Written on 17th July 2008
3 COMMENTS 
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
My vigorous competitor Mike Butcher from TechCrunch UK, that other European tech blog, is coming to town. He organizes a meet-up on July 22nd, with the help of eBuddy and E.Factor.
This photo (taken at next08) represents the whole idea of the geeky gathering: drinks, networking, and press coverage (see his right hand).
Anyway, the whole idea of my blogging nemeses coming to my safe haven is a little bit hard too take, so I’ll be staying in Italy for two weeks. Say hi to Mike if you see him though, he actually is a nice guy.
The event is almost sold out, so if you haven’t got one of the free tickets – you’ll have to crash this party. Feel free to approach us for advice, we have a great party-crashing track record.
Written on 30th June 2008
4 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
If you’re a regular visitor, you’ve noticed the new button in the sidebar. It’s E.Factor’s, a social network for entrepreneurs. First of all, we’re really glad that E.Factor decided to sponsor us, as it allows us to write more and cover almost all the important tech conferences. I thought I owe to you, dear readers, to elaborate a bit on why E.Factor and The Next Web Blog is match made in heaven 2.0.
Next Web’s Patrick and Roeland Reinders
I’d like to coin a new term here, namely “qualitative social network”. Now I owe you a definition, which I’ll definitely give you, yet I’d like to address a negative trend first: the devaluation of professional social networks. I don’t know about yours, but my LinkedIn and Facebook contacts lists are stuffed with not just weak ties, but really weak ties. Like people I’ve met for thirty seconds in a conference hall or PR folks who have randomly added me to their spam mail list. E.Factor seems like a reaction to this, as the founders Adrie Reinders, Roeland Reinders and Marion Freijsen have built a network that focuses on quality instead of quantity.
The purpose of the E.Factor network is to connect investors with entrepreneurs. With features like live chat, video, classified ads, multimedia ads, and finance requests, members can connect, promote, and find funding. Moreover, the service has an old school business model. Marion Freijsen explains: “whilst other networks have to rely on advertising revenue or struggle introducing a sustainable business model at a later stage, E.Factor combines new technology networking with an old-school business model based on premium membership fees, technology licensing via its’ satellites, and fees for a variety of services.”
Besides generating revenue, these fees make sure that members have a feeling of commitment towards E.Factor as some sort of self-justification for the expenses. Thus a member is more active and – together with the 46999 other members, forms a happy crowd. And not just because E.Factor will soon offer them health insurance, 401(k) plans, physical lounges, and.., hopefully, a new design.
The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show off, the future of the Web. (More info 
