Startups from Finland: MySites in Twitter Interview
This is the first in my Interviews of Finnish startups using Twitter. The idea is to keep things simple: One Tweet per answer, no editing.
First up is Ramine Darabiha from MySites. The method of interviewing through Twitter needs some more practice and some of the answers were more than just one tweet, but nevertheless a good concept that I will definitely continue using in the future.
The Twinterview with Ramine Darabiha from MySites
startupbin @mysites So, here goes: What is MySites?
mysites MySites is the world’s first Social OS. This means we create social equivalents of the apps on your computer, but for the web!
mysites We enable hosting, sharing, and viewing any kind of content: music, documents, movies, photos, texts. But we’re creating more ..
mysites .. apps so you can do anything. We spent 1 year creating a full IDE, with service creations tools which we’ll open in 2 months.
startupbin So you allow users to upload and host apps on MySites, not just files?
mysites To clarify: you can host any file, just like on your computer. You can open them with apps created by us or others, like an OS.
startupbin who are your competitors?
mysites Direct: open platforms, which regroup your services in one place: Windows Live, the upcoming Google platform (Android +webapps).
mysites Indirect: platforms that are not open, but might: Facebook, Yahoo. By platform, I mean a “real” place for free dev of any app.
mysites Market-wise, we focus on Europe, especially on young users (gamers+students). We feel it’s a left-out market with huge potential
startupbin what’s the one main thing that sets you apart from competitors?
mysites We have strong ties with markets where large corporations can’t: students, online gaming teams. We will localize in many langs.
startupbin What’s your business model?
mysites We’re going to reveal it very soon (2 months). It will be a -good- surprise. I hate the paths Facebook and MySpace are taking.
startupbin looking forward to hearing more… Why should we all start using MySites right now?
mysites Because it’s the hottest Finnish invention since sauna! Seriously, we’re adding lots of cool new possibilities by the day:
mysites MySites is currently the easiest way to store lots of photos / tunes / files and share them. Our uploader is the best!
mysites Also, unlike others, we respect your privacy, and give you control over who can see your content.
mysites If you’re a student, you can soon throw away your USB key and store your groupwork there. We’re doing 8 student gigs this month.
mysites Lastly, we recently added social votes, friends updates& our first translation. Coming soon: AIR apps, iPhone support, open IDE!
mysites I forgot to mention a full rework of our design, and Safari support (soon).
startupbin that’s quite a lot of reasons. Finally, what’s your view on the Finnish startup scene?
mysites The Finnish scene is unique. I love the mix of experimenting, demoscene, etc. I wish there’d be more visibility for new ideas ..
mysites but things are becoming more and more active 
I’m hoping to bring some of the things I saw in our tour with Mashable here too.
mysites Finland has a lot of untapped potential: people are very networked, the country has a huge connectivity in both mobile and dsl
mysites I feel Finland has the potential to be one of the leading innovators in tomorrow’s web. The brains are there, the tech too.
mysites On a light note, I think Finland is a cocoon, in many senses. It’s just waiting to become a butterfly
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Comments
Date: August 27, 2008 | Time: 10:43 pm
Thanks for the coverage! That was fun to do.
Sorry for the many twits, I had a lot on my mind.
Date: August 27, 2008 | Time: 11:11 pm
Twitter interview is a cool idea Timo. I hope to see more of these and more of your writing overall! Good stuff.
Ramine,
Sounds really good! Can’t wait to see all the new stuff coming from MySites, especially what route you will take regarding the business model issue and “a full rework of our design” you mentioned =)
Could you elaborate on what you mean by “I wish there’d be more visibility for new ideas ..” …I’d love to help out if I can.
Ville.
Date: August 28, 2008 | Time: 1:33 pm
Sure, I told you about the networking idea, I’ll tell you more about it when I see you online
Date: August 31, 2008 | Time: 12:12 am
About more visibility. This is our effort - ok, this is promotion - but anyhow, be there to see and FEEL the new business ideas: MindTrek Startup Launchpad (Oct 9) http://www.mindtrek.org/conference/startup-launchpad
…like Ramine said: “Finland has the potential to be one of the leading innovators in tomorrow’s web”. Yep!
Date: May 13, 2009 | Time: 8:17 am
[...] second interview with Finnish startups via Twitter I chatted with Kai Lemmetty from Floobs. Earlier I interviewed Ramine Darahiba from MySites using the same rules: one tweet per question, one tweet per [...]
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