Category: English (Page 13 of 14)

Thursday at web 2.0 Expo

October 25, 2008 / Arne / 0 Comments

Unfortunately these movies have been slightly delayed. They were shot last thursday at the Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin, but time for uploading, and a long trip home got in between filming and publishing. However, here they are. The last set of video’s of Web 2.0 Expo.

Mike Robinson of Mloovi

Mike Butcher of TechCrunch on startups

Christian Duncan of Playcharts

Janetti Chon of O’Reilly Media on community management

Mathijs van Abbe of Mobypicture

Dr. Michael Alger of Otello

David Lockie of LowCarbonEconomy.com

Jennifer Pahlka on Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin and San Francisco

Wednesday at the Web 2.0 Expo

October 23, 2008 / Arne / 0 Comments

Yesterday we had another couple of people in the Ford S-Max. And we have decided to mix startups with something else. Other people that have a relevant story. Like Brady Forrest talking about the future of startups.

Sunny Paris on Yoolinkpro.com (http://www.Yoolinkpro.com)

Nicola Robinsonova on Learnitlists.com (http://www.Learnitlists.com)

Brady Forrest van O’Reilly Radar over de toekomst voor startups (http://radar.oreilly.com/)

Alexander Ljung van Soundcloud.com (http://www.soundcloud.com)

Dania Gerhardt van Amazee (http://www.amazee.com)

Dominik Grolimond van Wuala (http://wua.la/)

Streaming and reality

October 22, 2008 / Arne / 1 Comment

I have to admit to something. I have to admit to believing that mobile media was better than it is. I have to admit I believed in live streaming great quality video from anywhere. I have to admit to thinking we could pull it off by using applications that are readily available.

And then reality kicked in.

Mobile technology is great and we are able to do much more than we would have a year ago. The phones I am carrying, the Nokia N82, the N95 8Gb and the new N96 are all able to do great quality video. However, the network is not up to it yet. The capacity to process data is probably there, but realtime streaming still is a very different story. Let alone streaming live from a car doing incredible speeds on the German autobahn.

But we are not stopped by this. We are now using the N96 for in-car videos and uploading them through youtube. You can find them all here and on Dutchcowboys.nl

Get startups, get a brownie to share

October 22, 2008 / Arne / 0 Comments

Yes, I am going to give away the brownie we received from Sugarmama on monday. You would have to look at the movie to see how gorgeous it is… Anyway, here is your challenge:
I want to have as many startups in the Ford as I possibly can during the Web 2.0 Expo. The first one who will dm me the names of five startups that they have convinced to pitch in the Ford, will win the brownie! (Oh, did I say it is big? It is not a piece, it is the whole thing.)

Looking forward to your dm’s!

Wie koopt ABN AMRO / Buying ABN AMRO / Bank 2.0

September 29, 2008 / Arne / 1 Comment

ING heeft vanavond bekend gemaakt om geen bod uit te brengen op ABN AMRO. Dat brengt Fortis in een heel lastig parket. Lastig genoeg om je toch zorgen te gaan maken. Tijd om actie te ondernemen. Waarom kopen we ABN AMRO niet gewoon zelf op? Het bedrag uit de overeenkomst staat op 10 miljard euro. Een fors bedrag, maar niet ondoenlijk. Dus, een chipin widget. Laten we ABN AMRO kopen en er ‘s werelds eerste Bank 2.0 van maken!

ING has announced tonight that they will not be bidding for ABN AMRO. That means Fortis is not out of trouble yet. It makes it difficult enough to be worried. So it is time to take action. Why don’t WE just buy ABN AMRO. The estimated figure is 10 billion Euro’s. A large sum, but is it impossible? I have made a chipin widget. Lets buy ABN AMRO and turn it into the worlds first Bank 2.0.

If you want to support this, please copy this code into your blog to show the widget on your site:

<embed src=”http://widget.chipin.com/widget/id/da9fe4abf8a56390″ flashVars=”” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowScriptAccess=”always” wmode=”transparent” width=”250″ height=”250″></embed>

Interested otherwise? Give me a call on +31 653 961 138 or mail me on arne at arnehulstein dot nl

Receiving feedback

July 9, 2008 / Arne / 0 Comments

I am an avid user of many web services which try to tune their service to your requirements. They try to pick your brains on what you like and try to match their offerings to it. Most of the time that works amazingly well. But there are times when I feel there would be possibilities to make it work better. By just adding a simple option for instance. Not being a person to shut up and wait for it, I want to make my opinion heard. And so I do. I try to find a way to deliver my feedback. The question is why so many services make it so unbelievably impossible to do so.

As an example, I enjoy last.fm. It plays the music I like. Well, mostly. Every once in a while an artist drifts in that I do not like. Regardless of the song they are playing. So I would like to remove the artist from my list of possibly liked music. The only option they give me is to mark the song, not the artist. Looking for a place to leave my feedback, I could only leave it at a public forum as number 300+. Not very encouraging. Not as bad as BMW though. After being approached for a test drive in BMW’s 1 series, I wanted to let them know I would be interested, just not through the local dealer. As I never feel I am being taken seriously there. However, they have absolutely no way in which you can leave any feedback through their site. You can call an 0800 number, but I was not really looking for a call centre, now was I?

In comparison I would like to praise the guys at Nimbuzz. After trying an older version of their client, I found I had a nice list of things that could be improved upon. So when I received an email from them asking me to become a Nimbuzz ambassador, I answered them with my list of requests. It stayed silent for a while and then I received a mail from Tobias telling me that they were taking all my requests seriously. That felt good. I had gone through the trouble to make suggestions and now they were going through the trouble of assessing whether my suggestions were valid. It felt like a job well done. Imagine my joy when I found that every single suggestion in the mail has been dealt with. Now that is customer service for you. Thanks Nimbuzz. You just put BMW to shame.

Investers and circles

May 20, 2008 / Arne / 0 Comments

Getting financed is a difficult thing. There are many options and all have different approaches to your business. However, none of the approaches seem to work when you need them to. It might just be that I am making it too hard on myself, but I do want to work to certain standards. After all, I do have a family to feed and I would like funds to come at a reasonable rate.

Over the past couple of weeks I have been offered help in several ways. People have mailed me or have responded to LinkedIn questions to offer to secure funds for Meetial. However, the risks and cost involved sometimes are beyond what you would expect. For low risk loans, enormous fees and interest is charged. When you move towards more risky loans, you need to bring pretty steep amounts of money or give guarantees that will completely bankrupt you as soon as something goes wrong ever so slightly. Being subisdised is hard as most government grants are done on a 50/50 basis where you bring the other 50. And if you get to talk to a VC, they would like to have your company and some extra’s. That is, if you get in there, because a project like this is hard to pitch to a VC when there is nothing actually working.

But, I don’t give up nor give in. There must be another way. I don’t know yet, but there must be.

Startups, get started!

March 21, 2008 / Arne / 1 Comment

On the 18th I suggested that it would be a great idea if companies that run well donate money to get startups to The Next Web conference in Amsterdam. The idea has taken the Netherlands by storm. Walking around the Dutch Bloggies on Wednesday, everyone seemed to know about it. And rightly so, as we currently have a lot of tickets on offer! Of those tickets 3 have special conditions. 1 is for a startup from Arnhem and 2 need to go to startups related to education. The others are open to anyone!

So, get cracking on a video showing your startup. Tell us why you need the ticket and why everybody cannot do without your startup in the future. Who knows, you might get an email telling you you can spend the two days at The Next Web totally free!

So, what is a startup? Wikipedia says:
A startup company or start-up is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets. They have an uncertain future, and may result in a spectacular success, or failure. The term became popular internationally during the dot-com bubble when a great number of dot-com companies were founded. A high tech startup company is a startup company specialized in the high tech industry.

We have decided that a startup can be a bit broader for this competition. It can be that you are just starting up, but it can also be a pitch for a great new idea you have. Anything to do with internet, mobile internet or other ict related services has a chance to win. But you need to take it seriously.

The video can be a maximium of 3 minutes and needs to draw people to your startup. And it is alright to practice. If you want early feedback, post your video in the comments on this page or on the related blogpost of Erwin Blom. The final result needs to be in on the 28th of March, which leaves you a week. You can find all the details on PitchStorm.tv. So why are you still sitting there, get your camera out and get going!

@advany has already released his first beta for the competition video. Are you the next startup?