So the Athens Startup Weekend came and went and I think it’s left a most positive impression to everyone involved and about all its aspects. Andrew and Alexandros were there with us to show us how starting simply from an idea you can turn it into a startup within 2.5 days. Patrick and Lydia from Microsoft which hosted the event in the offices of the Microsoft Innovation Center made sure all our technical and maintenance (i.e. food and drinks) needs were met - thank you both for that! Apart from the participants, a number of people with a background on business, law and PR (as well as a few possible funders) were also invited to contribute their expertise to the event - ensuring each team had access to all the disciplines necessary to make their product work. And of course, everyone collectively contributed to create an excellent atmosphere choke full of creativity, ideas, positive vibes, effectiveness and above all results.
Speaking of which. the startups that presented in the end were the following:
pettycards allows micropayments using mobiles and scratch cards
howsocial.ru calculates the total social impact of individuals in a number of online communities
Digital Rights Protection collects all legal data on various worldwide legal systems and allows search for patents aiming to help interested parties look for infringements
rentawife.gr outsources household chores to others so you can regain your quality time
blognudge allows you to put a button on your blog so that people can suggest that you should write something and perhaps include a topic or send you a donation
mobcommerce.com allows e-commerce store owners to create mobile stores automatically
freecycling FB app helps people organise giving of stuff they don’t want to people who ask for them instead of throwing them away
mydoulapa FB app organises your wardrobe and allows you to donate some items to charity while fashion houses can also create an identity in it and tap their demographic of interest
beeshopper presents an array of e-shops in a single interface categorised per field
uArt looks like a deviantArt clone… only with a monetisation model for the artists’ works
betcafe is an online gambling site
And of course we’d like to wish all the best to pettycards whomanaged to stand out from the rest and attract the promise of the GIVE fund to take a closer look in their project and hopefully invest seed money in them. Congratulations guys! And congratulations to all who participated and helped make the weekend a success.
(Tag for content on twitter, flickr, YouTube, etc is #asw - and sometimes #aws)
Below we have slides presenting two very different viewpoints on the recent perceived crisis and subsequent second .com bust. We find them extremely insightful
Sequoia on the first pack is one of the largest technology funds in the world. They generally push for extreme development of a business and have huge successes under their belt, such as Google, Yahoo! and countless others.
The Whiner Jerkins is actually a fake. I’d like to point out that there exists no Whiner Jerkins. I know that everyone’s talking about it as if it were real but it’s not. It’s a deck of slides made by a Matt Maroon, which is actually very insightful and self-sarcastic.
Personally I just feel vindicated over the countless arguments I’ve had on how popular Hulu would become and how fragile Seesmic’s business model is. Let us also keep in mind that while Youtube was snatched for an obscene amount of money from Google, it was never profitable, and one can argue that it will never be.
That does not go to say that these companies haven’t successfully transformed our perception of the web, or that they didn’t innovate. Just that business success ended up being an entirely different matter.
Below you can watch the slides from the Stream08 conference held at Marathon. Stream was a marketing focused unconference but attracted a great deal of web personalities and investors.
Our presentation was a (successful) attempt at taping on the power of the collective mind, and finding ways to improve the perceived problems here.
Χτες μόλις έφτασε στο email ένα link για αυτόν εδώ το διαγωνισμό. Σκοπός του διαγωνισμού - όπως διαβάζουμε στο site, είναι η ανάδειξη των 10 καλύτερων επιχειρηματικών ιδεών και η βράβευση των 3 συγκριτικά καλύτερων businessplans προερχόμενα από την γεωγραφική περιφέρεια της Κεντρικής Μακεδονίας.
Ο διαγωνισμός έχει ξεκινήσει από 19/9 και λήγει στις 6/10 - άρα υπάρχει χρόνος να κατατεθούν οι 5 σελίδες περιγραφής και υποστήριξης μιας καινοτομικής ιδέας. Άλλωστε υπάρχει επιπλέον χρόνος αν είναι να πιστέψουμε αυτό:
Αναφέρεται πως με βάση τον αριθμό και την ποιότητα των αρχικών ιδεών που θα αποσταλούν στον Α’ κύκλο, παραμένει ανοικτό το ενδεχόμενο η επιτροπή αξιολόγησης να εξετάσει και τη συμμετοχή άλλων καινοτόμων επιχειρηματικών σχεδίων που τυχόν θα υποβληθούν στη διάρκεια του Β’ κύκλου του διαγωνισμού «InnovativeIdeasinCentralMacedonia 2008»
Το βραβείο για τις καλύτερες ιδέες δεν είναι άμεσα χρηματικό αλλά αντίθετα περιλαμβάνει πρώτον συμμετοχή σε σεμινάρια σχετικά με την καινοτομία, την επιχειρηματικότητα και γενικά το πως μπορεί να γίνει πράξη η ιδέα. Επιπλέον, και σημαντικότερα σημαίνει την έναρξη της κάπως ασαφούς διαδικασίας “προώθησης και δικτύωσης” προκειμένου η ιδέα να χρηματοδοτηθεί.
Imagine being surrounded by 400+ Venture Capitalists. Yes, pitching your start-up to the biggest investors across Europe. And consider presenting there for free, while also enjoying a Venture Academy coaching the day before, plus some private meetings right after your presentation.
Well, as the Next Web guys pointed out timely, what you need to do is just fill out early the presenting company application for the European Venture Funding 2008, which takes place in Duesseldorf, during December 1 & 2. Deadline for applications extend till October 13th and the 100 best out of them will be lucky enough to enjoy the aforementioned benefits. Plus, it’s not only ICT; the call also mentions biotech and new energy. Won’t you take your chances?
P.S.: On a side note, applications for the more focused Seedcamp end on August 10th, that is on Sunday!
You probably already know about Seedcamp, I may roughly describe it as ‘the european YCombinator’, while it was also one of the very first topics we covered on this blog. I had the chance and pleasure to met up with Reshma Sohoni, Seedcamp’s CEO, in London a couple of days ago, so here is Reshma addressing to all of you people about your potential at Seedcamp 2008.
You can find out more about Seedcamp from Reshma’s recent presentation embedded below; yes, applications are now open and waiting for you.
