iakttakelser (observations)

Good old days are here again. Good news for all startups! A post from GigaOM by Stacey Higginbotham has the whole story . Here is a part: Fourteen venture-backed companies went public in the first quarter of 2011, raising $1.4 billion in the process, according to the National Venture Capital Association. That’s the highest number to go public in a quarter since 2007. While only seven of these companies were in the Internet and technology fields (the rest were in medical and biotechnology), the more interesting data was on mergers and acquisition amounts, which were awesome for Internet-related businesses and pretty grim for hardware and semiconductors (see chart below). In other words, it’s still all about the software. The NVCA reports that during the first quarter there were 74 M&A deals with a disclosed total dollar value of $3.3 billion. Computer software and services and Internet-specific companies accounted for the bulk of the targets, with 63 deals and the lion’s sha...

That's quite a question. I certainly know the best place isn't Hamar. Innovation Norway at Hamar appearently don't think we're innovative enough to earn more support. So we are moving to Oslo, and staying in La Vila in Spain. But I'm proud to tell you we've received offer to incubate in Silicon Valley and Berlin. And we have to decide. I, personally would prefer New York, but we have to look at the people who want us. This will be tricky indeed! A post from VentureBeat by John Backus has the whole story . Here is a part: John Backus  is a co-founder and managing partner at early-stage VC fund New Atlantic Ventures. He blogs at  http://navfund.com/blog/ . Now’s a good time for startups: VCs are  investing more money  now than they have since the recession hit. But do you have to be in Silicon Valley to get the contacts, staff, and VC attention you need to build a venture-backed company? There’s no doubt, Silicon Valley is frequently the first choice fo...

A post from Both Sides of the Table by Mark Suster has the whole story . Here is a part: In my ongoing quest to get you good transcripts of the wonderful interviews we’ve done in the past, I present you with one amazing interview here with  Tom McInerney  – a friend, co-investor, former entrepreneur turned angel investor and “wizard of Oz” behind the scenes at the uber hot startup  Klout . What is wonderful about this interview is that I got Tom on the record on: what angels look for and how they work? lessons learned from his days as an entrepreneur some fun, big tech issues like privacy, net neutrality, location-based services and real-time data The interesting thing about working with angels (the tech founder kind) is that they’ve all run their own startups before so there is instant resonance with what you’re going through, the issues you’ll face and how to best help. When I meet with Tom offline it’s obvious that he immediately is thinking about product issue...

It's correct. It's not an easy task. But so it shouldn't be either. But the belief that it is the goverment who creates or "gives" employment is hard to beat... A post from VentureBeat by Ilja Laurs has the whole story . Here is the last part:   In addition to the issues stemming from a strictly controlled workplace, Europe’s efforts in VC suffer from an extreme naiveté. As the birthplace of the VC model, the U.S. has considerably more experience in VC enterprises, and, as such, operates with a more mature view. In the most intimate way, American VCs have seen the rise of Google, Twitter and Facebook. They know the ins and outs of their formation, they are familiar with the risks they took and they know the intricacies of their success. Also, thanks to their experience, VCs in the U.S. understand that the parameters of the classic business model do not apply to the businesses they back. While European boards are focused on profits and revenue from the get...

Nice story for a nice product. Instagram has changed the way I take and distribute photos. A post from TechCrunch by MG Siegler has the whole story . Here is a part: There have been few startups that have gotten as hot as quickly as  Instagram . The photo-sharing application for the iPhone surged past  100,000 users  less than a week after they first launched. In less than three months,  they hit a million users . Now they’re well north of 1.5 million users. Not surprisingly, that kind of growth has attracted a lot of interest from investors. In fact, many of the big players were fighting for a chance to get in on the startup’s Series A, we’ve heard. And now, we have a winner. Benchmark Capital  is leading Instagram’s $7 million Series A round. Also participating is initial investor  Baseline Ventures  and angels: Square’s  Jack Dorsey ,  Chris Sacca  (through his Lowercase Capital fund), and Quora’s Adam D’Angelo . Benchmark’s...

We've aimed globally from the first day of iFActuras. But according to investors, that's quite uncommon. And to some, even a bit scary. The normal procedure in Norway is: first get strong at home, and then run abroad. We really started in Spain. It's in Spain we've been doing marketing, and it's there where people are excited about our billing app. Ironically we launched first in Norway. Due to the goal of starting with Windows Phone 7 in Spain, we launched iPhone in Norway, quietly in September. And just as quietly it has silently grown, so that we now can see that the first thousand customers beeing are going to be reached pretty soon... BTW - Spain is running even faster. But when we talk about our launch in US, South Amerika, India and China people don't really believe us. But we are acting on real global plans. Just wait and see! A post from VentureBeat by Matt Marshall has the whole story . Here is a part: A hundred million devices isn’t cool. ...

Here is another post from my VC RSS feed. A primer in raising money! A post from Both Sides of the Table by Mark Suster has the whole story . Here is a part: If you want a very quick primer on all the stuff nobody ever tells you about raising venture capital check out this video where  Mark Jeffrey  & I break it down on This Week in VC.  A summary of what we discussed is below: Popout Not 100% in order of the video, but close.  All of this is covered in more detail on the TWiVC video above (and much of it is covered in text on this blog on the “ Raising VC ” tab) 1. Will a VC sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement)?  No. If they did they would be in constant violation because VCs often see 3-4+ companies in every market that they operation.  NDAs would make it impossible to do business.   Asking for one to be signed shows naïveté. 2. What is the VC process? Meet with one person from the firm – partner or associate.  If you ...

I've starting following some Venture Capital blogs. Here is the first post in my blog: A post  from  A VC   by  Fred  has the whole story. Here is a part: This is going to feel like a continuation of  yesterday's post  which was a continuation of  last week's post . But it is what I am thinking about so it is what I am posting about. I love what  @Bryce  wrote  about mobile on his blog yesterday : By their nature, these phones were born social. They were built from the ground up to connect us. First with voice, then with text. Now, they’re packed capabilities like photos, videos and a wave of native and web applications. We’re just beginning to catch a glimpse of what a powerful and disruptive force they can be. Not just to incubent handset manufactures and telcos but to social movements and government regimes.  I’ve made clear my belief that we’re in the midst of a massive global reinvention. Not just a shift...

I've put two stories below. Other investors are partly very sceptics. The startups however, very glad to accept this investment offer, which are also on good terms. What do you think? A post from techcrunch.com by Chris Yeh has the whole story . Here is a part: Editor’s note : Guest author  Chris Yeh  is an independent angel investor and VP of Marketing for PBworks , one of his investments. He has been involved with Internet startups since 1995. His Twitter handle is  @chrisyeh . Update:  This post refers to DST as the investor in Start Fund  when it actually is Yuri Milner personally investing, along with Ron Conway’s fund SV Angel. The big news this morning is  Yuri Milner’ s announcement that  DST  and  Ron Conway  will be investing $150,000  in *every*  Y Combinator  startup on a no-discount, no-cap convertible loan. Many people have already weighed in with instant reactions—”It’s a bubble!” “It’s the greatest thi...

Wow, if I had had this 6 months ago! I will add them to my RSS feed and to twitter! And you will see a lot from these sources. A post from TechCrunch by Erick Schonfeld has the whole story . Here is a part: The bigger change is that many VC blogs saw a drop in audience across the board. I suspect this is because many of them stopped blogging as much as they used to. Out of the VC blogs that Compete had enough data on, about 72 percent saw a drop-off in traffic. Only nine VC bloggers increased their traffic by more than 1,000 readers per month, including Graham, Dixon, Horowitz, Mark Suster, and Jeff Bussgang (see bolded names in the list below). You can read the full list of all 73 VC blogs on  Cheng’s blog.  Which is your favorite VC power blogger and why? Paul Graham ( @paulg ), YCombinator,  Essays  (97,227) Fred Wilson ( @fredwilson ), Union Square Ventures,  A VC  (81,483) Mark Suster ( @msuster ), GRP Partners,  Both Sides of the Table ...

@Revaliente pitching for iFacturas in Zaragoza You never learn how to rise money by VC. Startups are different. The Zeitgeist is different. The VCs are different. Your ideas also are. So keep learning and keep training! A post from netgarden's posterous has the whole story . Here is a part: What should be in the deck?  Some variation of the following (this is a suggested order) Bio of top 3 people in the company.  Short sentences, bullet points, easy to read. Problem definition (with the market … it’s why you exist) How you solve that problem conceptually at the highest level Details on the solution [Demo could go here] Why you believe there is economic value in what you do / how you think you can monetize one day Competition Progress to date of your company (when started, key milestones, what shape is the product in, any pilot / beta customers, financing) Market sizing Potential future exit possibilities How much are you raising, how long will it last, key ...

Du vil ikke trenge mindre enn fire slike for å starte AS. Før måtte du ha 15! Jeg tok litt feil her. Det var en ting til vi småbedrifter trenger i Norge: anstendig krav til aksjekapital. Og nå ser det ut at vi får det og! I Spania er kravet €3000, så NOK30 000 er ok. Det er bare 12 dager siden småbedrifter slapp å ha revisor: Ny vår for norske småbedrifter: vi slipper revisor og kan fakturere med mobil . Og det er 4 måneder siden vi lot normenn få anledning til å fakturere på mobil:  Til deg som fakturerer: gjør det på iPhone! En post fra from Nett - Forsiden - VG Nett har hele historien . Her er en del:

How are startups in Y Cominator running their apps and services? This it interesting stuff for all in the apps lifestyle. A post from GigaOM Pro » Infrastructure by Derrick Harris has the whole story . Here is a part: A  domain profiler document on GitHub  is providing some interesting insights into the services that  Y Combinator  startups use to host its services. The breakdown is according to Web host, Email host, DNS Host, Registrar, SSL Issuer and Certificate type.The profiler shows: Amazon Web Services is the most popular for hosting applications, followed by Rackspace and Soft Layer. A total of 39 of the startups use Amazon.com, including  Rapportive ,  airbnb  and  Cloudant . Rackspace is second but if you include its  Slicehost  service then it comes pretty close Amazon with 30 using Rackspace and six on Slicehost. Windows Azure is noticeably absent. Not one company is listed as using the Microsoft service...

Prezi is really nice. And to use it with touch have to be even better. But I hope we will be able to create presentations soon! A post ffrom TechCrunch by Robin Wauters has the whole story . Here is a part: If you haven’t yet checked out  Prezi , one of the most  innovative presentation tools  I’ve ever seen, you’re totally missing out. Today, the young company behind the amazing product is ( finally )  launching  the  highly-anticipated Prezi for iPad ( iTunes link ), enabling users to show stunning live presentations straight from the tablet computer. Right off the bat: we all know the iPad doesn’t support Flash, so not all existing presentations can be viewed in full if they contain Flash material such as videos. Apart from that, all presentations that were made in the past should be flawlessly viewable on the iPad. More details are available in  Prezi’s blog post  about the release. As you can tell from the video below, Prezi for iPad...

I'm not surprised. So many, us included, works on top of Facebook. Facebook is the internet of the decade. We just have to accomodate to them. A post from Smedio | The New Media and Social Web Guide for Business and Marketers by Douglas Idugboe has the whole story . Here is a part: The verdict on Facebook’s valuation is finally out and I’m not surprised that the world’s most popular social network commands a mind bogging and whopping worth of $50 Billion Dollars! To be valued at more than Yahoo, eBay and Time Warner is a monster achievement and a massive moral victory for the social media brigade. Last month, Facebook recently overtook Google as the most visited website in 2010. It’s well known that Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and several other tech heavyweights have time and again spilled their secret desires to acquire Facebook but Zuckerberg and company haven’t obliged. Is it a fair valuation? While I’m no expert on industry valuations, I can safely bet that there are fewer...

This question is a tricky one. And a question to which you most probably gives a wrong answer. After one year of pitching for jurys of investor around the world, one of the investors said to me afterwards: I don't understand your business model. I was first surprised and then angry (I'm normally reacting like that.) Thinking, here I've been around talking to you in three days and you haven't got it still! To be clear, it wasn't his fault. It was mine. Afterwards I saw an interview of Roberto by Chris Shipley. The interview was very good, and suddenly I saw our answer. Later I used the anger and inspiration to create an entirerly new presentation. And then finally in Eurepean Venture Summit in Düsseldorf people understood! So be aware on this question and read the whole story below. A post from techcrunch.com by by Vivek Wadhwa has the whole story . Here is a part: Developing the right product is hard. But what is harder is building a good business mode...

A post from from VentureBeat by Steve Blank has the whole story . Here is a part: (Editor’s note: Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank is the author of   Four Steps to the Epiphany . A longer version of this story originally appeared on   his blog .) As we wrap up 2010, things might seem bleak. The common wisdom says that the chickens have all come home to roost from a disastrous series of economic decisions including outsourcing the manufacture of America’s physical goods. The pundits say the American dream is dead and this next decade will see the further decline and fall of the West and in particular of the United States. Personally, I think there’s a chance that the common wisdom is very, very wrong – and that the second decade of the 21st century may turn out to be the West’s – and in particular the United States’ – finest hour. I believe that we will look back at this decade as the beginning of an economic revolution as important as the scientific revolution i...

Rising startup money in Norway is quite a challenge. I bet we get it before in Sweden, Spain, Netherland or Silicon Valley. Xpert Financial is themself a startup, and has an alternative to Business Angels and Venture Capital. It's nice that something comes up that are tailored to startups! A post from from GigaOM by Ryan Kim has the whole story . Here is a part: For companies looking to forestall a move to go public, there’s a new alternative trading platform that just came out of stealth mode and is giving start-ups a way to sell private shares.  Xpert Financial  just announced today that it has gotten approval by the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority to open an electronic trading platform that will serve as a middle ground for companies looking for capital and liquidity but without the requirements of going public. This could allow companies to stay private longer and further erode the IPO market as companies amass the capital to scale while maintain...

So it's not enough to have a bright and powerful innovation. You shall also charm a VC. Ok, I didn't knew that, then I never had entered into the game ;) A post from from GigaOM by Larry Chiang has the whole story . Here is just the beginning: VCs are good for much more than just their money. I have never gotten VC funding, but  I have had many VCs help me. VCs might get criticized for their lack of domain knowledge, but they have great general business knowledge, and a VC’s BlackBerry can be a distribution channel in itself. The tricky part is  charming them  into helping you. These steps will help you navigate your way into new worlds and go from outsider to VIP. Think of this as life-hacking and accelerated networking. 1. Set Aside Your Need for Short-Term Investment You’re not going to get venture money right away, so set aside your short-term cash needs. Clarify this position verbally with the VC. Once you make it clear that you don’t need short-term venture, ...

If I do remember the bubble - the internet bubble. Oh yeah, I do. But I haven't seen the bubble rising again. Wish I did! A post from from TechCrunch by Jon Evans has the whole story . Here is a part: Editor’s note : Contributor J on Evans  is an author and software engineer. He hails from the Great White North, but we let him write here anyway. Report from the app-development trenches: it’s gettin’ kinda crazy out there. I’ve lost track of how many NDAs I’ve signed this year from people with app ideas. Old coworkers and previous clients have deluged me with so many offers of new work I can’t possibly take it all. Friends of friends want my opinion on whether their app notion might fly, and if I might want to partner with them. The VP at my client  Xtreme Labs  has as his Gmail status, “I’m hiring 50 Agile Engineers.”  That doesn’t include their startup incubator  Xtreme University . And this isn’t frenetic Silicon Valley, this is once-sleepy Toronto. My...