Berlin startup hotspots

As you already probably know, the two biggest startup scenes in Europe are London and Berlin. The last one is growing. And making extremely good progress to catch up.

I’ve published some thoughts and facts about London some weeks ago. As well as you often hear about the European startup capitals, you often don’t know where to go to get the pulse of the scene.

Here are the two hotspots I’ve discovered and visited during my trip in Berlin: Sankt Oberholz and Betahaus (if you know other places, please comment!). These place are 2 co-working places, but are basically…restaurants for the public side. Seems strange, no? Is there a place like this in Switzerland now? Nope. Or at least I don’t currently know!

You can simply come there, benefit from a free wifi and that’s it. Sure, they also have “normal” co-working spaces, with real desks and office chairs.

As well as there is a good atmosphere there, it is still not as geeky/nerdy as Central Coworking in London (that is, you even have (a few) normal people there - people not typing on their computer or playing/working on their mobile device!).

Here are some pictures both places!

Sankt Oberholz (direct at Rosenthalerplatz - underground line: U8 to get there):

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For those who don’t speak German: “not every cow allow you to milk it”. There are many boards like this at Sankt Oberholz, which make the place different, kind of alternative restaurant (special vibes!).

Betahaus (Prinzessinnenstrasse 19, a few dozen meters away from Moritzplatz (that you can also reach with U8)). Betahaus seems to have more frequently startups events and will welcome Axelspringer Plug’n’Play accelerator (starting mid-May for the first session):

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UPDATE: please find a list compiled by Venture Village on the 10 best co-working spaces in Berlin (thx to Next Wave Europe for mentioning!)

And lastly, I had the chance to visit the Berlin Congress Center before the NEXT Conference… which is simply amazing, even if the modern-looking side of the building is not as charming as the old train station of last year:

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One week left to Next Berlin!

We are getting closer to NEXT Berlin, happening next Tuesday & Wednesday.

Program of the conference has just been released (discover it) and… it looks really exciting! For keynotes to workshops, actionable content and advices are key. The only problem I see: I cannot duplicate myself!

The conference has now selected the NEXT100 Top Influencers of the Digital Industry in 2013 (remember my post back in February). Two Swiss entrepreneurs have make it, even in the Top40!

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Samuel Müller, founder of mobile barcode scanning company Scandit.

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Dominik Grolimund, serial entrepreneur who has, to date, already founded and sold 2 startups: Wuala and Silp.

Big applause to Samuel and Dominik, who deserve it! I’m happy to have suggested and registered these 2 smart guys to NEXT100. If you have once the opportunity to grab a coffee with them… seize it, you won’t be disappointed! Switzerland needs more guys like them (we have a couple dozen other ones, but we never have enough smart guys!).

NEXT Berlin also released the 12 selected startups for its competition. Unfortunately, no one of the three registered Swiss startups (cooa.la, Rightclearing, Faveeo) made it.

Anyway, discover these startups, who come from all over Europe (Germany: 3, Austria: 2, Italy: 2, Portugal: 2, UK: 1, France: 1 and Sweden: 1).

  1. Geddit connects every student in the classroom to their teacher. The times when shy students were overlooked are over. Geddit lets students show their teachers how confident they are with what they’re being taught by tapping the ‘signal bars’ on their device. Teachers get an overview of their whole class at a glance, and can help any struggling students.
  2. UnlockYourBrain uses the screen lock to facilitate learning in an effortless way. The app improves your logical thinking skills every time you unlock your smartphone with a little maths or logic puzzle, or gives vocabulary or language training.
  3. apiOmatsimplifies app development processes. Their Backend as a Service (BaaS) offers a complete software stack including a scalable hosting solution. It is a resourceful productivity tool for everybody who intends to develop a mobile app or website.
  4. LineMetrics is essentially Google Analytics for production lines. It is a flexible tool which enables manufacturing companies real-time monitoring of machines and analysis of production environments.
  5. visalyze turns social media data into an interactive and playful visual story. The visual patterns generated by visalyze enable users to recognise, at a glance, which of their social media activities on Facebook or Twitter are flourishing and where crises are looming.
  6. Glitteris an app designed to revolutionize how casting agencies, producers and clients work together. It is an online plattform that enables them to manage castings, proposals and selections quickly and easily in one centralised location: the cloud.
  7. bewarket has created a marketplace for Facebook. So far, over 25,000 users have registered to offer their products – old and new – to their social network.
  8. Wanderiocompares flights, trains, ferries and ground transportation services, to let travelers choose and book the solution that suits them best, sorting alternatives by price, travel time, and CO2 emissions.
  9. Buzzoole is the first platform IEO (Influence Engine Optimisation). Through the platform, Buzzoole wants to help users optimise their online presence and engagement with their network to enable them become influential in subjects in which they have expertise.
  10. Glean is a mobile application that allows you to give and receive personal feedback anonymously within your social network. The app is integrated in the user’s social media like Facebook and LinkedIn and enables him/her to give instant feedback on the way. Glean also provides a B2C as well as a B2B version.
  11. Prizgo provides a white label social loyalty plugin for online retailers. The idea combines a social rewards program with analytics to enable retailers to boost customer engagement, retention and advocacy on their sites.
  12. Algolia (congrats to Nicolas!) is an easy-to-integrate powerful search technology, which enable developers to quickly deliver real time search inside their apps with instant visual feedback and typo-tolerance.

Finally… if you haven’t bought your ticket by now… register now and get a 10% discount off!

A unique chance to network with top media executives

Did you know that one of the biggest media event of the world will happen in Lausanne area end of April?

As well as I know that there are many things that I don’t know, this event hasn’t reached my ears… until Eileen asked me if I was interested to attend as an official blogger! Of course, it has directly excited my curiosity. And what I’ve discovered is that it seems to be a MUST-attend event, at least for everyone active in the media and brands industry!

Main objective of Festival of Media Global, taking place from 28th to 30th of April 2013 in Montreux, is to bring together professionals of media trading (which is the art of buying and optimizing advertising spaces). And to show what’s next in the brand communications industry… so, something where media startups can easily fit!

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Event will start on Sunday night (28th of April) with a cocktail and networking session. Two intensive days of conferences will follow, with an impressive panels of really high level marketing executive. Top brands like Facebook, Intel, Nestlé, Visa, Linkedin, Havas Media or the much discussed company BuzzFeed (its CEO, Jon Steinberg, will disclose what he means by native advertising) will be present and eager to network.

The program of the presentations sounds really interesting to me (and I hope to you too!), from talking about the new drivers of growth in the advertising space to the new publishing revolution. Other keynotes will for instance show what’s king in media space (conversation, not content) or how to transform engagement in real sales.

Recommendation engines, content experiences and social comments are transforming massively how the media industry works. In one sentence, startups are disrupting the business! Adaptation are required for every media professional and the festival is a good opportunity to learn about what’s coming.

The conference also has a startup program, named M.A.P. (Media Accelerator Program). The idea is to match exciting game-changing new media companies with some of the most successful marketers in the world, that is, to the high level attendees of the conference!

You can register your startup at M.A.P. (you have to choose one of the 3 packages - the cheapest unfortunately doesn’t give you access to the Festival of Media, but only to the MAP Global area). But what doesn’t it bring you then? It will bring you a unique feedback from people you can barely dream to meet. And give you some highly targeted advertising (your video-pitch will be displayed on the media channels of the festival, etc.) to senior marketers of top global brands (more than 3’000 media professionals to the festival).

Five companies will be selected by a judging panel comprised of top shots guys from Google, Sequoia Capital, Medialink, Ballpark Ventures, etc. These 5 companies will have the chance to present their business on the main stage on the 3rd day of the conference. And only one will be awarded the prestigious title of “Hot Company of the Year”.

Which criteria do you need to fulfill to apply to M.A.P.? You need to have a disruptive idea or product (you need to be operational, that is, at least in trial/beta mode) showing some next generation marketing possibilities, and being able to show the Return On Investment of your product. Here is a complete explanation of the M.A.P. program. Deadline is short: you must apply before Friday 12th of April and selected companies will be notified on 19th.

As ever, I’m currently trying to get some free tickets for you… or at least, some discounted tickets. I’ll update this post if I get some, so be attentive!

UPDATE: ask me a 40% (!) discount to attend Festival of Media Global 2013!

Hope to meet you there anyway!

A new opportunity to pitch your startup in Lausanne!

In Switzerland, many people think you have (too) many opportunities to pitch your startup. A recurring comment I’ve been hearing for a while is that there are not enough valuable/promising startups… I can only disagree to this!

If the condition for a valuable startup is to be enrolled in CTI Startup program or beeing a spin-off from ETHZ or EPFL, yes, it’s probably right. But in Switzerland, too much emphasis is put on startups coming from academia (that could be the topic of another post!). My opinion is that you neither need to be from a technology institute nor part of the CTI Startup program to be successful, at least when you’re moving in the web and mobile space. Here, you mostly don’t need patents to protect your innovations. What make the difference for web and mobile startup is EXECUTION capability!

But back to the point… a new startup/investor event will take place on Monday 13th of May in Lausanne: ICT Investors Day. Already run successfully 8 times in Zürich (I’ve blogged about the June event last year), the pitching opportunity is different from all other ones:

  1. It is exclusively dedicated to ICT (in a large sense - electronics is OK), which means you have a qualified audience (people who understand the area).
  2. Participation is free of charge for startups (in comparison with some angels clubs - which do it wrong in my opinion, but that’s again another topic).
  3. 8 startups will be selected for a 90-seconds pitch at the event. And the audience vote for the 4 they would like to see pitching longer (10 minutes). Yes, it could be frustrating for a founder, as you’re not sure to pitch your whole concept. I’ve experienced it. But anyway, it’s fun to try. Not getting enough votes doesn’t mean your company is not interesting, but only that the audience desires to see other startups.

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Around 50 people are expected to the first ICT Investors Day of Western Switzerland, kindly hosted by one of the most active ICT investor of the region: Debiopharm Group. Yes, it looks strange that a pharmaceutical company invests in ICT startups, even not related to health care! Privately owned, Debiopharm has a strong commitment to support innovative entrepreneurs, and doesn’t work as a traditional VC. The ideal investor?

So, entrepreneurs: what are you waiting for? Fill the simple registration form before 21st 25th of April… and see you there!

And investors: register as soon as possible to experience this new kind of event! I’m pretty sure they will be amazing startups…

You’ll fail… so what?

If you’re planning to start a business, you probably know that the odds are big that you’ll fail your venture. Or if you don’t know it, wake up. There are many smart guys out there who did many things right and finally failed their startup. You’ve probably heard about these statistics: on 10 investments, only one will be a big success, 2-3 will reimburse the investment and all the other ones will be worthless. What can be scary is that it only takes into account the funded startups. But how many get financing? One on ten?

If we take these (probably wrong) numbers as a basis to evaluate your success chance, we can assume that you have a 3-4% of beeing financially OK with the company you’re putting in so many efforts. OK, here, I’m consciously neglecting lifestyle business (you’re bulding a viable company where you don’t need investors and you don’t want / care growing big and fast - what is ABSOLUTELY OK, too!).

With this in mind, why do people start a company? You have to be a bit crazy to build a startup, that’s true. That doesn’t seem rational and you better should find a safe job in a bank… but hey, who told you there are still safe jobs? Except if you’re working in the administration or governmental companies (and even there…), there are no more safe job in 2013!

I think, and most of fellow entrepreneurs I’ve talked to, that the journey is so exciting and rewarding that it’s worth the potentially painful outcome. If you never try, you will never know if the amazing concept you’ve developed (with you and yourself) even has a chance to succeed. As well as it intellectually exciting and rewarding to brainstorm about game-changing concepts, it’s even more to take the next step: implementing it.

Even if you fail your startup, you will have learnt so many things that you can’t consider it badly (OK, financially speaking, it could be disastrous).

11 months ago, I’ve blogged about success tolerance  and failure acceptance (“What we still need to change”). I wasn’t thinking that this simple post would trigger guys to start something. Following the post, French startup activist and blogger Roxanne Varza commented and asked me if I didn’t wanted to launch a Fail Conference in Switzerland. And then we started the discussion with some of my readers.

David Butler, a startup activist and great networker based in Zürich, took the leadership to organize the first FailCon Switzerland, which will happen on 16th April in Zürich! David has assembled a little team to organize it and together, they’ve convinced some well-known Swiss entrepreneurs (like serial entrepreneur Dorian Selz) to share their experience. The one-day conference will gather a few hundreds entrepreneurs, investors and innovators. There are many aspects of failures and this uncommon event will bring you an opportunity to learn from guys who failed and recovered.

This event is a first step in the change of mentality we need to see here in Switzerland. Failing should be widely accepted and seen as it is: a huge opportunity to learn and become stronger!

So… what are you waiting for? Spread the word and register!

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