communicate with your friends in not only one, but several different languages. The launch of XIHA Life 2.0 begins a wave of new feature announcements. Founded by Kristoffer Lawson, Scred is a Finnish company building tools and services to help friends, groups and communities simplify their money management, wherever they are. Scred’s cost balancing tool is great for less formal groups like bands, code crews, indie film producers and developers as well as trip organizers.

Next Monday’s edition of "The Top 5" is all about inspiration: Tiburon-TV introduces five great authors and their inspiring books.

Click here to check out earlier episodes of „The Top 5“.

Here they are – the most exciting startups from beautiful France. Our „Top 5“ choice is: Goojet, Lingueo, Silentale, MyID.is and Webwag.

Only last week Goojet announced that it has raised €6 million in second round funding. At the same time, the French startup is coming out with an updated version of its mobile content and services suite. As Marketing Manager Cédric Giorgi explains: „Goojet enhances your mobile experience by aggregating a number of services and content offerings into one portal. Users can create their mobile world as well as select and customize the services they need.“

Language social network Lingueo offers courses with native speakers in 36 languages around the world. Prices of Lingueo’s one-to-one classes start as low as 10 per hour. The Global Connections specialist for Language Exchange has been founded by Arnaud Portanelli, Johann Querne and Guillaume le Dieu de Ville.

Paris-based startup Silentale allows you to store all your digital conversations in one place and access them from anywhere. To learn more about the internet startup that brought back the People’s Choice Award from LeWeb08, please also watch founder Laurent Feral-Pierssens pitching at the European Plugg Conference.

MyID.is is all about verifying your online identity: Founded by Charles Nouÿrit, the Digital Identity Certification Platform allows people to claim their real identity online. The site entered into public beta at the end of March and offers its service free of charge - users only have to pay a small setup fee.





Webwag is another startup that has been awarded public choice ( please click here to watch Webwag’s pitch from Le Mobile 2.0 conference). Co-Founder and CEO Florent Pitoun explains: „ Webwag is a powerful web tool that helps users create a personalized home page with data feeds and web 2.0 services accessible from any connected device.“ Webwag Mobile 2.0 offers a solution to easily access all your internet services and allows you to download mobile widgets for free.

To review recent episodes of „The Top 5“ please click here. Next monday is all about „The Five Most Promising Nordic Startups“.

There are plenty of hot and innovative technology startups in the Netherlands – for us Mynameise, kimengi, IRL connect, Nulaz and mobypicture are the five most promising ones. Amsterdam-based cloud service Mynameise.com allows you to manage and share multiple identities and enables you to make an online ‘business card’ for every occasion. Founded by Renato Valdés Olmos, E provides its users with a selection of tools to connect, amongst them a highly compatible connector which stores around 265 contacts. To learn more about My Name is E, please also watch Viktoria’s interview with Renn from AWS Amsterdam.

Kimengi.com - founded by Lucien Burm – is a free service for blogs providing a widget based recommendation technology called f»dforward. The f»dforward widget helps you grow your blog network and stay in touch with your audience by offering insight into what other subjects your readers are interested in. Other than content-focussed Zemanta, blogs work together in the f»dforward network and the widget can be used on any other blog to connect with them.

In Real Life (IRL) is the only presence-based social networking company. Founder and CEO Frank Schuil created a web-centered visual social network that allows you to see on Google Maps what your friends from all your social networks and social media are doing and enables you to interact with them. The company’s first product IRL Connect can also be applied to the business environment. Last week at the Benelux Venture Forum in Ghent, IRL was selected as one of the most promising startups. The Nulaz platform is one of the core products of Amsterdam-based mobile services company M2Mobi.com: With Nulaz you can see where your friends are, share locations, and view local info. Nulaz partners with lots of location based information sources and is available over all networks and operating systems. In addition to Michiel Munneke’s pitch shot at the Plugg conference, you can watch Nulaz’ CEO and co-founder in a pitch from Le Mobile 2.0.

Mobypicture.com allows you to get all the media on your mobile device to your blogs and other social outlets and thus lets you share your adventures with your friends realtime. Just like above-mentioned IRL Connect, mobypicture is a 2009 Red Herring 100 Europe winner as one of the most promising and innovative technology companies in the EMEA region. To learn more about Moby’s founder Mathys van Abbe and his other „babies“, watch the serial entrepreneur in his interviews with Viktoria about startpix, spot2.be and Toading.com.

Recent episodes of „The Top 5“ can be found here.

Next monday we’ll be looking at startups located in France and present „The Five Most Promising French Startups“. A bientôt!