I have moved my blog to a new place at www.kuszpa.com !
See you there…
I have moved my blog to a new place at www.kuszpa.com !
See you there…

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

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

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)
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):

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.

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