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See you there…

IdeaLab! 2008 WHU (3rd day)

Target Partners Workshop, Michael Brehm, Felix Haas and the VC Panel.

IdeaLab! workshops, lectures and discussions

The last day of the IdeaLab! at the WHU started for me with a workshop hosted by Target Partners GmbH. Olaf Jacobi – not only venture partner, but also an experienced entrepreneur – run this very interesting workshop about the question ‘Venture Capital or Business Angel?’. He gave us some deep insights into the world of venture capital, also from the perspective as an entrepreneur in a very open and authentic way.

The Venture Capital panel with Olaf Jacobi (Target Partners), Maximilian Niederhofer (Atlas Venture) and Lukasz Gadowski (Team Europe Ventures) was also very interesting. Some statements and thoughts:

How good is Germany in terms of venture capital?

We have a great German community of business angels, but even though venture capital doesn’t have an old tradition in Germany, we can observe a huge progress in venture capital activities in the last years. We also have the most business start-ups in Europe, but the total volume of investments is still less than e.g. in Great Britain or France. The challenge is to establish an optimal symbiosis between young engineers and young business professionals, for example through a more intensive exchange between top universities.

What is changing because of the worldwide financial crisis?

IdeaLab! 2008 WHU (2nd day)

Stars of the German Internet Industry: Lukas, Ehssan, Kolja, Oliver an me )

IdeaLab with lectures of internet entrepreneurs

After the opening speech of Prof. Dr. Martin Fassnacht, prorector of the Otto Beisheim School of Management (WHU), Oliver Samwer (European Founders Fund GmbH) spoke about the effects of the financial crisis on start-ups. The climate will be tough, but he believes that the internet industry still is the best for young people, but you have to have a great staying power and today work more cost-conscious… and not only target for growth, growth and growth. His European Founders Fund already started to analyse costs together with their portfolio companies, with the goal to reduce the burn rate. However the internet industry is still exciting (‘die Branche ist geil’), because in no other industry the half of the top 10 players changed in the last 2 years.
More about the lecture of Oliver on the IdeaLab site (in German language).

Peperoni shortlisted for Best Community Company

The Mobile Entertainment Awards

Peperoni shortlisted for Best Communities Company in the Mobile Entertainment Awards

We have been shortlisted for the Mobile Entertainment Awards in the Best Communities Copmany category with our community peperonity.com. It’s great to be shortlisted for this awards that celebrate industry excellence in mobile content and services. In this category we are competing with some old friends; GoFresh, Flirtomatic, BuzzCity and Shozu. May the best win ;o)

Here Comes Another Bubble v1.1 – The Richter Scales

Secret of success in the silicon valley

This one poped up during surfing the web. I found it on the blog of Vero Pepperrell alias ‘That Canadian Girl’. It is just perfect in moments of ‘uninspiration’ or defeat in the (mobile) web 2.0 battle, because somehow it makes you smile :)

An here is the master plan for success in our business (an executive summary of the video above):

1. first you need a buzzword, then a second and a third
2. pick at least two industries, you’ll revolutionize
3. find yourself an engineer, feed him pizza, buy him beer
4. give him just a fraction of a fraction of the pie
5. need a good domain name, must be cheap, can’t be lame
6. make your elevator pitch, code it up and flip the switch

peperonity.com goes Spanish, Romanian and Greek

peperonity.com in Greek and Spanish

Today we launched three new languages, so now we have peperonity.com in 10 languages; German (Deutsch) [2000.01.12], English [2000.01.12], French (Français) [2007.04.19], Italian (Italiano) [2007.06.29] Portuguese (Português) [2007.06.29], Polish (Polski) [2007.12.18], Russian (Русский) [2008.05.13], Spanish (Español) [2008.07.15], Romanian (Română) [2008.07.15] and Greek (Ελληνικά) [2008.07.15]. This time our team mates Ines, Panos and Codruta were making the various translations.

Mobile 2.0 Europe, Barcelona

Panel, Networking, and in the middle an aka-aki profile and the real person )

A Day Exploring the future of Mobile

Today I joined the first Mobile 2.0 Europe in Barcelona, a conference bringing people together from all aspects of the mobile ecosystem, including startups, investors, mobile carriers, device manufacturers, mobile application developers and web technologists. All in all a very interesting event with some very good controversy like the panels on the ‘VC Perspective’ and the ‘Operator Perspective’ on the mobile market. You can find a summer of this event at the conference web site and some thoughts in an article ‘Mobile 2.0: Rummble, Zipiko and Dial2do shine, but venture captialists express caution‘ of Matthäus Krzykowski on venturebeat.com.

It was suspenseful to hear the nokia lecture about their plans for the future; ‘Software & Services is one of Nokias core strategy for the future’, ‘It’s about things: People, Plazes, Media and Developers’ and ‘Nokia wants to be a internet company (OVI – Nokias conusmer brand)’. I also had a funny adventure during the aka-aki presentation. I tried their bluetooth applet and found some other aka-aki user in the audience. And I spot ’nanou’ (Stefanie Hoffmann, founder of aka-aki networks GmbH) in the crowd; she didn’t see me, so it was fun and easy to tease her in the aka-aki chat, because I could see everything she was doing )

 

Flat Eric – my new travel companion

Flat Eric in the back of my car.

The next ride of Flat Eric

Today I found a small surprise in my car. In the back rack of my PepCar Flat Eric was sitting and waiting for the next ride )
If somebody doesn’t know who Flat Eric is, then have a look at this videos:

School leaving ball with the ‘Sechs in the City’

The “sechs in the city”; Lisa, Naia, Sabrina, Inga, Svenja and Anna

Abitur 2008 at Gymnasium Hohenlimburg

Today I was on a school leaving ball at my old school Gymnasium Hohenlimburg to celebrate the school leaving examination ( Abi 2008 ) of my idols ’sechs in the city’. You maybe don’t know this girls, but they are quite famous in our village Hagen. After the ceremony in the school, we had a really great party in the Stadthalle Hagen. Once again, my warmest congratulations to Lisa, Naia, Sabrina, Inga, Svenja, Anna and the other high school graduates!!!

You can find more pictures in my photo album on flickr.

Mobile Media Summit, Cologne

Our booth, yahoo lecture and me under discussion with myspace on a panel.

Mobile Social Web – Web 2.0 für die Hosentasche

Two days ago I was asked by Mark Wächter, if I can fill in for facebook on the Mobile Media Summit at MedienForum.NRW in cologne. They didn’t ask me first, but why not ) So I had the great opportunity to join the panel ‘Mobile Social Web – Web 2.0 für die Hosentasche’ (English: Mobile Social Web – Web 2.0 for the trouser pocket) and to discuss the developments in mobile social networks with Sarik Weber (Vice President – Marketing, cellity AG), Olaf Kroll (Director Business Development Europe, Fox Interactive Media / MySpace.com), Mark Wächter (chairman of Fachgruppe Mobile of Bundesverbandes der Digitalen Wirtschaft e.V.) and Ossi Urchs (F.F.T. Medienagentur).

Markus Nass made some pics with me in action, as carnival barker and in the panel. And here are my slides: