This morning I browsed through Wired Magazine’s interview with “Ted,” the pseudonymous figure behind TheFunded.com. The site offers entrepreneurs unprecedented insight into the workings of the VC community, namely by offering entrepreneurs themselves the chance to swap their VC horror stories without revealing their identify. “Ted,” however, agreed to step out from behind the veil. He is Adeo Ressi, the founder of two successful startup companies.
Naturally we had to have a peek.
Continue reading ‘VCs don’t like TheFunded but entrepreneurs do’
A dozen major French companies have launched a trial to use cell phones as mobile money, according to the International Herald Tribune. The Payez Mobile consortium includes France’s three largest mobile operators, six major banks, Visa and MasterCard and cellphones made by Motorola, LG Electronics and Sagem Communication of Paris.
The group gave 1,000 people in Strasbourg and Caen mobile handsets outfitted with a short-range radio technology called “near-field communications,” or NFC. The technology is already familar to commuters in London, Paris and Hong Kong who pay their fares by swiping “contactless” programmed plastic cards over scanners embedded in turnstiles.
Continue reading ‘French launch biggest EU mobile payment test’
Sure, we have social networking in Europe. Here in Hungary, last year, everybody I know was signing on to IWIW. Earlier this year, the pan-European Xing began holding face-to-face events here, too. But these services pale when compared to the juggernaut that is Cyworld. (I’m now finishing research for eMarketer’s South Korea Online Overview.)
One third of South Koreans have used Cyworld and 90% of those in their 20s have an account. Cyworld earns $300,000 each day through the sale of virtual goods. Users upload 6.2 million photos each day. The service rivals iTunes in music sales, and serves more video than YouTube. Cyworld is addictive as hell, and it’s launching in Germany soon.
“While efforts to make it easier for Europeans to set up their own company are starting to pay off,” Euractiv reports, “a majority of EU citizens continue to hold back for fear of going bust. The Commission is now proposing taking action to reduce the stigma attached to business failure and encourage non-fraudulent bankrupts to make a fresh start.”
Small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for 99% of all businesses in the EU, employ 77 million people, create one in every two new jobs.
Continue reading ‘Removing the stigma of bankruptcy in Europe’
In late 2005, we published a list of Central European ‘companies to watch’ which you’ll find at the top of the nowEurope links page. The list consists of technology companies based in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. The main selection critera was the subjective opinion of the NETIES consortium team members in each of these countries.
It’s now time to review the list and consider whether those companies are still worth watching. And what better way than CoolSW, a new service launched by Intel which Wired Magazine describes as a DIGG for software companies.
The burning question: Are Central European software companies ‘cool’?
Continue reading ‘Is Central European software ‘cool’?’
Please excuse the dust while we move things around today.
Wordpress.com has just upgraded to the 2.3 version of their service and in the process the ‘tags’ and ‘categories’ features have undergone changes. The result is that this site design no longer works as originally intended.
As a result I’ve decided to move nowEurope to my own server where I can tinker and change the design until it works the way Vlastimil and I like it.
I expect these changes to be finished by noon today CET.
According to Big Four accounting firm, Deloitte, European VCs are increasingly interested in investing in Central and Eastern European. While Western Europe remains the primary focus, 21% of European investors surveyed expressed an interest in Central European deals, while 14% were keen on investing in Eastern Europe.
Deloiitte’s Global Trends in Venture Capital 2006 survey queried 505 investors around the world on their attitudes and interests regarding specific geographic areas and industry sectors.
The top reasons European VCs favored Central Europe were ‘access to foreign markets’, ‘lower cost locations’ and ‘emergence of entrepreneur environment in non-traditional locations’.
As part of the NETIES project, we have conducted a survey of small and medium sized enterprises interested in participating in Sixth Framework funded projects. This survey was carried out in Hungary, in parallel with our colleagues in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
This research was conducted in two parts. The first survey, summarized here, collected information from companies and organizations interested in taking part in an FP6 funded project. The second survey researched those who had previously taken part in a project.
One insight of this survey is that two-thirds of respondents (64%) had little or no knowledge about the FP6 programme, while 56% were interested in receiving information online.
Continue reading ‘Survey One results: Companies interested in applying for FP6′
As part of the NETIES project, we have conducted a survey of small and medium sized enterprises interested in participating in Sixth Framework funded projects. This survey was carried out in Hungary, in parallel with our colleagues in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
This research was conducted in two parts. The first survey gathered information from companies and organizations interested in taking part in an FP6 funded project. The second survey, summarized here, researched those who had previously taken part in a project.
One insight of this survey is the high level of satisfaction among Hungarian companies taking part in FP6. Nearly one third of companies (29%) rated their FP6 participation a ‘four’ on an ascending value scale of one to four, while 48% gave it a ‘three’. A full 90% agreed they would do it all over again, if given the chance.
A total of 39 companies took part in this survey, which was carried out in partnership with the Hungarian Association of IT Companies (IVSZ).
Continue reading ‘Survey Two results: Companies which have successfully applied for FP6 support’
Yesterday I sat down with Gabor Cseh, the former director of the IWIW project at Virgo Systems. Earlier this year, Gabor and his colleagues sold Hungary’s leading social networking site to T-Online for HUF 1b (about $4.3m). I’ve invited Gabor to speak at our next Entrepreneurship Forum at the Central European University (July 11) and I wanted to hear more about his story.
One point that intrigued me is that Virgo only sold T-Online the Hungarian-language rights to IWIW, meaning they can use the code to launch similar services in Hungary’s neighbors. Can Virgo make the magic happen twice?
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