Entrepreneurship: Going to Innovate!2010 Pitch Slam Amsterdam

Posted by admin on Apr 8, 2010 in Entrepreneurship & Business | 0 comments

On April 6th I went to the Pitch Slam Amsterdam organized by Innovate!2010. The whole event is part of a larger framework where the challenge is to complete locally first in order to compete on a global scale later. Guidewire Group which is the underlying organizer searches for the “most promising startups” and their partners include firms like PayPal, Microsoft, HP, HSBC, IBM, and so on.

Host of the event was Mike Sigal who did a great job leading startups, pitchers, judges, and audience. His main point in giving feedback on the pitches really stuck with me as he told us about a PepsiCo CEO. The CEO responded to the interview question “What is the single most important activity that you do” by saying “I spend about an hour a day on improving my communication skills”. Mike stressed the meaning and possible payoffs of doing this and said that he also believes that this is a crucial point for startups. Communicating what you do, who you are, and where you want to go are the most important activities when seeking investors, supporters, and customers.

Winner of the Amsterdam edition of the Pitch Slam is the website TinyPay.me (www.tinypay.me). CEO Richard gave a pretty cool and super-natural pitch which you can see here. Their concept is that you can sell anything via Facebook or Twitter without having to sign up for another service. Instead you can use their site to create an ad in about one minute and use your social media profiles to make people aware of your offers and let your friends help you promote your item. When you sell your item the purchase and deal is done through PayPal and TinyPay.me gets 5% of the sales price. In essence this allows you to sell something online without going through the hassles of eBay. If you like the concept you can become a fan on Facebook.

The value of the whole event was also driven by the enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and likable set of judges who gave great feedback on all pitches. This was particularly interesting since it offered direct insights into how a VC (a couple of them are investors) and market experts look at startups and what good and bad points they see immediately. In order to make results and feedbacks comparable on a global scale every Pitch Slam uses the “G/Score” to evaluate ideas. As the letter  G might indicate it is a product of Guidewire Group and explained in detail on their website. Basically it tries to capture the most essential business dimensions of a startup and rate them on a 1 (worst) to 4 (best) scale. The score is intended to give a rough overview of a startup and help external parties to make a decision on whether or not it is interesting for them to talk to that startup. Looking at the “cheat sheet” that was passed out to everyone I found the criteria quite objective and well-chosen.

In general I can only recommend that you go to one of the other Pitch Slams that are still to take place in Europe until the end of April and then in the US in early summer. Check out the schedule here.

Technology: My favorite Blogs

Posted by admin on Dec 20, 2009 in Tech | 1 comment

The iPhone App post inspired me to share some of the blogs I read on a daily basis. At the opening of the academic year 2009/2010 at Maastricht University Dutch entrepreneur Marc van der Chijs said: “Dont read the news, read stuff from the source as it happens.” His statement made me think about the power one has in being up to date. Since technology and entrepreneurship are two fields that I like to be up to date.

Here are some of the blogs that I can only recommend reading:

Entrepreneurship

• Retire at 21 - Offers some very nice interviews with young tech entrepreneurs and a nice brag list of the top earners
• FastCompany - The online content is just as great as the magazine content and I like to use the feeds to forward stories that I found interesting.
• Young Entrepreneur – Great content for up and coming businesses from the perspective of young entrepreneurs and those who want o become such.
• Inc. – Another great magazine with terrific content to stay ahead of the business game.

Technology

• Scobelizer (Robert Scoble) – Best tech blog with a personal opinion touch. Robert’s content is always great and informative.
• Mashable – Just the greatest resources on social media developments, rumors, and trends. Also, I like the format and the writing style.
• Silicon Alley Insider – Great news resources to see what is going on at the “other side”. Very informative and often funny content.
• Wired – My favorite geek, gadget, and geniuses magazine. That is all.

People

• Marc van der Chijs – Marc is – among many things – the co-founder of China’s largest video portal. I really like how he is using Twitter and his Blog to keep people in the loop on what he does.
• Jason Calacanis – Jason is probably one of the most respected people in internet entrepreneurship. He is one super active internet entrepreneur and I like everything that he is involved in.
• Paul Graham – Paul is the co-founder of Y-Combinator, an incubator that has brought up more than 140 start-ups.
• Matt Mullenweg - Matt is the founder of WordPress and a true tech-startup idol of mine. The projects that he is involved in are awesome and inspiring.

The Software I Use

Most of the blogs I read through RSS feeds. My favorite prog here is NetNewsWire for Mac. I love the Google Reader sync ability so I can the exact same feeds on my iPhone and PC. The program works just fine on all three platforms.

Idol Entrepreneur: Wolfgang Grupp

Posted by admin on Oct 30, 2009 in Idol Entrepreneurs | 1 comment

Probably one of the most interesting and inspiring characters in the German business arena is Wolfgang Grupp. Apart from is entrepreneurial talent to turn-around textile manufacturing company Trigema, which he took over highly indebted he is also one of the most prominent and extravagant business owners. Grupp not only makes the news regularly because of horribly done commercials involving talking chimpanzees selling the brand but also because he deeply belives in the mantra only to produce in Germany. While other companies are busy finding the next best (cheaper) country to produce their goods, Grupp rather worries about the jobs of his 1200-something employees.

Why is this so interesting?

I had the pleasure recently to be directed towards a documentary about Grupp that ran on German television station SWR (Südwest Rundfunk) in early 2008. The video is available on YouTube and a must watch for anyone interested in entrepreneurship and an acceptable ability to understand the German language.

One thing that is commonly, publicly criticized about Grupp is his way of presenting himself. As it becomes evident in the documentary there are certain qualities of his personality that – in my opinion – make him a successful business person and a peculiar individual; which might easily mislead people what he is about. Yes, Grupp takes the milk for his lunch-muesli from a golden “gral”, and yes, he likes to take his helicopter to inspect his stores, and again – yes – his mansion is conveniently located across from his manufacturing site. The documentary is titled “Der König von Burladingen” (German for “The King of Burladingen” – Burladingen of course being the city of his production facilities), which makes it quite apparent what position he has in that area. Undoubtedly, there is not a living soul in this region that does not know and respect him. The title, although seeming ironic, is quite well deserved as Grupp achieved something unparalleled in Germany. According to news reports he never had to let people go because of economic reasons and in addition to that he guarantees a job or traineeship for the children of his employees.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGZ968iuGFY&feature=PlayList&p=88869804F4621AE2&index=0]

But what is it that makes him so successful?

In the film Grupp mentions one core principle of his management style. He declares that the most important thing is to the decide. He says: “You always have to make decisions, if you do not make decisions that is the worst decision of all”. I could not agree more. Having started two businesses one lesson I had to learn “the hard way” is that you have to keep on keeping on. Once you stop deciding or to initiating activities – may they be operational or strategic – the business stops as well. As we all know what does not grow, dies. This is also true for a business. Looking at the Trigema track record there are no signs of demise. The other side of the decision medal is most certainly character and integrity. Grupp obviously is a very self-confident and powerful authority figure. Since I do not know him personally I can only guess that this is not something he was from birth on but that he had to work hard for. Not in the sense that he is limited in his capacity but more in the sense that once you take that role you will most certainly also experience some fair amount of head-wind. People that make decisions quick and “decisively” will often also make themselves target of other people’s displeasure. I named this post “Idol Entrepreneur: Wolfgang Grupp” because his ability to really lead his business this way can be a great example for any kind of entrepreneur or business person. Obviously there is more to Wolfgang Grupp than just this quality. Perhaps one is that Trigema since years has no debt and is 100& self-financed…