TripSay Launches - Gets Good PR
TripSay, the Finnish social travel startup, that I’ve covered a few times before has opened up to public beta. The company has done good PR work, since the launch is covered - among others - in two of the biggest startup blogs TechCrunch and Mashable. The launch story also made it onto Techmeme.
Overall the launch has gotten quite a lot of nice publicity. Most of the reviews have been positive, although some have questioned the business models of social travel sites in general, which was not a problem back in January when I did in my first post about Tripsay (It was called Vailoma back then).
Anyway, Congratulations to Leo and Juha and the rest of the TripSay team for the launch. Too bad I’ll miss the launch party tomorrow. Also remember that the work has just started.
See what other people are talking about the Tripsay launch:
Techmeme discussion
Discussion on Friendfeed
Google Blog search
Startups From Finland: Open Problem Bank - Good Idea Waiting To Become Modest Failure
Open Problem Bank is a Finnish startup in pre-alpha phase, seeking seed funding and recruiting staff and board members. The company is hoping to create a crowd-sourced database of technical problems of any kind. From the Open Problem Bank website:
Open Problem Bank is a project that aims to collect open technical problems into a searchable database for the public to use freely. People are invited to submit problems into the bank. The problems submitted in the bank should be ideas of devices that somebody could design and build. You don’t have to know how the device you have in mind works, you just have to know why it would be needed or why it would be useful.
The company is founded earlier this year by a Finnish Business Intelligence Specialist Nisse Suutarinen who has been very kind in posting a preliminary business plan on their site. The business plan reveals that they are seeking a seed funding of 50000USD, which would give an investor 25% of equity. The same 50k would also cover the costs of getting the service to beta and also running costs for the first year. Doesn’t seem that much, does it?
Good idea, what about the execution?
The idea of the Open Problem Bank is good. The idea was awarded at Cambrian House, a site that is focused on developing crowdsourcing-based companies. I just feel that Mr. Suutarinen is aimed too low in his plans. There should be more effort put into developing a good idea into a successful business than can be found in his plans. Open Problem Bank will probably find its 50k and develop into a modest one man business before fading away into the ever-expanding sea of unsuccesful executions of a good ideas. I hope Mr. Suutarinen proves me wrong. All the luck in your efforts Nisse.
Fruugo Wants To Become The Trusted 3rd Party Of Ecommerce
The guys of Arctic Startup met with Fruugo’s CEO Reijo Syrjäläinen this morning and got to ask what Fruugo is all about. I was also invited to the meeting but was unfortunately unable to join them.
According to the story, Fruugo is building a platform that will enable customers to make purchases online in an easier, simpler and safer way. The company is aiming to become “the trusted 3rd party of ecommerce”.
Fruugo still doesn’t reveal too much about themselves, but their service will be available in closed beta in a few months. Fruugo will update their website on Monday with some more information.
The answer to the mystic equation 1L + 1M + 1P =? was also mentioned in the story. It is “1 Language + 1 Mind + 1 Purpose = Success”. We’ll have to see what that will entail in the future.
[The whole story on Arctic Startup]
Twitterosphere Gone iPhone Crazy
I’m following the unbelievable buzz in Twitter surrounding the WWDC Keynote speach by Steve Jobs in which he is expected to reveal the new iPhone. It’s just insane. There are so much people waiting for the announcement and crossing their fingers that Twitter won’t go down tonight. Of course there are as much people making fun of the fuzz by sending fake photos of the new iPhone and RickRolling people.
Go on, jump in the fun at Summize, which is a great tool for searching what people are talking about in Twitter.
Aggregators Are Around Us, Will Proliferate
During the past six months I’ve become really interested in news aggregators. Techmeme is the first thing I check after email in the morning and it has helped me a lot in finding out what people are discussing about technology right now. It has saved me hours of time and I’ve come across stories I would have missed otherwise.
Of course Techmeme has its problems. Tristan Louis wrote about Techmeme myopia - Techmeme highlights stories that are being discussed right now, but it cannot distinguish between rumor and news or a personal clash between bloggers and really disruptive innovation. But I’m fine with that. It would be great is Gabe Rivera could develop Techmeme so that It could tell the difference. I hope he does, but it will not be easy.
What, on the other hand, is easy, is creating an aggregator around one topic and then cloning it to handle something completely different. That’s what Rivera has done with celebrity gossip, politics and baseball.
A new entrant (at least new to me) to the aggregation game is Loud3r. They have created aggregators to handle such diverse topics as sneakers, dogs and motorcycle roadracing. The most interesting to me are Found3r (about venture capital) and Buzz3r (about internet business & technology). These sites do not quite get to the same level as Techmeme, but they produce somewhat different results, which is always welcome. And I also like that they reveal the score they give to each story and how it is counted from three variables: quality, community and buzz.
In conclusion, aggregators are all the time easier to create, they are easier to copy and they will continue to become a very big part of peoples’ lives. Currently aggregators like Techmeme and Buzz3r are used by only a handful of people, but as aggregators develop to get better results they will eventually be used by the masses who have no time or will to go through the noise.
[Techmeme discussion: Techmeme Myopia]
[Loud3r via Friendfeed by Scoble]
The Startup Term Sheet Explained In Detail
Jason Mendelson and Brad Feld wrote a really detailed series of posts describing the ins and outs of the startup venture financing term sheets. The posts were written already three years ago, but Feld has revisited them and come to the same conclusion as I did, that the information is still valid, although some references to 24 might seem old.
It’s definitely worth the effort to go through the 26 articles if you are interested in term sheets and startup financing in general. I personally learned a lot from the first ones I have had the time to read.
[Via Texas Startup Blog]
The Key To Succesful Startup PR: Build Trust Before You Need It
Brian Solis wrote a profound article on TechCrunch called PR Secrets for Startups. He lists many good tips all startups should know about public relations, including Understand You’re Not the Only Story in Town, Don’t Launch on Mondays and Measure Success, Not Traffic.
Many of his advice are very important for startups, where ever they are coming from. Solis writes about the role of the founder in attending and creating conversations and making contacts all the time.
As Solis points out, blogging is one natural way for a founder to get into the conversation. He should comment on other blogs and write articles that link back to his own or company blog. He should of course make contacts with journalists and bloggers at conferences and other networking events. Most importantly, and I can’t stress this enough, contacts should be made and the reputation built before they are needed.
One good example of Finnish startups that are active commentators on blogs and have a good blog of their own are they guys of Scred. I see their comments often at places like TechCrunch and Arctic Startup. But I believe that they could be even more active in their own blog. Other Finnish startups should definitely do the same.
Startups from Finland: Everyplay: Stealth Social Gaming Startup
Everyplay is a new Finnish “social Gaming Startup operating in stealth mode”. Vierityspalkki reports (in Finnish) that the company’s founder and CEO is Jussi Laakkonen, who previously worked for another Finnish game company Bugbear, the makers of Flatout.
They only information on Everyplay’s home page is their vision: Read more…
Fruugo - Still In Stealth, But Building Top-Notch Marketing Team
Fruugo, the mysterious Finnish startup that is developing some kind of an e-commerce platform and has investors such as ex-Nokia-CEO Jorma Ollila, lifted their shroud of secrecy a little in an article in the Finnish advertising magazine Markkinointi & Mainonta (article in Finnish). In the article they announce that they have appointed as Marketing Director a seasoned and well-connected veteran of Finnish e-commerce and digital marketing Janne Waltonen.
Biggest Barrier For Startups: User Experience
Mukund Mohan wrote a great little article on the new barriers to adoption for your startup. These barriers have to do with the user experience and what are the minimum standards that the users expect. Of course the user expects the user experience of Google and the like.
The new barriers are:
- Application better work super FAST
- Instant gratification
- Allows users to make mistakes but still works
- Make the first impression seamless
These are difficult to overcome and a lot of startups fail to reach these goals and the users will punish them by never coming back. This doesn’t mean that they should not try, on the contrary. The user experience is what matters in determining the success of startups..
Read the whole article: the new barriers to adoption for your startup.
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