TiburonTV

Scott Rafer - Lookery: Simple business model @ LeWeb08

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 17:57:33 +0000

Scott Rafer founded Lookery.com after having sold his former company MyBlogLog.com to Yahoo. With Lookery, Scott sells user profiles to the world’s largest advertising networks.
A believer in simple business models his advice for starting a company is: „Do the simplest thing you can, take small amounts of money and get profitable very quickly!“
More information on Scott Rafer and Lookery.com can be found on www.tiburon-tv.com.

Ibrahim Evsan und Thomas Bachem: Neues von Sevenload (German) @ LeWeb

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 15:15:30 +0000

Ibrahim Evsan, Gründer und CTO von sevenload.com und Head of Technology Thomas Bachem sprechen über wesentliche Erweiterungen der letzten beiden Jahre und die Ziele ihres Unternehmens. Mit über 600 interaktiven Sendungen ist Sevenload Deutschlands führende Social Media Platform für Fotos, Videos, interaktives WebTV und User Generated Content.

Peter Vesterbacka: Great time for starting a company @ LeWeb

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 10:48:42 +0000

Peter Vesterbacka is founder and co-founder of companies like MobileMonday, ConnectedDay, Star Wreck Studios and works with Zipiko, a new high-end mobile service around intention.

Check out www.tiburon-tv.com for more about Peter Vesterbacka.

Perfect match with Sense2love: Anju Rupal @ LeWeb

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 10:19:44 +0000

Sense2Love.com is a social networking platform of bringing people together for love purposes. Launched in August 2008 by London-born Indian Anju Rupal, Sense2Love sets up a new paradigm of matchmaking by combining ancient traditions of matchmaking with new trends in social networking: Statistically, 57% of your partners are found through your network, while 10% are found online – makes Sense2Love’s success rate of up to 67%.
Using an invitation only network, Sense2Love helps you not only to find the partner that really matches you but to build sustainable relationships by using Sense2Love’s communication styles. In workshops and roadshows Sense2Love teaches on how to keep heartaches low and the so called „cup of love“ full. Sense2Love thereby takes a concept online that has already been proven in the U.S.
Sense2Love has an interesting way of making money: Before going on a blind date, you have the option to buy a present perfectly matched to the interest of the person you’re about to meet, i.e. chocolate, a massage or even a week-end in a spa. Furthermore, they charge for the dinners they arrange.
Rupal and her co-founder and Business Angel Bill Liao, who is also co-founder of xing.com, are themselves looking for business partners to take Sense2Love global. Rupal, who co-founded her first business Finaxis AG seven years ago, believes „it’s all about execution. You really have to believe in what you do, be passionate about it and then go for it, full power – especially in the economic climate we have right now.“

Simplify your money management with SCRED: Kristoffer Lawson@ LeWeb

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 23:39:11 +0000

The Finish start-up Scred.com, founded by Kristoffer Lawson, focusses on banking for the 2.0 generation. Its version 1 has been successfully launched with around 1000 users already using this basic version. Version 2 with more exciting content will come out before christmas. Lawson tries to revolutionize the banking system by offering easy and fun-to-use tools to handle money. As the creative director of „Alternative party“ - an art event in Helsinki – he finds that money has always been „a real headache“. Users of Scred.com can simplify their money management among friends or on a trip by using Scred’s calculation, currency conversion and distribution tools and services. They can track debts between people and use Scred on their mobile – even without connection!
Lawson, who already designed computer programs at age 7, „just loves technology“. He wants to make Scred „extremely big“ and has no interest in focussing on the Finish market even if 50% of Scred’s users are from Finland right now. With regard to the financial crisis Lawson finds that „time has worked in our favor“ since money is becoming more important. He adds: „If you fail, it’s a stupid excuse, that it’s because of the recession.“

Easy and fun language learning with BUSUU: Bernhard Niesner @ LeWeb

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:39:48 +0000

Busuu.com is a start-up, based in Madrid, which runs a free online community for learning languages. Launched in May 2008 by Austrian Bernhard Niesner and his university friend Adrian Hilti from Liechtenstein, busuu.com already has 50.000 users from 200 countries, some of them pretty remote. Niesner and Hilti decided to create a new concept of learning languages online and include also less known languages so that they do not extinct. The company name itself is a language spoken in Cameroon by only eight people!
Using an integrated video-chat application, students can connect with native speakers, i.e. an English language student from Sudan can directly practice his language skills with an American in New York City. With a high percentage of users in developing countries, busuu.com makes it easy and fun for everybody to learn a language and contributes to the diversity of languages all over the world. Busuu.com is also ideal to prepare a trip by making friends before visiting a country and thus make international friends. On busuu.com one can even learn the almost extinct whistling language Silbo Gomero, spoken by the people of the Spanish island La Gomera.
Busuu.com can be used completely for free as a basis-member. To get access to additional learning tools and content, one has to pay a small amount per month. Therefore, Niesner’s christmas wish is not surprising:“Unlimited google ad resources for one year.“

Revolutionizing the telecom sector: Jonas Birgersson @ LeWeb

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:51:54 +0000

Swedish IT-Entrepreneur Jonas Birgersson, a.k.a „broadband Jesus“, now talks about his start-up company ViaEuropa. ViaEuropa is about to revolutionize the telecom sector by putting a fiber cable beside the electrical cable and Via Europa’s ecosystem on top of it. The enduser can then choose any operator he wants. Birgersson, whose background is in Military Intelligence, points out that this is „a fully neutral, open system where the enduser is the winner. The only thing we do is to put away the strange structure of the telecom sector and build a normal marketplace. Everybody is invited to compete on equal terms. This is how it works in all other businesses except the telecom sector.“
ViaEuropa’s model is already fully proven in Scandinavia, but once it is proven outside of Scandinavia within the next one or two years, the telecoms will be in big trouble. So it is not astonishing that Jonas Birgersson is „one of the most hated people in the Telecom sector since many years“. But according to Birgersson „ it’s about reinventing ideas - if you are loved, you’re not an entrepreneur, you’re not disruptive enough.“
ViaEuropa is especially interested in the emerging markets both in Africa and South america. Birgersson cites a study that shows that in developing countries 1% increase in broadband penetration results in a 3% extra GDP growth.
Jonas Birgersson is a serial entrepreneur, he founded Bredbandsbolaget, framfab and is also CEO of the Swedish broadband company Labs2, based in Lund. In order to make the world an even more interesting place, his advice is: „If you have talent, use it to the maximum potential you have!“

Generating most effective online ads - Mathys van Abbe @ LeWeb

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:23:36 +0000

Serial entrepreneur Mathys van Abbe now introduces his fourth start-up Toading.com , the company that funds his „hobby projects“ like startpix, mobypicture and Spot2be. Toading is an advertising technology tool for organizations in the e-Commerce or e-Recruitment business helping them to save time and money. It enables those companies to link their website offers to online advertising campaigns, i.e. for Google and Yahoo. Toading generates ads for every specific product and service including important features like the exact price and the availability. According to Mathys van Abbe, Toading is quick to implement and reduces ad spending with 25% while increasing conversion rates of online advertising campaigns with up to 300%.
While Toading’s technology development is based in Budapest, Hungary, most of Toading’s clients are currently in the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Spain and Germany. With one or two competitors in the field, van Abbe is still very optimistic since „there are lots of clients out there“.

Mathys also presented his other startups to Tiburon-TV, check them at http://www.tiburon-tv.com/tag/mathys-van-abbe/.

BTW, the guy jumping through the video promoting Toading is Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon.com.

Create your own high quality clothes - Tristan de Montebello @ LeWeb

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 01:40:11 +0000

Trendy-Workshop.com, co-founded by Tristan de Montebello, is a French fashion portal that allows its users to create their own clothes, buy them afterwords and make money with them by sharing it with others on the web. Open since Dec. 8, 2008, users can choose every little fashion detail they want on their piece of clothes on-line and have it made for them by a stylist. Their creations will then be delivered to them within three weeks. Depending on how many people buy their creation, a commission is being paid and one can even reach the status of „Junior Creator“. Clothes designed at Trendy-Workshop are being produced in China with prices starting at € 89 for a cashmere sweater. Different from customization platforms like Spreadshirt, Trendy-Workshop allows you to design the whole product and not only the printing. Soon they will also offer accessories and interiors.
Founder Tristan de Montebello started out as a computer ingenieur in love with the web. He points out that he wants to make a real difference in fashion with Trendy-Workshop.com: „We would like to be a major trendsetter in fashion industry and break fashion in a good way.“ He believes it is crucial to think big and start small. His advice for other entrepreneurs is simple yet powerful: „Get good people, be fast and very reactive.“
Further information can also be found on Trendy-Workshop’s blog.

no need for a university degree - Ilkka Paanen @ Slush

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 04:49:47 +0000

Ilkka Paanen broke up his studies in order to start his own company for downloadable mobile games named Sumea. Founded in 2000, Sumea is based in Helsinki. Seeing the success of i-mode in Japan, Paanen expected this new massive technology coming to Europe and therefore wanted to exploit the opportunity of java-based games on mobile phones. In 2004, Sumea joined forces with the Californian company Digital Chocolate, and is now their internal game development studio. Also, Sumea’s distribution network to the biggest cellphone operators is managed by Digital Chocolate.

According to Paanen, Finland offers a highly conducive environment for starting a company because of its good infrastructure and education, governmental subsidies and lots of available office space. Furthermore, being located in Helsinki, is crucial for Sumea’s success: „If you go into mobile content, it’s a big advantage to be close to Nokia“, explains Paanen. Above all, he points out that „if you want to start your company, make sure you have a coherent team with complementary skills“.

iPhone app "iLoci" by Don Hopkins @ Mobile Dev Camp

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:16:07 +0000

After two days of hard work, the participants did show what they could realize so far. Don Hopkins, apparently a pro, demonstrated "iLoci", which is sort of a mind mapping app for the iPhone.

The Mobile Dev Camp, organized by Peter Robinett, is devoted to developing mobile applications for the iPhone, Android and Symbian platforms. It took place in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 29th and 30th.

iPhone app "Laser Chess" by Joris Kluivers and Jelle Prins @ Mobile Dev Camp

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:13:02 +0000

After two days of hard work, the participants did show what they could realize so far. Joris Kluivers and Jelle Prins developed a "Laser Chess" app for the iPhone. It is a multi player game.

iPhone app "MissingU" by Matt Biddulph @ Mobile Dev Camp

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:27:47 +0000

After two days of hard work, the participants did show what they could realize so far. Matt Biddulph of dopplr.com presented his iPhone app "MissingU", which illustrates a countdown of time till he sees his girlfriend again. So you see iPhone app developer can be very romantic indeed!

iPhone apps by Peter Robinett @ Mobile Dev Camp

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:20:01 +0000

After two days of hard work, the participants did show what they could realize so far. Peter Robinett presented his iPhones apps "Ville" and "iRoll".

An iPhone app for dopplr - Matt Biddulph @ Mobile Dev Camp

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:47:17 +0000

Matt Biddulph is CTO of www.dopplr.com, a great traveling tool which shows you who of your friends or colleagues is going to be at the places there you are going to. So of course Matt is very interested in developing a iPhone app for dopplr too, making the service even easier to use.

Stefan Verkerk @ Mobile Dev Camp

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:25:14 +0000

Stefan Verkerk is head of online strategy and acquisition at sanoma uitgevers, but besides that he enjoys to try out new things and that is how he ended up to develop an application for iPhone. For doing so he hired some indian developers. So watch the video to learn more about his experiences of outsourcing and of course to get to know to his iPhone app.

The Mobile Dev Camp, organized by Peter Robinett, is devoted to developing mobile applications for the iPhone, Android and Symbian platforms. Took place in Amsterdam, Netherlands, November 29th and 30th.

"I started with failing" serial entrepreneur Taneli Tikka @ SLUSH

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 13:29:16 +0000

How does the Finish startup scene look like? The best way to find out is by speaking with one of its most active players, Taneli Tikka. Over the last ten years he founded 4 businesses himself, funded 10, became a board member of 13 (such as muxlim), was the CEO or COO of 7 (such as dopplr), managed 10 rounds of financing for a value of 15 Mill, sold three companies (one for 12,5 Mill in shares) and bought 1.

Taneli Tikka is most known for IRC-Galleria, a very active social network which includes more than 70% of the Finish youth. His newest engagement is RunToShop, a product recommendation system.

At his blog tane.li, he describes himself as a "serial entrepreneur and dealmaker with an active history of all‐round leadership and strategy work. Plus a reasonably laid-back yet opinionated dude." There he writes about startups of cause but especially about war stories, tabus, success and failure cases. To learn more about the Finish startup scene, just follow him on his blog.

A lot of numbers and informations... besides that, Taneli always looks for great new investment oportunities.