It’s been a big week for European entrepreneurship, what with 20+ startups emerging at Seedcamp and Dopplr getting picked up by Nokia (or does it just feel that way since I’m here with GeeksOnAPlane for the first time in four years?).
In any case, Seedcamp’s six winners were announced earlier today. If you’re not familiar with Seedcamp, it’s a startup mentorship and funding program for European entrepreneurs that shares basic tenets with US-based Y Combinator and TechStars, among several others. I had the opportunity to sit down on Wednesday with Seedcamp founder Saul Klein and ask him about a variety of topics ranging from the idiosyncrasies of European entrepreneurship to Spotify, smart energy, and the real-time web. In addition to founding Seedcamp, Klein is a partner at Index Ventures and a founding partner at The Accelerator Group (TAG).
A transcript of the interview follows below. → Read More
Travel site Localyte has a new twist on travel advice—the site tries to connect travelers with locals in their destination to serve as guides or just to get advice. Locals in communities around the world vary from professional tour guides who charge for the custom tours to everyday people who simply want to help folks enjoy their hometown as much as possible. Since late 2007, Localyte has accumulated 40,000 local guides in about 10,000 destinations across 160 countries. The site also offers reviews and listings of local activities.
Now, Localyte is furthering its mobile strategy by launching PocketSherpa, a free iPhone app that integrates its online platform onto a mobile device, letting travelers access local guides and information (from WikiTravel) on the go. The app lists tours and contact info in cities and also lists local travel guides in those cities who are available to answer any questions. For example, if you were traveling in Egypt, you could ask “Are there any hot air balloon rides available over the Pyramids?” Localyte’s CEO Guillermo Baensch says that locals answer the questions fairly quickly, within a few hours at most. You can also access threads of previous questions that were submitted in your destination. Localyte’s app has a built-in mailbox that lets you send and receive messages, and also lets you see local newspapers in the region where you are traveling. → Read More
We just got this email from, of all places, Brandoo Co., Ltd., a company that seems to be parasitically suckling off of the good will associated to Brando. However, unlike Brando, their devices are clearly garbage OEM junk. In fact, there’s not a humping dog USB dongle to be found on their site. However, what this company lacks in spelling skills it more than makes up for in design abilities. → Read More
Amazon has been known to offer cell phones at cut-rate prices. Just the other day, all AT&T phones except for ones that start with the letter “i” were a penny on Amazon. But today, you can save $50 off the retail price and snag a Palm Pre for only one bill. → Read More
How many hours ago did it “break” that the Palm Pre wasn’t going to be available on Verizon Wireless? Yeah, well, now word on the street is that, forget everything you read last night, because there’s no way in hell the Palm Pre won’t be available for Verizon Wireless. Or, to remove the double-negative: yes, the Palm Pre will, indeed, be available on Verizon Wireless, most likely this winter. Calm yourselves. → Read More
What do entrepreneurs want from venture capitalists? A new Cornell study by Ola Bengtsson (now an assistant professor of finance at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) and Frederick Wang looked at the stated preferences of entrepreneurs as expressed in comments and ratings on VC-ranking site The Funded. The study, which is based on opinions from roughly 1,500 entrepreneurs about 526 U.S. venture capital firms, tries to assess what they value the most from VCs.
In general, entrepreneurs view independent venture capital firms more favorably than strategic, corporate, or government VCs. They do a pretty good job of identifying which VCs have the best track record (which Bengtsson checked against VentureEconomics data), but just because a VC has a good financial track record doesn’t mean he or she will be the most helpful. And one of the things entrepreneurs value the most from a VC is quick feedback (positive or negative) when they are doing due diligence because time is money, and startups don’t have much of either.
Bengtsson shares some of his conclusions: → Read More
VoIP services company Sabse Technologies has acquired Canadian Internet voice startup MobiVox for an undisclosed amount. The fledgling company provides VoIP calling via existing landlines and cellphones and also enables its users to do conferencing, make group calls, and transfer calls to their home phone from their cell phone.
The young company had raised a single round of funding that amounted up to $11 million nearly two years ago from high-profile investors like Flybridge Capital, IDG Ventures and Brightspark Ventures. → Read More
If you’ve rooted and modded your Android phone you’ve probably found Cyanogen, one of the best sources for modded Android ROMs out there. All of his ROMs are stable, usable on the G1 and MyTouch, and well-designed. Google, however, takes issue with him releasing closed-source Google apps like Gmail, Maps, and YouTube and has sent him a cease and desist. They’re not particularly mad about the ROMs, mind you, just the apps inside them. → Read More
The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) recently made the ridiculous assertion that cellphone ringtones are to be considered “public performances” of music under the Copyright Act and thus require a license. As Ars Technica eloquently pointed out, the claim is ridiculous because after all one doesn’t need a public performance license to drive around town in a convertible with the radio on.
Even the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) sided with the defendants in the case (AT&T and Verizon Wireless), called the organization’s claims downright ‘outlandish’ and urged a federal court to reject the “bogus” copyright claims. Imagine my surprise to find out that Verizon has now agreed to pay the ASCAP an interim license fee of more than $4.99 million for songs the phone service provider uses in ringtones for its customers. Meanwhile, the two sides will continue to debate how much the group should receive for the tunes. → Read More
Amazon has been known to offer cell phones at cut rate prices. Just the other day, all AT&T phones expect for ones that start with the letter “i” werea penny on Amazon. But today, you can save $50 off the retail price and snag a Palm Pre for only one bill. → Read More
Seedcamp, the European startups programme a little (though not entirely) like YCombinator, has announced the winners of its year-long programme to find the best startups in Europe, finally judged over an intense week of mentoring by a long line of fellow European entrepreneurs.
Each startup has won €50,000 to develop their product, in return for Seedcamp taking a stake worth between 5-10% of the company. In each case the exact stake has not been released. As we wrote earlier this week, overall the standard was strong this year and many of the VCs and CEOs I spoke to during this week have remarked on how much the quality of startups in Europe has improved, especially as reflected in this year’s Seedcamp vintage.
So the winning teams are: → Read More
Resident Evil (Biohazard in Japan) – The Darkside Chronicles is an on-rails shooter that comes out in Nippon for the Wii on January 14. Instead of torturing you with the crappy video I took at the Capcom booth at the Tokyo Game Show, I give you the official trailer the fine people over at the Famitsu secured. It contains cut scenes, gameplay sequences and a few spoilers – you’ve been warned. → Read More
I posted some pictures of Sony’s and Ubisoft’s booth at this year’s Tokyo Game Show yesterday, but booth-wise, Square Enix, Microsoft (Xbox 360) and Capcom made quite a strong showing, too. Here’s some proof. → Read More
37signals founder Jason Fried probably had the post of the day today mocking Twitter’s $1 billion valuation on its latest rumored round of funding. The post, titled “PRESS RELEASE: 37SIGNALS VALUATION TOPS $100 BILLION AFTER BOLD VC INVESTMENT” is very funny. But it’s also disingenuous.
By way of sarcasm, Fried raises a number of points. But the key ones he hits on are valuations, revenues (or lack thereof), business models, and hype. And he chose an easy target in Twitter, which has no shortage of naysayers who simply cannot believe the amount of funding and valuation the service keeps getting. But Fried undoubtedly knows how the game is played, and by picking on the current “it” company, a few people noted that his post looked more like a case of sour grapes. But his points are still definitely worth talking about. → Read More
Normally, when you use Twitter’s search service, you can avoid clicking shortened URLs blindly – which is a security risk – by expanding them and taking a look at where they’ll be taking you exactly. I use it all the time, and I’ve even gotten accustomed to using Brizzly for Twitter on the web partly because it automatically expands any shortened URL.
I’d recommend anyone never to click short URLs without knowing where it goes, even when it comes from people you know and trust, because that’s not a guarantee for safe links either. In that regard, it doesn’t help that Twitter Search now no longer appears to expand Bit.ly URLs, which is the default web address shortener used by Twitter.
Update: and poof, it works again. → Read More
Alienware announced some new systems recently, including their latest desktop box, the Aurora ALX. The biggest news about the Aurora is the inclusion of the new ATI Radeon HD 5870 card. Reputed to be the current “top of the heap” when it comes to video cards, it’s being tested all over the web. → Read More
Sleep apnea sufferers have long had to use the dreaded CPAP mask, but there may soon be an alternative. Medical researchers have discovered that a small implant, attached to the hyperglossal nerve, is capable of ending your sleep apnea and probably saving your marriage. → Read More
We just got our Nikon D300s, and it’s looking good. I’ve taken a few beauty shots for you, and shot some video with the camera as well. First impressions are good, but that’s to be expected as it’s based on the the excellent D300 body. We’ll be comparing the D300s to a D300 in our full review to help you decide if you want to upgrade or not.
Sample video and pictures inside. → Read More
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