MicroStartups

Old posts - here. New posts - there.

2010-05-09T05:04:00.003+02:00

This page is a 'repository' of old blog posts.

If you want some new posts on similar subjects, go to here

Best wishes,

Aake

"Back to school" or "What happened to my cash"

2009-03-17T15:55:00.003+01:00

Being a techie with business ambitions economy books has up till now been very boring reading for me.

Time to think again.

After some time of bad experience with startups low on cash I bought a book on 'business economics' again, and it is really great reading. As usual reading these kind of books, there is no hard thinking needed to understand things that "you already knew, but somehow forgot". It all boils down to changing behavior.

And to change behavior you have to be convinced that you need to.

Now I am.

Some "obvious" advice to anyone out there not paying attention to your company's cash flow: there are plenty of advice on how to prolong your company's life, but all these advice only apply as long as you have some cash left. If you keep on working beyond the company passing the liquidation limit, you might be doing something unlawful. Even if in best intentions.

Telling the liquidator that you didn't know your company was on minus might not help. It could as well look as if you were trying to get a better negotiation position against your shareholders. If you took out a salary at this point, even worse.

So, get into the details of your company's cash flow, budget, tax stuff etc. Also when having outsourced this to an accountant. Only you have the latest numbers. Yes, I know, you're supposed to be doing what you're best at. But, you're in a microstartup. You can't afford a good CFO taking this burden.

And, maybe even when you do maybe Abraham Lincoln's "War Is Too Important to Be Left to the Generals" applies to this too?

Curb Your Enthusiasm - from www.totalarticle.com

2009-02-02T15:39:00.002+01:00

I think we all get The Idea now and then. Well, I do. How hard isn't it to stay cool and "wait for the perfect moment" when this happens. Being an enthusiast is not only great fun, it can be quite exhausting too, not only for the enthusiast but also for his/her environment. I found this well articulated article on the subject, worth reading if you're one of the enthusiasts, also if you're not but have some nearby. Not sure it helps much, but good reading still.

All entrepreneurs need enthusiasm. It's the fuel that keeps you going. Just treat it like gas: A great thing to have in your personal tank, but not something you want to spray over everyone you meet -- especially if they may be smoking a big cigar.

Read it all here.

Guiding start for anyone giving/taking advice

2009-01-29T13:45:00.010+01:00

I have to admit it. My blog has more become a repository of good links rather than a source of new thoughts. Sorry about that, I'll try to post some novel ideas .... any day now. Meanwhile: do not miss this great article from Uncle Saul

Free Advice, Worth Half The Price - Properly Compensating Entrepreneurial AddVisors

I try to give advice now and then to startups, so this article really caught my interest. I liked the "Any potential addVisor who demands cash compensation, has the wrong motives and should be eliminated from further consideration. If they want cash, they should get a job."

Spot on.

Maybe better see yourself as an art-collector, rather than a in-for-profit person. You better love the art your buying, or don't buy.

The less venture capital there is for new startups, the faster the decoupling will begin

2009-01-19T09:13:00.004+01:00

I read it, then I forgot to put a link here, thanks Alex:

The End Of Venture Capital As We Know It?

"Startups can be run so cheaply now (with open-source software, cloud computing, and virtual teams spread across the Web) that many more can achieve profitability without any VC cash. Up until recently, they still happily took that cash when it was handed to them. But certain classes of startups, especially Web startups, may now find they don’t even need that money. Y Combinator’s Paul Graham argues:

VCs and founders are like two components that used to be bolted together. Around 2000 the bolt was removed. Because the components have so far been subjected to the same forces, they still seem to be joined together, but really one is just resting on the other. A sharp impact would make them fly apart. And the present recession could be that impact.

. . . The current generation of founders want to raise money from VCs, and Sequoia specifically, because Larry and Sergey took money from VCs, and Sequoia specifically. Imagine what it would do to the VC business if the next hot company didn’t take VC at all.

The less venture capital there is for new startups, the faster the decoupling will begin."

Bootstrapping wonder - Caliroots.com,

2008-12-11T17:33:00.003+01:00

On my latest trip, to Versailles of all places, I read an article in di.se (DiEGO) where they compared the 1998 year’s Boo.com with today’s bootstrapping startup Caliroots.com, both dealing with fashion on the web. I.e. boo.com was one of the more spectacular (and quite early) Internet bubble crashes, and today the URL points at something completely different.

I was a product manager at the time when boo.com went bust, the startup I worked for were even in ‘deep discussions’ with Boo.com about them using our technology (3d on the web) to show their goods. So, I did my homework and studied them, and their possible need for our wonderful product. Eventually they settled (after many delays) with some other techniques. We were disappointed, but not for long.

At about the same period, and for the same company, we tried to get a deal with a ‘collaborative bidding’ site in the Stockholm area, letsbuyit.com (of course ‘.com’). We got as far as driving (me, our CEO and our founder) to a ‘top management’ meeting – but they cancelled just as we were a block away from their expensive HQ in Stockholm. This felt really unprofessional, even with Internet Bubble standard, so when I got back home I put one of our secretaries to go through the letsbuyit.com web and try to get an approximate summary of their de facto sales. Poor girl, but it was helpful and I thanked her: the margins were either very low or much worse. Again we were lucky not getting a ‘reference deal’.

Now, back to the article about Caliroots.com. There is a nice summary table pointing out the following differences between a ‘traditional .com turkey’ and today’s bootstrapping wonders:

Market:
Boo.com (Sports/street)
Caliroots.com (Sports/street)

Sales estimates 1st year:
Boo.com (700 MSEK)
Caliroots.com (3 MSEK)

Venture Capital:
Boo.com (1,4 BSEK)
Caliroots.com (None)

Valuation before launch:
Boo.com (approx 3,3 BSEK)
Caliroots.com (“few hundred thousand SEK”)

Newspaper articles before launch:
Boo.com (700)
Caliroots.com (10)

IPO
Boo.com (yes, on three stock exchange places)
Caliroots.com (no, never)

Presentation
Boo.com (Virtual test room, products in 3D – this was 1998)
Caliroots.com (Products in 3D)

Founder’s living expenses
Boo.com (85,000 SEK/month each)
Caliroots.com (non paid by company)

Founder’s mobile phone bills
Boo.com (30,000 SEK/month each) – note, this was in 1998, but still..
Caliroots.com (“rarely over 500 SEK”)

Furniture
Boo.com (Jonas Bohlin, Tomas Sandell)
Caliroots.com (IKEA)

Salary first year:
Boo.com (1,2 MSEK each)
Caliroots.com (none first year)

PR marketing first year:
Boo.com (3,5 MSEK)
Caliroots.com (0 SEK)

Travels:
Boo.com (First, Concorde sometimes, sometimes private jets)
Caliroots.com (Economy class, but not the expensive companies)

Needless to say, it is healthier to eat noodle soup for a year before breaking even, than burning away on steroids. No, I don’t know what the Boo.com founders are doing today, but I read the book. No, I don’t think there will be a film, and if there’s a T-shirt, try Caliroots.com. They will be around for many more years. Bootstrapping zero cost wonders.

PS Just for fun. I uploaded this while waiting for my bag at the Stockholm airport, took a photo, mailed it, and here it is. Time for a taxi. DS

Web Presence Furioso

2008-12-04T20:00:00.008+01:00

In the Old Times (ten years ago) you could get away with being at the right place in the right time. Nowadays the place is Internet - and the time is all the time.

Andy Warhol's "15 minutes of fame" translates to today's "In the future every url will be popular for 1.5 seconds" (Popurls). That's a 600 times shorter... Moore's law anyone?

To keep a presence on the web you need to pour a lot of your life into it: Your startup needs a proper webpage (ask me and I'll point you to www.btism.de, yes, there's plenty of great design in Germany - think Bauhaus, and continue from there); you need blogs spreading the word about your company and your product; you need twitter to twitter about your blog and web and product; AND you need to put (good) comments on all the others blogs and twitter etc. Get your 1.5 seconds TIMES all the pings you add to the web. If you're on vacation, you cease to exist. Really.

Again (yes, I know) see how much text (and good text) comes from Guy Kawasaki and his 'twittering' and blogging. It is truly amazing. I guess he leverages on his Alltop staff's input, but still. He is going completely truly Matrix virtual. .

I'm really new to twitter, just a few days. I still don't see the difference from RSS of someone's blog, but I guess there is something, at least it seems very active. Is this a marriage of blog and SMS and IM? Yeah, I'm new to this.

Here's two of my few (= five) followers to my tweet with links and thoughts about this:

Chris Brogan on "How Alltop Powers Bloggers"

and

Rowell Dionicio and his blog on "Around The Watercooler - Week of December 3 2008"

Only the Paranoid Survives, or do they?

2008-12-01T22:00:00.018+01:00

This was a catchy title of an Andy Grove book, based on his experiences redirecting Intel away from the memory market to the processor d:o. I don't recall much more, I read it, but I did the mistake to lend the book to a business developer, you go figure.

This is not a typical microstartup topic, but maybe worth discussing here. So, what's the topic? How to market yourself at the same time as you don't want to reveal too much of your secret sauce.

First question: do you really have a secret sauce? Ask someone else to answer that question. Yes, it is true that if you have a good idea, many have already thought the same (but did they act? did they take the opportunity?). Warning: the 'other' person might be a bozo (yes, Guy Kawasaki lingo). Ok, so try two or more opinions. I have my own favorites, people who give true answers, still wanting to see me succeed.

Second: how do you expand without revealing it? Assume you go along doing your world-class rendering engine. If you don't patent it will this be a problem later on? Will someone else patent the idea (or similar) and block you from doing your one sauce?

Third: how carefully did you check that you're not in the boarder of violating someone else's IPR?

Fourth: How do you stay "in Stealth mode", in practice?
I have one personal example, from when I was a product manager in a software company - long time ago. I wanted to meet with the development team (the core team) to understand their thoughts of what was possible, were they wanted to go next, competitors, ... the lot. The founder (yes, this was a startup) hesitated. It took me some days before I even got the address where the developers were sitting, in another city than the HQ. 'Paranoid' is just the beginning of the title.
I'm still digesting these experiences, after all these years, whether this (and more of the same) was the best strategy.

Fifth: Patents (again) is this the way to a bitter end of your life?

I promised to give some European view in this blog. Here's one reason why I, as a Swede, don't feel safe patenting my work:

Hakan Lans is maybe the greatest Swedish inventor the latest (many) decades.

"The past 10 years of his life has been spent on a complicated legal dispute concerning the patent on colour computer graphics. Several companies, including (big company), (another big company) and (yet another company) had not paid royalties, and allegedly infringed on the patent. The companies were then sued for patent infringement by Lans, as a private person. The defendants counterclaimed that the patent was assigned to Uniboard AB, a company wholly owned by Lans. The judge ruled that this was the case and thus Håkan Lans lost the case. This has led to another dispute between Håkan Lans and his previous attorney who Lans is now suing for misconduct. Lans has also sued his lawyer in Sweden"

Do I want to have "The past 10 years of his life has been spent" said about me. No, I don't. Is there something wrong with Patents here? Yes. If you don't agree, please comment here. I've opened the comments mode on the blog. Unintentionally it was patented, sorry closed.

Finally: what happens if you succeed going stealth? Maybe no-one finds out you're out there?

Bootstrapping

2008-12-01T09:34:00.009+01:00

My goal with this blog is to add new things, not just send links around. BUT, if you want to get up to speed with your microstartup(s) you could well start here: The Art of Bootstrapping (Guy Kawasaki).

Yes, it is a much Guy Kawasaki these days on this blog, but he's one of the leading characters educating us on practical, hands-on advice. There's others, and my favorite, besides Guy Kawasaki, is Uncle Saul. Again, hard facts, no lingo, straight English (good for us who has English as our second language).

Visual thinking - real business - great Alltop example

2008-12-01T09:12:00.029+01:00

I need to read the Dan Roam book The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures someday, but now it is enough reading the The Art of Visual Thinking article by Guy Kawaski with the Dan Roam example on Alltop. I read it once earlier this year, and it sticks. The picture that is. And I can't get it out of my mind. Good visual messages are way stronger than just words.

I borrowed the Southwestern napin from the web (I googled), and now I hope it is ok to show the Alltop one (even if this one needed parts of the table cloth). So, point here is: are you able to visualize your product/service? If you can, you're on to something. If you can't, maybe you should think again.

The Guy Kawasaki Effect

2008-12-01T08:51:00.009+01:00

Guy Kawasaki has his "The Guy Kawasaki's Golden Touch" (Whatever is gold, Guy touches). This time it worked the other way around, what Guy touches becomes gold.

I mailed Guy and asked for a comment on the "Hiring a CEO..." posting below. And he did!! By adding a link on twitter (he has 30,000 followers, world-wide). And "pling!" the visitors started to drop in. Now, this is a blog hardly read by many more than a handful (I personally invited each and one of you to read my postings), with a 4-6 visits a day, rarely any comments (thanks Alex and Matti by the way for posting).

Now I got 250 in one day, so let's say the Guy Effect increased my traffic by factor 50 or more! That's 5000% in financial lingo. Another really cool effect is that the visitors came from all over the world.

What to learn on this? If you want to market your product, start working. Write blogs, use twitter to drive traffic to your blog, get onto Alltop.com, write books, write articles, comment others blogs and articles, get out there and give presentations, .... And, don't be afraid to try your luck now and then approaching the big ones.

Now what? I'm a realist (sometimes) and expect the traffic to get down to its normal again, maybe slowly increasing over the year. Hard work, but great fun.

Cloud Computing Lowering Startup Barriers To Entry

2008-11-27T14:10:00.002+01:00

I googled on the combination of words I like: cloud computing and startups hoping to find some title like above. I did. Since it is from SD it has some thoughts/hopes about media.

Added a picture of me outside DivX HQ early 2007.

Hiring a CEO for your first (and maybe last) time.

2008-11-25T20:05:00.007+01:00

Some comment before reading:

- Ok, a true microstartup will go very long not needing to add any “top management layer”, but if all goes well you might get to the position when you start to think that you need one.
- I mention ‘incubator’ now and then in the text below. I know, this isn’t always a good move for a boot-strapping startup, so if you want you can ignore that, or simply replace with “my mom and dad”, “my credit card company”, “some good friends I’ve borrowed money from” or something equally bad.
- I’m writing ‘he’ in the text below. I started writing he/she and so on, but it made it less readable. ‘He’ is, still more common, but this is changing to the better.
- Brevity is a bliss, I agree. What you see below is the RAW version. The final award winning product will be much much shorter. I promise.

Now to the topic of hiring CEOs.

“Last” in the above title could mean that you’ll go all the way to startup heaven (I didn’t write IPO, because that is not always the goal), or, that you go out of business in such a brute way that you never want to start one again, even less work for one.

Over the years I've met many archetypes of bad and worse CEOs: the invisible one, were the middle managers take over; the ex-management consultants who executes greatly but everything according to a library of cookbooks, with a startup company that didn't make into a very good soup. Describing these and the rest of us in the startup will be a section of itself in the blog. I think I will call it “the Startup Zoo”.

Too early, or “hiring a pilot still building the plane”

All the CEOs did their best, at least in the beginning, but many just didn't know how to deal with a startup and many were just far too early having nothing valuable to add. There was nothing to sell, or even to show to investors. It’s like hiring a pilot still building the plane. Don’t even bother getting a former air force pilot, that is just more money ticking away on the ground. Some had just lied about their abilities and experiences (more about this later in the text). Needless to say, it is as in any established company - with some crucial differences: Timing and Board.

- Didn't you meet any good CEO?
- Let's say I've met one good, and let them all think it was he.

Too quick, or “saving days by loosing months”

I mentioned above that some even managed to get the position lying about their credentials. How on earth is this possible? There is no excuse, but it happened. Probably it happens more often than you think. It was possible because of complete inexperience on the recruiting side and them trusting some ‘trustable’ persons that this is a good CEO.

- Still. This is stupidity. If you’re this stupid you deserved it, you’d go out of business later anyway.
- We were convinced it was a show stopper, not having a CEO – no new investments, no customers, no time to do development, … So, we did the safe thing – met the (one) candidate, talked to some references, believed them all, and trusted the ‘insurances’ from some close trustees. We were quite happy after we ‘completed’ the ‘recruitment’.

Many startups feel that they are in a hurry hiring a CEO. They’ve got convinced by their 'friends' and/or existing and incoming investors/incubator all telling them that they need a CEO to meet with investors, they need a CEO to be credible, a CEO is the key to success. But they are often wrong. Hiring a CEO under time pressure is a bad idea for any company, for a startup it can be the last thing they do. Remember boot-strapping and cash flow? Having hired a CEO that has nothing else to do than pushing the developers to ship a product that won't be ready for many more months is costly - both in time, money and stress-level. I’m not saying that the development should let go and ship-fix-fix rather then fix-fix-fix-die. But sometimes it is really too early adding a CEO.

So take a deep breath, and stay calm. There is a better way.

Clean the table; get a functional board in place

What to do if it isn’t time to hire a CEO at this point? Focus on making your board better. My guess is that if you’re still early, the board consists of someone from the family/incubator (could be good, sometimes not) and the head founder. This is not the board you need to balance a strong CEO, or to find your way forward. Fix this first. Still there’s plenty of daily practical work – salaries, rent, … Hire someone to do this if you can’t do it yourself. But that is not bootstrapping.

Make sure your recruitment makes good to your company, or don’t do it.

Hiring a CEO is a very delicate and important recruitment - not something you probably have any experience of from earlier work. So, how do you go about finding your CEO? If under stress, and with no-one (make sure this isn’t true) to ask - you take the advice you have. E.g. you trust your incubator manager, he should know after all these years. Be sure to check the incubator's track record - ask some of the other startups they have handled. Friends giving 'advice', ‘advice’ just to keep a conversation, as a game. But this is not a game. Hiring the wrong CEO could be the end of everything.

Don’t put the decisions on others – it is you hiring this CEO

Don't put the decisions on others, it is you who do the hiring. Once you realize this, and even if you zero experience, get to the work.

- I don't have the experience or time to do this!
- No and Yes, you do. What you don't have time with is hiring the wrong CEO. If you do that, you'll need very much more time, time that you maybe don't even have. The downside scenario is that the company stops developing for periods when you're busy solving issues created by the new mix of people. Eventually firing the CEO. Good luck finding a new one.
- So. Hiring, not only CEOs, is the single most important part of your startup life, next to cash flow. So, again, get to the work. Do it.
- Ok, ok. But how? I haven't got a clue!

Dig, dig, and dig some more

Once you start digging into it, you see that every person has a google-able history and people you can get first hands comments from. Not only the ones used as references in his CV. You gather this together, put the pieces together, and meet with the candidates (pluralis) one by one in a detailed planned recruiting meeting. Do some home work here - don't just have an unplanned meeting. A successful recruitment meeting will have many positive spinoffs. A correctly interviewed candidate leaves the meeting with a feeling that he has got the right questions and a chance to fully show hiss strengths and weaknesses - that the candidate company knows who he is and what he is able to, and the candidate knowing what is waiting if joining the company. So, even if the candidate doesn't fit the company, or the company the candidate - the candidate will be positive about your company, and maybe bring this further to others. Also, when the company grows there might be an opening to do business later on.

You can see the recruitment process as a very deep marketing meeting with a few selected persons.

Warning bells trying to tell you something important

More, now practical things:
You do your research, you meet, you get more references to check - and you give the candidate a good look into the company as well. Things to pay extra attention to:

Warning bells. We all have warning bells ringing now and then, sometimes constantly, but most often very quietly. Please, take time to listen to these. They are your best friends. And, please, let your partners know you're having them. Some call it gut-feeling. It is your smarter me trying to get through to you. He has a message: "Don't hire this guy". If you don't listen to the bell, tell your partners about it and they will probably tell you that they too hear some noise in the background. Yes. Let's think again....

What could it be that the better you have found, or thing it has found? This also applies to the candidate about you:

Glitches between the story told and facts. Chemistry. You don’t have to love the candidate, or he you, but you will be working very closely for (hopefully) some time. Gaps in the CV (that weren't fully explained). Questions asked by the candidate, especially the ones he didn't ask. Answers to your questions - how they were delivered and how.

Of course, this is an interview, so the candidate might be a little on his toes. But, they should perform well, we’re talking about CEOs here, they will be in the middle of the heat. They should also be able to make the meeting a nice one and to the point.

Did he show genuine interest in your company and what you do? If he was you should have gotten to the point where you yourself don't know the answer to his questions. You start to work together, and it works. "Only hire infected people". I wish this was always possible, but if you find them, be sure to perform a good recruitment meeting that either a) hires the person or b) makes sure he stays positive about you and your company. Maybe a future employee or customer? Maybe you have found one of the rare evangelists?

This was the v0.1 written on my way back from yet-another-eu-meeting, this time in Lyon. If I get some comments, I’ll might do a beta release.

An Italian software story - Micro-ISV

2008-11-21T11:53:00.005+01:00

Got this article from Miika, many thanks!

"The story is great because is the counter story of all Silicon Valley VC-backed startups. Get money from VC and you have a chance to be rich quick... Peldi is doing everything the opposite way, and he is becoming rich quick. A one-man shop. The anti-VC story, much appropriate for an economic downturn. With software built with creativity in Italy. By a guy who lived in Silicon Valley. I have to love this one!" from Fabrizio Capobianco at www.funambol.com

I couldn't agree more!

Locality and VCs

2008-11-21T10:50:00.004+01:00

I went to some Boston business angels earlier this year, they don't invest outside Boston. I talked to some pre seed investors in Stockholm, they don't invest outside Sweden. Locality matters, at least to some. Find your investors at home. Your customers and employees are the global ones. They might bring you new investments eventually.

Don't get me wrong. I don't think this is fully true, or should be this way. I just tell you my experience. Yours?

Just for 'fun': When Niklas Zennström's Skype was acquired by eBay, you should have seen the Swedish press :-) All the local VCs trying to explain why they missed this deal. Only believer (in Sweden that is) was an old childhood friend of Niklas'.

Inspiring talks, plenty to learn

2008-11-20T17:02:00.004+01:00

Personally I enjoy very much

Guy Kawasaki (search on YouTube and you'll find plenty)

who enjoyed listening (so did I) to

Majora Carter

And we all love watching Steve Job's presentations, but that goes unsaid. Did you listen to his Stanford commencement talk?

I also liked very much Randy Paunsch's final presentation. And his very very last one (if you want to get serious).

A word about patents...

2008-11-20T11:58:00.007+01:00

VCs sometimes ask about patents, or patentable work.

My first (real life, not as a technical due diligence consultant) lesson on this: working at Cycore (3D for the web) I realized early that the plan was to NOT patent the rendering engine. To not reveal any secrets. I think that was, for that case, the smartest thing to do. See last example below how they did later in another case.

Another lesson on this: talking to an entrepreneur on the US east coast "only reason to patent, is to make sure no-one will hinder you from doing the things you invented, not the other way around - that is too expensive and takes years, also for SUN and Apple, and they didn't really win"

One more: From the 3D web company, see below. Did they sue Google and their Google maps? Not what I know of.

Fun version (old): Small company suing Sony and M$ for them using the small company's vibration effects in XBOX and PS. Solution? M$ buys the small company and sues Sony (for a much higher amount than before). I haven't got this story confirmed, but got it from a person I trust at M$ (oxymoron?).

--
Sweden-Based Cycore is Granted Geographic Web Search Patent for North America and Europe; Web 3D Software Vendor Secures Geographic and Location Search Patent
Business Wire, Dec 21, 2004

UPPSALA, Sweden -- Cycore, a market leader in interactive 3D for the Web, today announced it has received approval of a 2D and/or 3D spatial Web search methodology patent, originally filed in 1998. The patent, covering the process of searching for nearby businesses and services based on geography, may affect Web search engines that are developing similar technology, making Cycore a player in the Web search industry.

"Cycore has long been known as a forward-thinking company," said Jerry Pettersson, Cycore's founder and author of the patent. "We have already made significant contributions to the progress of the World Wide Web, bringing real-time 3D interactivity to the Internet and thus, helping to set new standards for the user experience. Leveraging the power of 3D technology, this patent further positions Cycore as an innovator in the future of the Web."

Covering the method for administrating large amounts of data being associated with a spatial/geographic entity, United States Patent No. 6,772,174 and European Patent No. EP1131932 encompasses the enabling of geographic and location search via a local network, a wide area network, a public network or any combination. The computer system represents the output layers to the user by means of a virtual representation of a spatial entity generated by a computer, and the data for generating the layers are administrated by a data communication network. Different sets of data are represented as different layers that interact and are presented to the user as being superimposed on the representation of the geographical entity, the different layers of data may interact so as to produce a new representation for the user or to initiate actions at systems or items being external to the computer operated by the user.

"Imagine a map displayed in three dimensions," says Pettersson, "in which areas of user interest encompass a number of details down to the interior of a restaurant or a hotel. Details could include a vast amount of information like prices, telephone numbers, restaurant menus, etc. External event-related information may also be obtained via the map such as traffic reports, weather forecasts, news, and ongoing events. In addition, users could access statistical data related to an area such as crime rates, weather statistics, exchange rates, and more. Everything a user would want to know at their fingertips, all layered in logical formation within the physical area they are interested in."

"There is no question that search within a geographic context localized search is a hot topic today in Web search," said Sue Feldman, IDC's VP for Content Technologies. "Searchers want to find the coffee shop, pizza shop, or book store that is nearest to them, not halfway across the continent. Today, Web search companies deliver that kind of information with a combination of profiles and look-up schemes or by asking the user for his current location. If Web search can deliver that kind of information more effectively, Web searchers will be better served, and the keyword advertising business will take yet another upward swing."

"The search engine technology market has been rapidly moving towards geographic and location search," says Pettersson. "The Industry giants in the search arena are progressively moving towards applications that can display and give the user a relevant result, based on search query and geographic position. Cycore now holds the key methodology to current and future development of these applications."

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is considered the best way to handle, display and search information about a geographic location. Cycore's patent adds another dimension to this technology by being able to show layers and phenomena of event data that have happened or will happen in a geographic area. According to Pettersson, Google's recent acquisition of Keyhole, creators of EarthViewer technology, is proof positive that spatial search using layered information is the direction in which the search market is headed.

"It has been Cycore's thinking since we filed for the patent in 1998 that the industry would eventually move in this direction," says Pettersson. "Recent announcements from industry giants prove that local search and customized search are the next frontiers in search technology and Cycore is poised to lead the way."

Cycore is currently deciding on its future plans for the patent. Licensing and/or sale of the patent are options currently being considered. "We are pleased to have secured a patent that will continue to meet our core vision of enriching the user searches through visualization," says Pettersson.

About Cycore

Cycore is a graphics software company, focused on the Internet, headquartered in Uppsala, Sweden. Cycore was founded in 1996 by a group of engineers, led by Jerry Pettersson. A leader in interactive 3D graphics software for e-business, the company specializes in the development of 3D technologies. Cult3D, the fastest software rendering engine in the world, is a product visualization application used in Web sites, in Microsoft Office(R) documents and in Adobe Acrobat(R) files. Users can spin, zoom and explore a Cycore Cult3D model to view and understand a product from any perspective -- all with the click of a mouse. Cycore has won several awards for its products, including `Best Internet Software' category for `PC Week's Best of Comdex Award' at Fall Comdex '98. In 1999, Cycore was awarded the coveted European Information Society Technologies (1st) Prize. As a tool for efficient handling of 3D data, Cult3D Designer is known worldwide and represents many years of high-quality research and development in the 3D field. Cycore AB is a privately held company based in Uppsala, Sweden. For further information please visit www.cycore.com.

CloudFront - a new CDN player?

2008-11-20T11:10:00.003+01:00

CloudFront is here. Sounds as a weather forecast warning for storm and rain, and it might be, for the CDNs.

Link to press release

The Southwestern napkin

2008-11-19T14:52:00.003+01:00

Here's the napkin where it all started (according to the myth).

Never go to a place without napkins.

Entrepreneur definition - Uncle Saul

2008-11-19T09:23:00.003+01:00

Uncle Saul:

I define an entrepreneur as, “Anyone who identifies an opportunity and exploits it.”

Read the whole article at

http://www.infochachkie.com/inventors-vs-innovators/#more-261

... and everything else written by this guru!

Risk takning in EU vs US - getting closer

2008-11-19T09:06:00.005+01:00

It has long been a statement that people in EU are more risk averse that their friends in the US.
There was a long article (I guess there have been many) in e.g. the Economist some time ago, giving the statistics supporting this 'fact'.

Still, I don't think so. I think it all has to do with available choices and risk optimization.

Firstly, about statistics: "There's lies, damn lies, and statistics" (Twain). And he is (as very often) right. What this statistics showed was how people takes risks in US vs EU, not about their general behavior (what they do when they have the same choices).

Secondly: "It is not hard to be brave if you're not afraid" (Moomin). And he, too, is (as very often) right. Is there is no choice, there is not much else to do.

This is changing, and you'll all see that Europeans are risk takers too, when they have no other choice: EU is getting less and less a social secure place to live in, and this will push us into 'being risk takers'.

Along with this I expect to see a growth in startups, and people going from safe to 'adventurous'.

This makes the boot strapping and microstartup ideas even more interesting for EU persons... Or?

Ycombinator - "the mob would be proud"?

2008-11-18T08:34:00.004+01:00

www.ycombinator.com is an activity that I've followed for quite some time now (since late 2007).

I envied them for their novel approach, and especially for the wonderful places (Boston, Mtn View) where they can gather their friends.

But. Here's another view on this activity, maybe to consider. I agree that they do take a huge share for values the startups create together...

"I work for a small startup with revenues around $1 million. We lost count of the number of VCs calling us, asking for a meeting, and telling us to contact them once we get to $5 million per year in revenues.

The only exception I know to this rule is Ycominator: which essentially provides beer and pizza money ($15,000) to kids in exchange of hefty ownership. The mob would be proud.

Do you guys realize most startups have no need for VC infusion once they get to that level? Not all, but most."

Something is wrong in Venture Captial - this is great news!

2008-11-17T11:43:00.001+01:00

Plenty of web people (not sure they exist IRL) commenting on the startup market have repeatedly written about different bootstrapping examples, and how this is the new way to do things.

I believe it is mostly for 2.0 companies, but maybe now, with e.g. cloud computing services, we are - really - seeing a change in how to start hightech companies. Maybe not for hardware, but for the rest of us.

I think we all have been in startups were you wondered, amazed, about how the capital was used, and how little, e.g., the marketing efforts paid back. Couldn't we have had done something better with this? I think so, and that is why you should think twice before adding people VCs prioritize, e.g. MBAs, management consultants, PR firms, ... They don't only cost money, but plenty of your - the doer's - time.

I think the Funded have put together a nice slide show about how VCs are actually performing. Read this, and ask yourself, are you in the 'other' segment, as was Google and others, before they got really big?

The Canary Is Dead

About this blog

2008-11-14T10:02:00.000+01:00

With a five startups experience - one ongoing - I've learned a lot, and I know now that there is so much more to learn about this. One definite insight is that while we learn a lot about others and how they should do, we rarely learn much about ourselves.

Or as Woody Allen put it when asked why he still - after 50 something movies - sometimes make really bad movies: "because experience doesn't work!" He continues making parallels between making movies and getting in love. I think we can add starting new ventures to that list.

Anyway, I do hope we can learn more together, than one by one.

Another specific about this blog at this stage is its European touch. There are many excellent US blogs on the venture adventures, but there are some specifics with European ventures that doesn't follow the US pattern. We try to add this here.