Archive for April, 2008
« Previous Entries Next Entries »Business IT Online improves importing
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008UK-based small business software startup Business IT Online has released an improved import feature to complement Plaxo’s import widget, enabling premium members to import any CSV file with contact information (including header row or not) into contacts list. They previously offered the service, but it was limited.The startup offers integrated online business software for small businesses, such as web-based invoicing. BusinessITOnline has been going for a while, but there are other UK startups attempting to crack the small business pace including Saleminer.com (in beta), and TactileCRM, all with limited success as they face an up hill struggle to get small business off Microsoft apps.
Originally
from TechCrunch UK
by
reBlogged
on Apr 19, 2008, 10:50PM
WebMission Day 1: The flight
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
So, the WebMission trip to take 20 startups to visit Silicon Valley got off to a flying start. All 29 of our party turned up on time for the flight, which took off on time as planned. Astounding.
The ten hour flight to San Francisco was notable only for the vaguely 1970s feel of the 747, helped by those overhead TV screens which have seen better days. But moving around to avoid deep vein thrombosis was a great excuses to chat to fellow WebMissioners (more info on them from CrunchBase).
Browsing through the on-board “Sky Mall” catalogue reminded us that America is the innovative land of the gadget, where you can get a custom made insole kit (whatever that is) or an inflatable screen for projecting movies in your garden. Useful.
Tonight we step out for ‘open invite‘ drinks at the Clift Hotel to meet other US startups and investors. Or at least, that’s the plan…
Update: Here’s Oli Barretts take on things so far.
Originally
from TechCrunch UK
by
reBlogged
on Apr 19, 2008, 11:28PM
Eastern promise at TMT Ventures
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008Smart-up, a great blog about Central and Eastern European startups has been covering the TMT.Ventures’08 conference in Kiev. It sounds like a fascinating event. Blogger Michal Faber has also shot some video of the presenting VCs which includes the London-based Greg Marsh, of Index Ventures and Sean Seton-Rogers of Benchmark Capital, below.
Originally
from TechCrunch UK
by
reBlogged
on Apr 21, 2008, 7:26AM
WebMission Day 2: Brunching and lunching
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
So day two of WebMission began with plenty of recovery time following the previous evening’s partying, which took in the tad pricey Clift Hotel bar, and the Slide and Le Colonial clubs. I gather. I of course turned in with a nice cup of cocoa. In the morning the WebMission crew jumped on a bus and headed over to the rather nice house belonging to Jim Buckmaster of Craigslist who very generously opened his home for us. There were plenty of US entrepreneurs there, as well as some home-grown talent who’d moved out to Silicon Valley, including Bebo’s Michael Birch and trulia’s Pete Flint (formerly of LastMinute.com). Some interesting chats were had, including a general theme about the differences between the UK and the Valley, and about the chatter surrounding Startup School, the Y-Combinator event which happened the previous day (TC coverage) which was clearly a big event.
In general, UK entrepreneurs who have moved to the Valley say it is easier to do a startup here, that people “get” your idea faster and there is a wide talent pool to draw on. No-one says Europe is not a place for startups (who would be that stupid, right?), but there is less friction here and less aversion to risk and failure. I met the 23 year old Tristan Harris, who recently got headlines for his first startup, Apture, who had a salient point: “Hey, if you’re ‘back-up plan’ in Silicon Valley is to get a great job at Google or Facebook then why NOT do a startup?”
Following the brunch I joined Paul Birch, Paul Walsh, John Havens, to a BBQ thrown by Brian Solis, as a small-scale SXSW reunion in his garden. Over a catered BBQ, and live music, about 100 people chatted in the Californian sunshine, many of them the WebMission startups. We also met up with the unofficial WebMission “fringe” delegation in the form of RecommendBox and writer Paul Carr, who has now started an unofficial blog of the event, which is always a sign you are doing something right.
On a more serious note, I guess we have all been told ad nauseam about Silicon Valley’s ‘clustering’ effect where similar companies all come together. But in practical terms you see that at work when someone throws a brunch, leaving you time to head over to another event, which then runs its course allowing you to head out to a dinner (as I did today). Because of the sheer scale of the industry here, each event has enough people coming and going to maintain a good crowd and for the hosts not to be offended if people leave for another. Plus, the events are not expected to go on forever. Tomorrow there are two evening networking events I know of are set to run for exactly 2 hours each (one 6-8pm, the other 8-10pm) and both are within walking distance or a short cab drive from each other. That’s it. In London most events expect everyone to turn up and stay all evening. Obviously there are practical reasons why - it’s hard to ping between one event and another largely because of traffic or public transport issues. But at any rate, the culture and geography here is set up to be pretty efficient at networking you amongst your peers and people who might help your business. At least, that’s what it looks like from where I’m standing.[Update: I’m told by a local that lots of events happening every night for just two hours is more a feature of Web 2 Expo being on this week, but still, every night there are events of this natures here].
Originally
from TechCrunch UK
by
reBlogged
on Apr 21, 2008, 7:50AM
Carsonified, which runs Silicon Valley-style UK events, attacks a UK startup trip to… Silicon Valley
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008Note: Please see update below.
It’s just morning here in SF so I have just seen this post. The below is my initial response, but I have to go offline imminently (I am in San Francisco on the trip in question) so I’m just rattling this off now….
I think it’s rather strange of Carsonified’s Ryan Carson to go “attack dog” now when he could have called any one of the WebMission partners weeks ago when this trip was announced and put together. But hey, he has a right to criticise, it’s a democracy after all.
I don’t know if he was prompted to this because so far the WebMission trip just looks like socialising. But the Saturday and Sunday were understandably light on business meetings for the group as it’s… the weekend. Keep watching…
It’s worth pointing out that a tiny minority of the WebMission companies have even hinted to me that they would move to the US. The vast majority are simply here to research the market, take meetings with potential partners or investors or perhaps look at establishing a small office here. They are also here to LEARN, and take back anything useful to the UK, to make the startup scene and their own businesses more vibrant - something Ryan wants to I believe. I question his view that there is NOTHING to be learned from this exercise and everything we need is need the UK. That seems nonsensical.
As for the “message” that this trip sends? I don’t see the problem. UK companies working out if there is anything to be gained from establishing trade or investment links in the US is not that big a story. Would we think the same thing of 20 startups which went to Paris for a week with a similar aim? No, and probably they’d get criticised for going on a jolly - but aren’t there also French startups and VCs and a market there to learn from? Carson’s post smacks of isolationism which feels unrealistic in today’s globalised world.
I find it odd that some critics seem to imply that the WebMission attendees are somehow children who will immediately swallow the Silicon Valley cool-aid and destroy their businesses with US-thinking inappropriate to their strategy. Er, guess what people? They may well have their own grown-up minds and can take or leave the learning from this experience. Like, duh.
There has also been the suggestion that RecommendBox’s Robert Loch and others are part of the Webmission trip. For the record, they are not - nor to they claim to be - and they are not attending any official meetings or tours. For the record, Segala’s Paul Walsh acted as an official advisor to the project and connector to people in the Valley. However, there was nothing to stop other UK companies coming along and creating a ‘fringe’ movement - but only some appear to have had the sheer imagination to do so. To get off there arses, come over here and hang out with us, after hours. If you’d like to peruse the agenda, you’ll see that it was published. It’s all open and transparent (and I’d ask to you name a similar tour with as much openness?). Anyone could have come here. Everyone is a private individual with their own choices to make.
Carson’s post is also odd because I have been to Carsonifed events where it is often hard to find a British accent amongst the speakers. Many are often from… Silicon Valley. Now, that’s not a criticism. The reason Ryan (who is an American with great connections in the Valley) and his crew have been so successful and gotten so much love from the UK startup and geek community - and I include myself in this - is that they recognised that the UK needed to here from the kinds of people who created Twitter and Google and Sun and Pownce, etc etc. Plus, we get to see DiggNation live, which is AWESOME 
I’ll respond more fully on TechCrunch UK in due course. Personally, I would also have liked to have gone to this week’s conference in Kiev because I think UK startups should be making lots of connections across Europe as well as the US (but I can’t clone myself just yet).
UPDATE, MONDAY: I’ve spoken to the WebMission organisers and this is what they tell me about the financing. The decision was made not to offer an all-expenses-paid trip to the Valley, and that to do so would attract the wrong kinds of startups. So companies have paid £1,200 each to be on the trip (after they were selected from the 120 startups who applied). This figure takes in the cost of flights and the hotel, and was used to secure the best deals possible, such as a reduced price on the hotel because of a block booking etc. If anything was left over after that amount was levied, the surplus has gone into providing for other aspects of the trip, such as receptions/bus travel etc. Although some might criticise the choice of the upmarket Clift Hotel, the startups are not paying normal Clift prices and it was only selected by the WebMissoin organisers following advice from local experts on the ground in SF (and I dare say wouldn’t be again for too many reasons to mention here). Everything else has been picked up by sponsors (list here) and UK Trade Invest has put in a “significantly smaller amount”. Most of their contribution has been logistical, not financial, so the taxpayer is in no way being stiffed, to use a technical term (believe me I’ve been told the figure, and it’s peanuts, not to be too rude to the very nice people at UKTI). Of course, UKTI is doing this in the basis that the startups create connections here, grow an end up being bigger, thus paying more tax. QED.
Originally
from TechCrunch UK
by
reBlogged
on Apr 21, 2008, 3:04PM
House Republicans Move To Increase H1B Visa Quota
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
Last Friday the House Republican Study Committee sent a letter to Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer, the Speaker of the House and Majority Leader, respectively, requesting an increase in the current H1B visa quota of 65,000 per year to 115,000. They also request a 20% yearly increase in the cap every year, assuming the previous year’s quota was met. The letter is embedded below.
The current H1B program, which allows companies to bring highly skilled foreign workers to the U.S. for up to three years. It is a primary way for Silicon Valley firms to get enough technical employees, and there is almost always demand far outstripping the artificial quotas. The 1999 and 2000 quotas were already at 115,000. 132,000 H1B visas were approved in 2004 and 117,000 in 2005. But the cap was lowered again, and the 2007 quota was reached in just two months. The 2008 quota was exhausted before the end of the first day on which applications were accepted, April 2, 2008.
H1B visas are one of the primary Federal-level issues holding Silicon Valley growth in check, and it’s something I asked each of the presidential candidates I interviewed about. Listen to the interviews here, and see each of their positions on H1Bs here.
The letter discusses the absurd situation where U.S.-educated foreigners are unable to work here after graduation: “As a country, we are effectively handing these highly-educated, extremely desirable individuals a diploma and a plane ticket. The message we are sending is “You can learn here, but you have to work in another country.””
The letter also mentions that Microsoft opened a facility in Vancouver, Canada in 2007 exclusively to put to work foreign-born employees that could not obtain work visas. These employees would otherwise be working in Washington.
Intel Chairman Craig Barrett, which has 2,000 employees with H1B visas, is quoted in the letter: “With Congress gridlocked on immigration, it’s clear that the next Silicon Valley will not be in the United States.”
As I’ve written before, it would be really super nice if Congress could just sort of get out of the way and quit screwing around with Silicon Valley - one of the most important economic assets in the United States. I hope this letter and associated Bill - HR 1930 - is acted on (you can give your direct feedback on the Bill at that link).
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
Originally
from TechCrunch
by
reBlogged
on Apr 21, 2008, 10:37AM
Chinese Hackers Take Down SportsNetwork
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
The SportsNetwork, a privately held sports website located in Hatboro, PA, has been under attack from hackers for about 24 hours. Early Sunday the site was defaced with “Tibet was, is and will always be part of China” messages. Engineers returned the site to normal, but late Sunday evening the site was again hacked and taken offline. The message in the image second above is now all that can be viewed on the site.
The site itself is relatively small, attracting just 264,000 visitors in February 2008 (Comscore, worldwide). But it also powers parts of other large sports sites such as CNN/SI. The domain sports.si.cnn.com, for example, is also down.
I called the general phone number at the site at 3:20 am PST and someone answered right away, confirming the hack and the fact that a team of engineers is trying to get the site back online.
It’s likely that this kind of activity will increase as Chinese frustration over western Olympic protests continues. Some Chinese are simply adding a “Love China” icon to their chat messages. Others are taking much stronger measures, and speculation continues as to whether the Chinese governmet is sponsoring the attacks.
Lots of buzz on this on Twitter right now (where most news seems to be breaking these days). Thanks to Christine Lu for the tip. More here as well.
Update: It’s possible that the hackers actually thought they were taking down CNN’s sports site, based on early Twitter messages boasting about it.
Update2: Christine Lu was able to grab an image of the original hack (now top image above), which links back to hackcnn.com. It’s almost certain that they thought the site was CNN’s sports property.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Originally
from TechCrunch
by
reBlogged
on Apr 21, 2008, 10:50AM
A Better Interface For Image Search?
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
People seem to like Apple’s interface for scrolling through albums visually with a scrollbar. It was copied by SearchMe as a way to browse normal search results.
And now an Austrian developer named Franz Enzenhofer has built his own interface to Google Image Search: CreativeSpace. Users scroll through image search results with the same interface. This is built with Ajax, not Flash, and it’s quite good. You can also set search safe to on/off.
He says he built it over two weekends. It’s not a fundable startup, but this is great for his resume.
Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.
Originally
from TechCrunch
by
reBlogged
on Apr 21, 2008, 11:56AM
Sprout: Now A Viral Distribution Platform for Web Services
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
Sprout - the impressive browser-based tool that debuted at DEMO in January and suddenly made it feasible for non-developers to create rich Flash-based widgets - has got even better with the release of v1.5.
One of the most promising things about Sprout was that it integrated third-party services. At launch, publishers could add to their widgets, among other components, polls from PollDaddy and maps from Yahoo. Since there are countless other web services that could potentially widgetize themselves, Sprout has decided to release an SDK that effectively turns the tool into a platform.
As if to demonstrate the SDK’s possibilities, the company is debuting support for Twitter, Seesmic, and Google forms (which allow you to collect information from users in a Google spreadsheet). Expect others to follow on their own volition.
In addition to the SDK, Sprout is adding some simple animation effects for when users interact with the various parts of a widget. You can now, for example set shapes to bevel or blur when someone clicks or hovers over them. Simple undo functionality has also been added, although I’m still waiting for proper layers.
Sprout is going from strength to strength, and as word about its capabilities spreads further, we can expect it to become quite the acquisition bait. This is a marketer’s dream tool in an era of social media/advertising, and Sprout shouldn’t have any trouble monetizing its service given that widgets are effectively advertisements for many publishers. Now with the SDK, Sprout should also attract the attention of many startups, too.
The company says that 30% of its widgets have been posted to MySpace, 20% to Facebook, 25% to other social media sites, and 25% to general websites. The largest segment creating Sprout widgets are labels and artists, followed by religious and non-profit organizations, venues, and events. See a sample widget from Universal Music (which unfortunately I can’t embed because it auto-plays music).
Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0
Originally
from TechCrunch
by
reBlogged
on Apr 21, 2008, 12:59PM
TeachStreet Turns The Lights On
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
Seattle-based TeachStreet, which we covered yesterday, has now gone live - they “flipped the switch” a couple of hours ago.
For now they are bridging real world classes to their website in Seattle only. If you live up there, you may want to check out your local cooking, dog obedience, or yoga courses.
Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.
Originally
from TechCrunch
by
reBlogged
on Apr 21, 2008, 1:03PM