Written on 14th May 2009
15 COMMENTS 
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Just watch it.
HatTip to NewsCred.
Written on 3rd April 2009
3 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Headquartered in the UK, Intruders.tv launched May 2007 with little fanfare yet impressed from the start with interesting, often personable interviews with internet entrepreneurs and industry players. Recently the company had appeared irregularly quiet, but it’s to no surprise, as the company were hard at work preparing for a grand relaunch of their internet television service.
The relaunch sees a number of significant changes. The site has been given a design overhaul (with thanks to Howard/Baines), content is no longer country specific but rather language focused and above all, the content is not just internet/technology focused but will also soon be entering music, film and fashion arenas.
Vincent Camara, Intruders.tv’s head of Content and Co-Founder says
“Throughout the last year, Intruders tv registered over 10 million video plays, conducted over 600 interviews and have a library of over 300 hours of HD content available.”
Camara also told Techcrunch’s Robin Wauters, that the company hires 10-15 part time staff and earns its keep via channel sponsorships and revenue sharing with syndicating sites.
Interestingly, the company have also teamed up with satirical European tech and hardware site The Inquirer to bring in a different perspective on technology news.
“Intruders tv is great platform for our readers to now enjoy our unique style of reporting on video. We have already lined up a wide variety of content that both INQUIRER readers and Intruders viewers will enjoy.” says Inquirer Editor Paul Hales
Sadly it appears embedding of Intruders.tv videos doesn’t seem to work with Wordpress, however you can obviously watch directly on their site, stay in touch via RSS or subscribe in iTunes – I highly recommend you do.
Written on 28th January 2009
3 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Today sees the launch of a new startup focused on entrepreneurs and the support of their business. Founded by serial entrepreneur Sháá Wasmund, the site provides a plethora of resources to inspire and support new businesses throughout their growth. Particularly focused on UK businesses, Mike at TCUK is right to compare the site to a private version of government organisation Business Link.
Founder Sháá Wasmund has a wealth of experience, just a quick browse of her profile at Brightstation Ventures is enough to confirm it. With two startups under her belt, one sold to BSkyB, her recent work has been in partnership with BrightStation Ventures which has launched projects such as ShinyMedia and Miomi.
Her most recent business Smarta which apparently has nothing to do with BrightStation (according to TCUK) is supported by private funding from Dragons Den entrepreneurs Simon Woodroffe, Theo Pathitis and Deborah Meaden. The startup has also also received support via Bebo Founder Michael Birch, RBS/NatWest, Vodafone amongst others. (more…)
Written on 13th October 2008
3 COMMENTS
Ayelet Noff, Next Web WebTipr Israel
During these times we are all somewhat paranoid about what the future will bring and whether we are entering a startup depression. In his newsletter dated September 27th, Jason Calacanis writes:
“It’s my belief that the economic downturn will be much worse than it is today, and that 50-80% of the venture-backed startups currently operating will shut down or go on life-support (i.e. 3-4 folks working on them) within the next 18 months.”
Jason gives startups a few pointers on how to survive the upcoming days and advises them to get focused, get leaner, and ultimately get profitable.
Om Malik had written last week that Sequoia held a meeting of all the entrepreneuers/CEOs of its portfolio companies and advised them to tighten their fiscal belts. Attendees were greeted with an image of a Grave Stone, with the following message: “R.I.P.: Good Times“.
According to The Marker, Other VCs such as Benchmark and Carmel Ventures in Israel have not only asked their portfolio companies to make budget cuts but have also taken their own advice and fired a few employees of their own.
Some people in the industry think differently and much more optimistically about to the situation. Fred Wilson, of Union Square Ventures, an early stage venture capital fund in New York City, writes:
“But I do think Jason’s missing one important point in his email. It’s not the venture backed startups that are going to struggle the most…All startups are going to have to batten down the hatches, get leaner, and work to get profitable, but the venture backed startups are going to get more time to get through this process than those that are not venture backed. Here’s why.
Venture capital firms are largely flush with capital from sources that are mostly rock solid. If you look back at the last market downturn, most venture capital firms did not lose their funding sources (we did at Flatiron but that’s a different story). If you are an entrepreneur that is backed by a well established venture capital firm, or ideally a syndicate of well established venture capital firms, then you have investors who have the capacity to support your business for at least 3-5 years (for most companies).
Venture capital firms will get more conservative and they will urge their portfolio companies to do everything Jason suggests (and more), but they will also be there with additional capital infusions when and if the companies are making good progress toward a growing profitable business.”
According to VentureBeat, Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association, believes there is an economic crisis in the lack of IPOs. but he doesn’t agree that so many start-ups are going to close. He believes there are still many angels who will continue to finance innovation among the seed-stage companies.
Mike Kwatinetz, founder and partner at Azure Capital Partners who invested in Bill Me Later during the post-bubble period and sold it recently to Ebay for $945 million, believes that this is exactly the time when investors should look for and target good business opportunities that they could profit from when the market revives.
He raises five good points:
So what do I think? In all honesty, nobody really knows what will happen as the startup world has never had to deal with such economic uncertainty in the past. However, it is my belief that the current situation will only do us good and allow those startups that have a unique offering to survive while flushing out those startups that were doomed to failure from the beginning. As Calacanis writes, companies now need to get better, more efficient, deliver more value, and use more cost-effective means to develop and promote their offerings. But this is not a bad thing. It just means that those entrepreneurs who really believe in their ideas need to find new ways to adapt to the current situation.
As Fred writes:
“I don’t think we are in a “depression” in startup land. We are in a down cycle driven by a bad global economy. I think the web and information technology is one of the few bright spots in an overall gloomy economic outlook. So if you are working on a web technology company, be happy that you aren’t working for a bank, a brokerage firm, an automobile company, or in many other industries. The tools and services that are made in the web technology business are only going to increase in demand over the next five years. But we are going to have to service that growing demand with leaner and more focused businesses and it’s time to start thinking more about profitability and how you are going to get there.”
About a year and a half ago I wrote about the fact that we have too many startups offering us too many of the same things and that it may be time for Darwin’s survival of the fittest to take its place in the dotcom world. I mean, how many social networks do we really need?
As Stowe Boyd, writes:
“How many social bookmarking apps do we need? Is there really a place for seventeen social aggregators, or eleven blog comment plug-ins? Attention to hard numbers and real growth rates might lead hopeful entrepreneurs and investors to get smart fast and drop experiments that aren’t working, and to go back and dream something up that is really innovative instead of just-another-fill-in-the-blank application.”
It’s time to get innovative people. It’s time to make changes. And if you’ve got a good, unique concept, I don’t think you need to be worried. You will get funded one way or another by VCs who still have plenty of dow or an angel who rather keep his money away from the Stock Market these days. Those companies that need to be worried are the ones that offer too much of the same and too little of the extraordinary. Sure, most startups will need to cut their budgets, but what doesn’t kill us, makes us stronger and the extraordinary will thrive. So stop getting depressed. Stop panicking. Depression and panic will lead us no where. Get inspired. This is your time to shine.
Written on 14th July 2008
3 COMMENTS
David Petherick, Contributing Editor, United Kingdom
Image via WikipediaSocietas Privata Europaea (SPE) is a proposed EU-wide company type designed specifically for small to medium sized companies to operate in EU member countries, which could be enacted as soon as 2009. This is a core part of the Small Business Act for Europe, which the European Commission unveiled at the end of June, based on ten guiding principles and proposing policy actions for both the Commission and Member States.
Here are some of the headlines in what is being planned:
The press release begins with the wonderful phrase “a step towards a Europe of entrepreneurs, with less red tape and more red carpet for Europe’s 23 million SMEs“. [English Version] [Dutch Version] A set of Frequently Asked Questions also helps to explain the benefits of this initiative.
The lawyers, accountants, international tax experts, company formation outfits and administrative bureaucrats will hate this, as they have long grown fat from the cumbersome and often antiquated legislation and regulations that small businesses are forced to deal with, often irrespective of their size, and the necessity to follow separate, complex, and expensive company formation rules and registrations in each country. I would not be too surprised to see attempts from these types of organisations to slow down and undermine this initiative, as it of course lessens their role, and reduces the number of intermediaries involved when a company expands and works in more than one country.
However, the European entrepreneurs of today and tomorrow will love this – and it is in the long-term interests of every member nation in Europe to support this type of initiative. This is how one creates the jobs of tomorrow. It is a sad fact that long-term enlightened thinking has not always been a strong point for politicians and entrenched vested interests in Europe, so it is up to enterepreneurs across Europe to applaud, support and spread the word about this initiative.
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.
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.
Written on 24th June 2008
3 COMMENTS
Simone Brummelhuis, writing about women on the web
Some weeks ago I called for mentors to help founder Chloe Holding with her online bikini site Habinki. I received numerous replies of experienced entrepreneurs. Some via blog comments, like Mike Butcher from TechCrunch UK, others via email. I wondered how Chloe had managed so I decided to ask here how she experienced the whole mentorship process.
“I found the mentoring trial interesting, but also incredibly time consuming and I have found it hard juggling a lot of priorities at the moment.”
“I think that one gaines a lot of experience and information from every conversation that one has. Certainly just hearing about people out there who have done something similar and lived to tell the tale is incredibly valuable. I certainly enjoyed hearing about other entrepreneurs and the businesses they have managed to establish.” (more…)
Written on 22nd May 2008
2 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Ok, it might be a little cliché to quote Winston Churchill in a headline, yet it was the first thing that came to my mind when I was reading a post by U.C. Berkeley student Henry Liu. Together with two fellow students he has founded Polarate. A service that offers its users an opportunity to discuss and talk about even the biggest controversies. 
When they launched the site on March 31st – after only three months of developing – they were expecting thousands of visitors. Turned out this was a little too optimistic. Now, almost two months later, Henry shares what he has learned from this deception and how he and his partners saved the company.
The post contains ten lessons that can help or inspire every entrepreneur who just got started. I’d like to add one too. When you’re working on your PR and blog, make sure you share your knowledge, doubts and joy in an equally honest and open way as Henry did.
Written on 11th December 2007
3 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
In an on-the-couch-interview with author Sarah Lacy, Rose gave some advices for entrepreneurs. A small selection, collected by your Le Web 3 correspondent:
Written on 11th December 2007
5 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Evan Williams, creator of Twitter, asked an interesting question:
What can we take away, to create something new?
Williams thinks that adding constraints to your service can help your users. “The more options you offer, the less often people will use it. If you look at Twitter for example, it’s a blogging app without tools as commenting and images. And of course, there is the post limit of 140 characters.”
When Twitter launched, people started building applications right away. Williams gives us two reasons for this: “Firstly, it’s text only and so integrates with almost everything. Secondly, developers wanted to make up for the lack of features. Some Twitter users even say that if services as Twitteriffic didn’t exist, they wouldn’t use Twitter at all.”
Some other examples of services that had success by leaving something out:
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