Ideabroker

Orange rejects Rebtel's love

Hippies 2.0, love and Beetles are back in London, but orange and blue don't seem to match well together.

Labels: Love Mobile, mobile, Orange, Rebtel, telecom, web 2.0

This is the difference between Europe and the US: I got an email of one of my (16.500) contacts in Linkedin this morning: Steve Sammons asking to help out his step-son Erik Mendoza to raise money for a European Basketball tournament he wants to attend: Steve and his wife insisted that he come up with a concept that would require him to provide a product for profit, versus just asking his relatives for a handout. Thus far it has worked very well and Erik is very close to achieving his goal. This is the game called "Rodeo golf"that he invented, and here's a couple of videos to explain it even better. Erik sold 170 of the 200 units he made and now needs to sell the last 30 units of this back-yard-game to hit is target. You can buy one of the last units here . But hurry folks they are now in hot demand! His website is also pretty damn cool and fairly innovative for a fourteen-year-old! Way to go Erik ! Have fun in Europe!

In need of inspiration for Ideas? Idea 2.0!

Check out this site which collects new and innovative products in a nice way, there's also a blog on the topic. Stuck in internal innovation? Go here (only in Dutch). All these are cool online initiatives of Belgium Innovation company Creax. As they say it themselfs:"Very few innovations are completely new, most innovations are combinations of several existing concepts or apply what has been used somewhere else in a new solution. The MoreInspiration site and blog makes innovation easy by showing you what others have done so it can boost your creativity and inspire your thinking."
Don't want or can be innovative yourself? Check out Dutch Springwise.com a trendspotter network of over 8000 spotters worldwide!! It brings you all kinds of business ideas from around the globe on a daily basis which you could adapt and copy locally! Or check out Idea-A-day a online Idea drop box freely usable. Now who said life wasn't easy....?

European VC investments picking up!

2006 finally beat the €4 billion mark after having flirted with it for three consecutive years. Total VC investments in European and Israeli technology companies reached €4.7 billion!! the largest amount raised in a single year since 2002. The upswing continued in the first quarter of 2007, which led to levels of activity unmatched in the past years.

The Tornado Insider Research Online Data counter for Q1 2007 stands at 286 deals. You have to go back to Q3 2001 to find more investments in a single quarter. January recorded most deals in the quarter: 113. This is the second highest monthly number since September 2001 - 104 deals were reported in March 2004. The total amount of funding raised in Q1 reached €1.59 billion. The last time quarterly investment surpassed the €1.5 billion mark was Q1 2002.

Ideabroker at Xing Meeting Rotterdam

Ideabroker hosts another Pitch session at the Xing meeting on the 19th of April in Rotterdam.
From 20.00 to 21.00 hrs you can pitch your concepts & idea's in front of a experienced jury, investors and a room full of entrepreneurs.

You get 3 minutes to pitch and no more! Maximum of 8 pitchers so hurry!!

Come prepared, practice your timing and do the mother in law test (if she'll get it, we probably will too) and have your presentation and figures well tought out and researched. End your pitch with what you need from the audience and or the investors. Over 90% of all pitchers forget to do this!!!

Wanna give it a try? Send your pitch in ppt/word or pdf format to us
Register here for the event, updated info you'll find here

If you just want to visit this great fun event and you haven't been invited, email edgar with the subject 'invite plz 19th april'

Climate Change

I've got humans, said one planet to the other. O dear said the other planet, that's so irritating but don't worry it will go away all by its self eventually.

Dragons Den Holland

Ideabroker fully supports the Dutch version of Dragons Den "the put your money where your mouth" is Pitch program. Hosted in Holland by Jort Kelder who's whitty sharpness and feel for people is always on the dot. Dragon's are: Henk Keilman made his fortune with selling US telco MTC, Annemarie van Gaal who made her fortune with publisher Independent Media in Russia!, Jan Pieter Melchior who got rich thru a buy-out from Dutch Lostboys and investing in Telfort, Willem Sijthof who's coming from a publisher family and owns both local and Norwegean media and Arjen de Koning who founded Paradigit a computer retailer in Holland. The show airs every Friday on Dutch channel Nederland 3 at 20.25 hrs. Potential Dutch pitchers and entrepreneurs should watch this show or it's UK mother show to learn from others mistakes.

Prepare well, use the mother-in-law test, (if she gets it, you'll stand a much better chance at the dragons!) have your figures sorted out and present your concepts short and snappy are the main tips you can take with you from these shows.

These are excellent initiatives for entrepreneurship and innovation and above all entertaining shows to watch!

Ideabroker @ Xing Rotterdam Community meeting

Ideabroker will be present in Rotterdam @ the Xing Rotterdam Community meeting February 15th hosted by the Rotterdam Community!

Have a cool idea that needs execution, money, partners, clients or some sound advice?

Come pitch it at our session in th at the Caballerofabriek co-hosted by BVit on 15 February starting 19.30 sharp.

We have room for some pitchers, but be fast!

Have money but no ideas? Wanna be in the audience as a listener, jury member or adviser?
All you have to do is let us know you're coming.

Send an email to info@ideabroker.nl See you all there!

Are you an Entrepreneur 2.0?

For one of our cases (prototype almost ready) we're on the lookout for an eminent, 'recognized' web entrepreneur.
Has built a company (or 2...) before. Has had an exit (or 2). Preferrably also has some sound experience in doing business internationally.
Knowledge of and vision on Web 2.0 will help to convince us. Please respond here.

Ideabroker Pitch session 3 Nov at the Hague Design days

Another Pitch session of Ideabroker in the Hague during the Design Days from 1-4 November is coming up fast. Have a cool idea that needs execution, money, partners, clients or some sound advice? Come pitch it at our session in the Hague at the Caballerofabriek co-hosted by BVit on 3 November starting 19.30 sharp. We still have room for some pitchers, but hurry!
Have money but no ideas? Wanna be in the audience as a listener, jury member or adviser? All you have to do is let us know you're coming. Send an email to info@ideabroker.nl See you all there!

Why not?

"You see things as they are and ask, Why? I dream things as they never were and ask, Why not?"
- George Bernard Shaw

Garagebands

If you wanna make it big in internet or ict: it helps to start out in a garage! Here's where HP, Apple and Google started. And here are some garages where you can start up your new cool company in the UK ,US and the EU. But remember the address for when you make it! Or fake it..

Ideabroker at Holland Innovation Utrecht Jaarbeurs

Ideabroker will be present with a stand at Holland Innovation the 4th of October at the Jaarbeurs Fair in Utrecht.

Holland Innovation is the Dutch event on Innovation and Funding for your business ideas or inventions. Key elements of Holland Innovation are : The Information Fair with stands, entrepreneurs and partners. 24 Workshops, pitches, 1 on 1 talks with experts and investors, keynote speakers and special guests, a network lunch and drink, the National Inventors day, the Herman Wijfels Innovation Award and a very special mention for the Bizzworld Fundraiser hosted by Keynote speaker Tim Draper: Investor Extraordinaire in Hotmail and Skype for instance and Founder of Bizworld a very cool worldwide program to stimulate entrepreneurship at elementary schools!! I've written on this blog about the need to educate youngsters about entrepreneurship before, Tim's one of the guys who makes it happen!
For a program and more info on Holland Innovation check the Holland Innovation site

Please join us at Holland Innovation! You can sign up here.
Admittance is only 25 Euro for the whole day, including lunch, coffee and drinks, but.. excluding the Bizworld fundraiser and lunch with Tim Draper which is an extra 150 Euro's (for a very good cause!)

Holland Innovation is organised by NeBIB and NOVU

Update: Ideabroker The Hague on Thursday 21 NOT fri 22

We wrongly dated this months Ideabroker Session on Friday 22nd in The Hague,
but Ideabroker takes place on THURSDAY 21th of September!!! Sorry for the inconvenience!

Ideabroker Pitch session in The Hague! Pitchers Welcome

After a long extended summer break Ideabroker is back in business!
From today onwards you can count on us for cool articles on innovation and ideas and we are launching a series of Ideabroker pitch sessions starting on the 21st of September at the EntrepreneurFestival2006 in The Hague (Holland) Check the program here.

From 18:00 to 22:00 there will be a OpenBC network event which will be
complemented by an Ideabroker session and a concert from Zimbello.

18:00 CabCafé open for OpenBC-members and non-members
19:15-21:15 Start Ideabroker session in Penthouse (V8)
21:15-22:00 Network meeting in CabCafé

Are you ready to go public with your innovative business idea and are you looking for means, money, partners, contacts or publicity? Mail your details to: info@ideabroker.nl under
subject: Pitch 21 Sept. Would you like to pitch during the session, mail your details to the same address under subject: visitor Ideabroker 21 Sept.

European Web Conference of 2006!

Check out The Next Web Conference by our Own Ideabroker Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten.
It will take place in Amsterdam on the 7th of July 2006. An unique one day event with the best speakers from around the world (see below) they will give their view on how new web technology will influence the way we do busines and on the way we live.

What is the influence of AJAX and other new technologies on the Web? What new businessmodels can we expect? What will the new Web offer us, what does it want from us? What do people mean when they talk about the culture of participation? What is the state of the web today, and what does that mean for tomorrow? How will we interact/interface with the web in a few years? Which companies are shaping the future, today? How do these new technologies enhance our lives?

These questions will be addressed by Kevin Kelly, Michael Arrington, Mark Tluszcz, Steven Pemberton, Alexander Burmaster, a host of hip new internet companies and moderated by
Professor Dr. Ir. Han Gerrits.

For all ideabrokers we arranged a special discount of 100 euro's if you sign up here

How to get an idea in a box

Innovation awards

Two of our nations most important (and well funded) innovation awards are here again. The Broos van Erp for the most innovative starting company (maximum of three years existence) and the PricewaterhouseCoopers Innovator Award for a very innovative company that exists at least four years and has less then 250 employees.

More information (in Dutch) on http://www.ictevent.nl and the forms for subscription are downloadable on this site.

Re-innovation

A good friend of mine collects old Wired mag's, not for the fun of it, but because he scans them for old idea's that are still valid but never made it due to various reasons: to early, not executed well enough, bad marketing, the .com bust etc.

Most of us lack the ability to recognize a promising innovator or idea. Typically, we're seers only in hindsight, lamenting how we knew eight years ago that Google would revolutionize search and forgetting how we dismissed successful product introductions. Academics and analysts have some ideas about what works best;

Admit that most things fail: This is not a bad thing. Not even a surprising thing. It is just the way the world operates. And those who do not realize this are more doomed to failure than those who do.

That's the observation of Paul Ormerod, author Why Most Things Fail, and an advocate of continuous, aggressive innovation. In the history of industry most businesses eventually fail, even market leaders. Although they don't fall apart for the same reasons, certain patterns of behavior contribute to the likelihood of failure.

"What you should be looking for is not the amount of money they're spending on research and development themselves, but a company's willingness to be flexible and to adapt to what other people are doing well,"

Specialize, specialize, specialize: Sir Isaac Newton once famously wrote, by way of explaining his extraordinary legacy of discoveries, that "If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants."

"If one is to stand on the shoulders of giants, one must first climb up their backs, and the greater the body of knowledge, the harder this climb becomes," writes Benjamin Jones, a professor at the Kellogg School of Management, in a paper that addresses the complexities of innovation. (.pdf)

Jones' analysis adresses two changes in the way people and institutions pursue innovation.

The first is a trend toward specialization. In order to improve existing technologies, researchers must either pursue an increasingly extensive education or narrow their field of expertise.

Jones also envisions a trend toward teamwork gaining momentum, as companies need more people to complete projects.

"Whenever researchers look at innovation, they see this upward trend in collaboration," he said. "People are becoming more specialized over time and they need to work in bigger teams."

That's the view of Eric von Hippel, a professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management, who says technologies can be developed in such a way that innovations are easier to make. The basic idea is to break complex systems into simpler "modules." A product can be improved upon by focusing not on the whole, but on a small part.

"Existing technology gets gradually shaped into large user-friendly chunks that you don't need to know the insides of to use," he said. "You can work with an operating system without knowing everything about how it works. And you can modify a car without necessarily understanding how the engine works."

As for corporate R&D, von Hippel says companies are finding that more and more innovation is coming not from in-house developers, but from products users who do their own re-engineering.

"People are innovating for themselves," he said. "That's what has happened and economists are really puzzled about it because economists are focused on this IP-based system."

Look at mash-ups for google maps, pimp my ride/house/pc etc etc, the people take over! Be your own innovator!

What all these analysts above are missing is that most of true product innovation is that new concepts, product ideas and enhancements are born out of frustration with the current product or lack of a solution to a particular problem in the market.

I never believed in R&D depts as the biggest innovators.. no siree, the one-man-bands that stumble upon something, or over something.. for the 1000st time and then decide to finaly do something about it.. those are the innovators and mostly by chance.

Cool Prosthetics!

Why does it take a friend with a handicap to let me realise there's some serious cool developments in Prosthetics ?? Check these Fab examples of super high tech developments! And let's get these cool carts in the healtcare package!
I want a set of new eyes, nanonic inserts, memory extensions and tele- and data-vising ability!
And while where at, it gimme my facial passport too!

Ideabroker needs your help!

Ideabroker needs bloggers to help write or scout good articles on cool, innovative new business idea's! Can you write? Do you have your own view on: concepting, innovation, start-ups or new business? Humour? Then you're very welcome to blog your view here!
Send me an email jankarel@ideabroker.nl Subject: New ideabroker blogger.

Ideabroker is going global: Wanna host or run Ideabroker in your neck of the woods?
Let us know: info@ideabroker.nl Subject: Wanna run my own ideabroker.

Do you have lots of smart students with brilliant ideas,that need some help for the next step?
Let us know: school@ideabroker.nl Subject: Have students, need help.

Do you have a business and want to host a cool ideabroker session? (always good fun!)
Let us know: info@ideabroker.nl Subject: Have room, wanna host.

Do you do the same as we elswhere, almost the same or do you see a match for partnering?
Let us know: partner@ideabroker.nl Subject: Have site/org, wanna partner.

Do you want to invest in cool new ideas or companies? Want to coach young entrepreneurs?

We can't nor want to do it all by ourselves, so you're cordially invited to join our network!

Europe's Entrepreneurial Climate

Check BusinessWeek's excellent article on Europe's hot growth companies!
Some excerpts:
"Think Europe is inhospitable to small businesses? Think again. Thousands of entrepreneurs behind small, fast-growing companies are showing that good ideas, energy, and luck can overcome typically European burdens on entrepreneurship such as high taxation and heavy regulation" and " For the first time European governments -- from pro-business Netherlands (yeah right..!!) and Ireland to even the more state-heavy economies of France and Germany -- are starting to think seriously about how to unshackle the potential of these kinds of growth companies.

For example, Germany's Saarland, a region dotted with abandoned coal mines and foundries, is encouraging local university scientists to commercialize their discoveries by providing cheap office space, access to lab equipment, and crash courses in business fundamentals.
France has dramatically cut down the time and red tape it takes to start a business, and is giving tax breaks to jeunes entrepreneurs indépendents. It's the same story in Britain, where corporate taxes for small business where cut to 19% from 23%.

Even with all the changes, Europe has much catching up to do. For one, entrepreneurship is not a cultural norm: There are only half the number of companies in Europe as in the U.S. relative to the population, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, a research consortium. "Young people in Europe don't get encouragement from family and friends if they want to become entrepreneurs," says Paul Reynolds, an economist at Florida State University "And even if a family wants to help, they don't know anyone who has been an entrepreneur. There just aren't many examples."

So to help entrepreneurship along : Come on Mum and Dad , don't buy everything for the little rascals, but have'm sell lemonade, trade cartoonmagazine’s, anything to encourage them to make their own money!
And all you high and mighty governmental officials, cut the bullshit reports for a change, get away from behind those desks and start earning your money by helping your local entrepreneurs: ( swap places for a day with them for starters!! ), really stimulate innovation, and DO something!

NOW is the time!

Update: I just recieved this idea from idea-a-day.com: Introduce a 'Success Class' to high schools. The class would teach kids how to start a business and run one effectively, pointing out where regular school subjects such as math, languages and science can help. The class might also identify what each kid is truly good at and devise coursework to encourage these skills....These orgs are doing it already! Great!

Virtual Innovation fair

A virtual innovation fair is in the making! After your online social and business networks, your own virtual island or shop in 2ndlife, virtual office and avatars in msn, yahoo and sofort, you can now also sell or strot y'r innovative stuff virtually! All done in a-retro-stylie, you just hire a stand (only 15o euro) and wait until the fair starts! Would be cool to have your avatars walking around for you (i hate Fairs!!) checking a productdemo, get the usual info and goodies for you and hey bring some buttons home for me too! We'll be virtually present with Ideabroker, Fon and some other cool stuff too. See ya at the fair!

Fon Secures €18 Million from Skype, Sequoia & Google

FON today announced that it has secured €18 million funding from Index Ventures, Google, Sequoia Capital and Skype. The company also announced that Danny Rimer (Index Ventures), Mike Volpi (Cisco) Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis (Skype) joined the board.

Founded just three months ago by serial entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky, FON’s objective is to build a global WiFi network bottom up, with one million hot spots by 2010. To do this, FON users, or "foneros," are able to connect to the Internet via Fon WiFi hotspots provided by other foneros. For foneros, the development of the FON global network means they will be able to connect to the Internet safely and securely all around the globe. For service and application providers such as Skype and Google, the FON network makes their services more available. For ISPs, FON provides a way to expand their reach globally.

With a simple download-and-install approach, similar to Skype’s, FON is a secure “by-the-people, for-the-people” network. FON has registered 3,000 members since it went live with a beta of its service in November, 2005. The company plans to use its funding to grow the network of foneros and support the growth of WiFi worldwide, particularly in countries where broadband is currently unaffordable to most people.

FON will drive its revenue from a multi-tiered subscription model. Members sign up in one of three foneros categories: Linus, Bill or Alien.
Linuses share their home WiFi hotspot with the FON network and can use any FON hotspot for free.
Bill's share their WiFi hotspots with Alien members for a fee. Bills cannot roam the FON network for free.
Aliens pay to use the FON network on an as-needed basis. Fifty-percent of revenue generated from Aliens will be shared with Bills. Alien memberships are currently available on a free-trial basis.

“Aliens are at the heart of our business model,” said Varsavsky. “As we continue to grow, we will attract consumers for all three foneros categories and achieve our goal of creating a global WiFi nation. This is a great opportunity for ISP’s, bloggers, developers, early adopters, consumer electronics manufacturers and the ‘average Joe or Jane’ with a WiFi connection to make money by letting other foneros connect to the Net safely and simply.”

ISPs are already signing up to partner with FON. “As a leading ISP in Sweden, Glocalnet is happy to partner with FON .

Power Foneros
FON has attracted the likes of some of the technology communities’ leading advocates. The well regarded blogger/former newspaper columnist Dan Gillmor and telecom expert David Isenberg have already signed on to serve on the company’s board of advisors, as has Esther Dyson, the well-known blogger Joi Ito and many others. For a complete list check this

LinkCloud

Last friday I came up with an idea for a new blogger tool. I build it this weekend and launched it on monday. I came up with this idea because I visit a lot of blogs and sometimes want to add a link to a page. We could mail the blogger, add a comment but we can't edit the page itself. What I build is a LinkCloud. It's a small space where visitors can add links democratically. Every link is added and when more than 20 link are added the one with the least clicks is overwritten. Links that receive more clicks grow bigger and become brighter. A LinkCloud is free and you can get one in a few seconds on the website. I'll add one to this page too.

Human Narrowcasting Unit

Had an idea for next gen narrowcasting: an intelligent mobile narrowcasting unit: a human being with a display.
Of course you can display all sorts of things on it;
Logos, advertisements, offers, slogans, guerrilla marketing stuff, sending smses to a certain number and have it displayed on the HNU.

You could also call this "Infiltration Narrowcasting" whereas this wil make it even narrower, considering people move in flocks and belong to groups that can be infiltrated with this-- its adaptability will make it a very strong form of marketing. A T-shirt remains 'passive'!

The Siemens product is not a "must", of course. Other types of displays can be used, but this material triggered my idea.

Happy Holidays and an inspiring new year!

And the winners are....

Dion Hinchcliffe author of SOA Web Services journal compiled his take on the best Web 2.0 software for 2005. A pretty nice compilation..and a good begin if you want to know more about Ajax (not the FC) and Web 2.0 savy applications! My personal 2.0 favorite is the new browser Flock with online bookmarks (by delicio.us), in-browser blogging and other very cool 2.0 stuff built in. If Flock is delicio.us, this advice from Microsoft regarding IE for Mac is simply hilario.us!

And o yeah, here are.... our very own.... tadadada....
The Ideabroker 2005 awards:
The Ideabroker Best 2005 Presentation award goes to: Dick Hart of Sxip with Identity 2.0.
Our very own Ideabrokers 2005 best Pitch award goes to: Sander Hoeken of Infocaster.
Ideabrokers Best Pitch Idea's award 2005 is a tie between: the online elevator pitch and Pitchcasting (the answering service of a very bizzy Florida risk investor who listens to your 30 sec. pitch on his iPod whilst doing his morning run!)
Our Ideabroker Best Innovative 2005 event award goes hands down to Ola Ahlvarsson's SIME 2005 in Stockholm Sweden.
Our Ideabroker Best Serial Entrepreneur in a supporting role Award 2005 goes to: Bob Stumpel for driving, hosting, freestyling, coaching, stimulating, cigarettes, brain picking, nagging, juroring, organizing and generally supporting Ideabroker and various young innovative entrepreneurs to the max!
Our Best Entrepreneur in a supporting creative role Award 2005 goes to Annedien Hoen (here seen with our MP JP!) for designing this cool looking blog and our great Ideabroker logo!
Our Ideabroker Presenter Award 2005 goes to: Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten (here seen congratulating one of our Ideabroker Pitch winners) for free-style and in-style presenting and his marvelous "presenting for dummy's" available here on request a must have for wannabe pitchers! (only in Dutch)
Our Ideabroker Talent Scout Award 2005 goes to Antoinette Hoes for: support, blogging and of course talent scouting!
See you all next year folks for a massive innovative new year with International Awards too!

Web 2.0

Want to capitalize on AJAX and the Web 2.0 bubble? Here's a tool for you: a VC ready Businessplan..

LesBlogs 2.0

Back from les Blogs 2.0 in beautifull Paris, in a very peculiar kind of setting...Laptop galore! This is generation ME : Hello? Is anybody listening to ME..? Martin Varsavsky of Fon got attacked for deleting a comment on his blog (Duh!) and for not reacting enough on comments of users....yeah right! Bloggers are now Internet DJ's: They mix up words and articles, links and picts..hell, they even have their laptops stickered-up, just like the DJ flightcases..
A very interesting panel on web 2.0 and Venture Capital touched on a new development: the growing interest and investment of US based VC's in European startups and emerging companies.
I've said it before: it's happening again, the internet bubble! We see it happening in Sweden and now also in the US..hang on to your hat..it's gonna happen again! We learned our lesson, so this time be prepared, get your act together, put on your dancing shoes and go, go go!

Remember: Nothing is impossible, you can do anything you want...just go do it!

Techology looking for entrepreneurs

TNO is looking for entrepreneurs to take a couple of their product ideas to the next stage. There is some money available for feasibility testing and getting the products ready for a market launch. The deadline for entrepreneurs that want to apply for participation is the 6th of January. Only after registration and signing an NDA will the specifics of the product ideas be released to you.

There are 7 products waiting for your help:

The Electronic Bicycle Lock, a new security system with a Public transportation chipcard as the key (mmm, is that the card that has had so many delays?)
Fireproof and sustainable plate material
The Vision Screener, an automated test environment for measuring eyes
The Personal Tactile Navigator, sensors on the body give information for directions
The e-Logistics Organiser, a logistic concept for home deliveries
The Mouth Cap, protection against biological hazards
Guide Me, a system for finding people that are somewhat lost