Bragster heading for the ultimate bragging right

Written on 23rd March 2008                                                                                                              0 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Every week we publish an interview with a start-up. We ask five questions, hoping the answers will give you inspiration and new views. Well, actually six questions, since we also ask the start-up to who he or she is passing the mic to.

As I’ve promised you last week, I will interview the start-ups who participated in the start-up rally of PLUGG 2008. This time we’re interviewing Bertrand Bodson, co-Founder Bragster.com. He already got some coverage on this blog for some serious pie throwing. Yet he and his team can do more than getting attention in an unconventional way, since they run a rather popular start-up. It’s a service on which friends can dare each other to something incredibly stupid. How did they come up with that?

How did you come up with the idea of Bragster?

“It all started as a “coffee-machine” type of idea. Wim, while at Morgan Stanley, was going to the hairdresser before an important meeting. Some of his colleagues dared him to go bold. They would supposedly pay him £500 if he did it. They kind of agreed, but eventually it never really happened knowing that he wouldn’t probably get the reward. That was enough to get us thinking – I was still at Amazon.com at the time. The net was the ideal platform to make it official and record those dares, with no way back and even getting your friends to chip in by betting if you would do it or chicken out, adding the necessary and fun social pressure to it. Over time, lot of things have evolved of course, e.g.: we added a strong community dimension to it, a virtual currency, the ability to easily upload video evidence and so on. But one thing remained the same: we are simply bringing to the net what has been a natural human behaviour for centuries: there is a competitive spirit in all of us, and bragging with friends is part of the human nature… and fun.” (more…)

bragster, five questions for start-ups, plugg2008

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Serious pie-throwing during PLUGG’s start-up rally

Written on 19th March 2008                                                                                                              5 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Start-up rallies can be disastrous. Take the start-up rally at Le Web 3 for example. They had installed a start-up dock over there, which was a nice place to rest for most attendees. On top of that, the jury consisted of a few ‘I’m playing with my Blackberry’-guys. So the entrepreneurs saw a disinterested crowd and turned really nervous. I couldn’t watch it.

Here at PLUGG it’s totally different. Start-ups present on the main stage in two rally’s of ten companies. They only have two minutes, short ‘n’ sweet, and were encouraged to ‘act excited’, since if they aren’t excited about their own product, who will? That’s what I’m talking about!

The guys from Bragster really got the point. It’s a service on which friends can dare each other to something incredibly stupid. And it works, the people and the press love it. Moreover, rapper 50 cent is registered as well. What more can you ask for?

One of the team members of the French Bragster team challenged his colleague Niko to ‘throw a pie in Bertrand’s face’. So guess what happened when the two enthusiastic guys walked up the stage? Exactly, Bertrand’s world suddenly consisted of just pie and whipped cream. The audience was stunned.

After a rally, this very same audience had the opportunity to rate the start-ups. I won’t be surprised when Bragster really gained some points just by bringing the idea of their very fun start-up into practice.

Update: There you have it: Bragster is one of the tree finalists at the Plugg startup rally.

More about the other start-ups in the upcoming weeks, that’s a promise!

bragster, brussels, conference, plugg2008, presentation, Start-ups

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