DIGITAL SOUP

A blog by Barry Flanigan

Start-Up 100: Could Europe build a Y Combinator? - Telegraph

And then there's the question of how much the success of Y Combinator is tied to its founder. It’s impossible to imagine Y Combinator being as successful as it is without Paul Graham behind it. Still, replicating the model should not be synonymous with cloning him. While Graham is able to recognize the indispensable role that he plays, he feels that given the right mentors (and additional factors, including in particular a strong angel investor community) the model should be replicable.

Graham’s belief seems in-line with the experience of Startup Bootcamp founder, Alex Farcet. Startup Bootcamp, which is based in Copenhagen, is the first international branch of Boulder, Colorado-based TechStars, which is behind startups like BrightKite, Graphicly and Foodzie. Mr. Farcet puts a lot of emphasis on the importance of the selected mentors, especially their extended networks and the fact that they “always know the right guy in the right place.” Choosing mentors for the program is a subjective process: Startup Bootcamp dedicated 5 months to their recruitment, making sure that everyone had the right motivation and wasn’t simply interested in pay or obtaining equity in the participating startups.

Startup Bootcamp is just one example of how Y Combinator could be implemented in Europe. Launched in January 2010, the team just completed its first run, from August through November, with 32 entrepreneurs from 12 different countries participating. In order to replicate the TechStars model in Copenhagen, Farcet spent a week observing one of the TechStars programs in Colorado. While he and TechStars founder David Cohen had exchanged a lot of information via email prior to his visit, he felt that actually observing the program in action was what really allowed him to understand the model.

Since the launch of Startup Bootcamp in Denmark, Farcet says he has been contacted by numerous people from across Europe wanting to duplicate the model for their country – from Poland to Switzerland.

France is one country that has seemed eager to develop its own Y Combinator. Entrepreneurs and investors have been very vocal on Twitter about their desire to develop a similar program locally. For example, Paris-based non-profit Silicon Sentier will officially inaugurate Le Camping this week. Over 100 applications from across Europe were received for the first program, with mentors from various European startups and investment firms. All that’s missing is a few Americans. Unlike programs like Startup Bootcamp, TechStars or YCombintaor, Silicon Sentier doesn’t take equity in any of the companies nor does it offer participating entrepreneurs a stipend to cover living costs during the duration of the program. In addition, we’ll have to wait and see if the infamous investor day actually manages to pan out to concrete investments.

The program that probably most closely mirrors Y Combinator on this side of the Atlantic is Seedcamp. Financially backed by some of Europe’s top funds and investors - like Index Ventures, Atomico, Atlas, DN Capital and Balderton – Seedcamp’s team hosts a number of “mini Seedcamps” throughout the first half of the year in order to scout out the best potential participants from across the globe. The best companies receive up to €50,000 – usually for about 8 to 10 per cent of the company – and participate in a 3-month program in London with over 400 mentors. But even if Seedcamp covers a potentially larger territory than its American rivals and boasts hundreds of top-tier mentors, it funds far fewer companies per year than Y Combinator or TechStars, perhaps because angel investment doesn’t flow like rainwater on this side of the Atlantic.

In the end, developing a Y Combinator-like model for Europe may not be as complicated as it seems and it definitely doesn’t require cloning Paul Graham with all the local talent we have here. Sure, companies will have to think beyond their national boundaries from the get-go and deal with a potentially less-developed angel investor community. But from my experience, good ideas always get funded one way or another. And for people like Farcet, the problem isn’t so much the lack of initial funding but rather the inactive exit market. Even if the European imitations aren’t carbon copies of the real thing, their existence will definitely be beneficial for European entrepreneurs and facilitate sharing their savoir faire across borders.

Roxanne Varza is the editor of TechCrunch France.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/technology-startup100/8250380/Start-Up-...

Twitter endorsements face OFT clampdown | Technology | The Guardian

Snoop Dogg US artists such as Snoop Dogg can earn a reported $3,000 (£1,900) for sending a tweet endorsing a product. Photograph: David Livingston/Getty Images North America

How does a celebrity declare their affiliations to certain brands in fewer than 140 characters? Many may have to learn, after a clampdown by the government's consumer watchdog on non-declared endorsements in blogs and on social networking sites such as Twitter.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has begun a crackdown on Twitter users and bloggers using their online presence to endorse products and companies without clearly stating their relationship with the brand.

In the first of its kind, the OFT has brought a case against a PR firm that was discovered to be paying bloggers to write effusively about its clients. The watchdog has launched an investigation into Handpicked Media, which operates a commercial blogging network – insisting that it must clearly state when promotional comments have been paid for.

In a statement, the OFT said online advertising and marketing that did not disclose paid-for promotions were "deceptive" under fair trading rules. "This includes comments about services and products on blogs and microblogs such as Twitter," it said.

Celebrity twitter endorsements are already big business in the US, where artists such as Snoop Dogg can earn a reported $3,000 (£1,900) for sending a tweet endorsing a product. But the US Federal Trade Commission insists that such endorsements must contain the words "ad" or "spon" to show the reference has been paid for. Such a requirement does not currently exist in the UK.

"Celebrities can be great influencers, whether they're on TV or tweeting," Arnie Gullov-Singh, chief executive officer of Ad.ly, which pairs celebrities and companies, told Business Week in a recent interview.

Reality TV star Kim Kardashian, who has more than 5.6 million followers, can collect up to $10,000 for tweeting, Gullov-Singh added. "Her price keeps going up. The most effective ones can get six figures a year, and in some cases six figures a quarter."

Launched in 2009, Ad.ly uses more than 5,000 celebrities and experts to promote products such as Coke, Toyota and Microsoft in the US. It now plans to launch the service in Britain.

"A year ago, celebrities were wary about their reputation, about selling out, but when they saw how easy it was to earn up to $5,000 a tweet, they flocked on board," said Gullov-Singh.

It is a business that could boom in the UK, after Range Rover became one of the first companies to dip its toe in the water. It recently signed up 40 stars – including ex-GMTV host Ben Shephard and model Daisy Lowe – to drive its new Evoque 4x4 and tell their followers about the experience, according to Marketing Week.

Complimentary tweets about the cars have appeared on Twitter. In November, fashion designer Henry Holland, who has more than 133,000 followers, tweeted: "CAN'T WAIT FOR MY NEW RANGE ROVER..!!!"

A Range Rover spokesman appeared to confirm to the Mail on Sunday today that the company had an arrangement with certain celebrities. He said: "We enlisted the help of a number of people with high profiles on Twitter. They get the loan of a vehicle which they can use, drive around and take pictures of.

"Under the terms of the deal they tweet. That's the idea. They tweet about the car."

A different Range Rover spokesman later denied that the company gave incentives to celebrities to tweet about its cars.

Actor Liz Hurley has also written in glowing terms about certain products, with her Twitter page including more than 10 references to cosmetic company Estée Lauder's product range. She. The self-described "mum, model, actress, bikini designer and organic Farmer" has been the face of the company for 17 years, but her Twitter page has no mention of her affiliation.

Media commentator Mark Borkowski said there was little doubt that celebrity endorsements would become increasingly common in the UK. He believes the industry could follow the example of the US where the number of followers a celebrity has determines how much their "advertising space" is worth.

"Celebrity endorsements go back to cigarette advertising in the 1900s. All we are seeing here is a change in the medium. "Twitter is a very powerful medium," he said.

But celebrities endorsing products had to be honest and open, he added. "If people are open and there is a conversation about it, then fine. The problems come when people endorse covertly, that puts the whole thing into jeopardy."

In that case the OFT would have to intervene, although twitter users themselves might be better arbiters. "People can see through these things, and having the twitter cloud against you is a powerful thing."

The comments discussion is particularly interesting

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jan/09/oft-clampdown-covert-twitter...

Successful community websites that charge for premium membership (quora)

Quora Questions (@QuoraQuestions4)
08/01/2011 19:44
What are some examples of a successful community website that charges a subscription for basic or premium membe... Answer: http://qr.ae/r0S8

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Gaming Brands - IPA dissertation paper from BBH (Tim Jones)

http://gamemybrand.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/gaming-brands-tim-jones-bbh.pdf

Very interesting IPA paper from Tim Jones, a planner at BBH, on a new approach to brand planning through applying gaming theory to brand building

All you need to know about ISRC UPC and EAN Numbers

Media_httpwwwarkadeco_itmqj

One for the music techies...all you need to know about ISRC, UPC and EAN numbers for song tracks:

http://www.arkade.com/content/ISRC+EAN+UPC+Numbers/ISRC+UPC+and+EAN+Numbers

Filed under  //   Music  

What Does a Community Manager Do? Take a Glimpse. - Online Marketing Blog

Lee Odden

What Does a Community Manager Do? Take a Glimpse.

Lee Odden on Jan 6th, 2011    Online Marketing, Social Media

Social Media Community ManagerOne of the essential hires for companies that want to affect real change as a social media savvy organization connecting with people and communities is a Community Manager.  During the social media discovery and initial learning phase the addition of a dedicated person is often unlikely, so the tasks a Community Manager would handle can be performed by a combination of a truly competent outside agency and moreso by multiple people within the company.

I know the right thing to do is talk about social strategy and broader level considerations before getting into the tactical details and specific tasks. Sometimes showing minute by minute examples of what a Community Manager does is jumping the gun for a new discussion on social media but it might be the only way to reach those that will perform the new role. Think of it as bottom up social media strategy if you have to. The more front line and middle managers that “get it”, the more powerful winning executive support will be.

There is no universal job description for a Community Manager. Actual role and responsibility will vary. It might be Customer Service focused, or Marketing/Sales, Legal, HR, Product Development or a mix of all of these. Here’s a one hour snapshot of a Marketing focused Social Media Community Manager:

6:45 am Check and reply to company blog(s) comments.

6:55 am Scan news feeds for interesting articles, blog posts, media to share. Write tweets, updates etc with short URLs. Schedule messages for sharing throughout the day.

7:10 am Check Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn comments, Retweets, messages and reply as necessary.

7:20 am Scan persistent search for topics, keywords and brand terms to reveal commenting opportunities on industry news websites and blogs. Make comments, take notes for future blog posts.

7:30 am Revisit company blog comment management tool for new replies.

7:35 am Revisit Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for specific follow ups.

7:40 Scan social media monitoring tool for mentions, links (alternatively alerts can be used to surface events as they happen)

7:45 am  Review Social Dashboard and web analytics for the company blog for notable links, trending traffic sources and relevant conversion metrics (RSS subscribers, email subscribers, downloads, webinar signups, sales inquires)

This is probably going to seem like a lot in an hour. It is.  However, software, training and experience make such social media community management efficiency possible. “Fires” certainly do happen and there’s a multitude of situations that can throw this out of whack. But hopefully those looking for a glimpse at what s marketing-focused community manager does, will get an idea of what might be involved.

I know there are quite a few people that read this blog working part or full time in a community manager role. It would be great to get your perspective on the responsibilities of working with social communities (or online communities at large).

How have you become more efficient?  How does your early morning routine differ than the one above?  What more would you like to see in a “glimpse” post like this?


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The Private IPO

Yes, I realize that’s a contradiction, but it seems to capture the essence of deals such as Goldman’s investment in Facebook at a $50B valuation and Groupon’s half-complete $950 million fundraising effort.  These deals are designed to provide significant liquidity for insiders (especially early investors and employees), provide a piggy bank for continued aggressive growth and establish a share price for use in acquisitions.  Those are all the things that companies traditionally got from an IPO.  Much has already been written about these types of deals, but with two huge ones happening it seems timely to think a bit more about them.

These deals should really be a wake-up call to politicians and regulators.  They are a great example of how well-intentioned regulations can backfire.  The net result of the Wall Street research settlement, SARBOX and other protections for small investors has been: small investors now have no access to the most interesting investment opportunities.  Instead, these companies are going to be more or less fully developed by the time they eventually come to the public markets, with most of the upside having been captured by private investors.  That’s especially annoying when it seems that with the Internet we should be seeing IPO 2.0 — direct to small investors without the historic flip opportunity for well connected investors.

These deals also serve as a powerful reminder of macroeconomic conditions and the microeconomics of Internet businesses.  Despite some overall progress, the Internet is really the only sector, at least in the US, with a huge growth story.  Fixed income certainly doesn’t provide an attractive investment opportunity with US Government yields of less than 3% for anything under 10 years.  So it’s not surprising that there is a huge amount of money sloshing around and chasing the Internet opportunity.  Within that opportunity it is now clear that — at least for consumer facing businesses — there are “winner-take-all” or “power law” type economics at work, with the #1 company often being 10x more valuable than the #2, which in turn is often 10x more valuable than anybody else.

Finally, any private company that is in a leadership position in its space would do well to make use of this fundraising environment while it lasts.  These deals are beginning to look like the Internet IPOs of the bubble for another reason:  At valuations in the many billions, there is little room for error. If a couple of these wind up imploding it will take much of late stage financing out for some time.

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-private-ipo-2011-1

Filed under  //   social media   start-ups  

17 digital marketing trends for 2011, by Econsultancy CEO Ashley Friedlein

17 digital marketing trends for 2011, by Econsultancy CEO Ashley Friedlein: Following are my personal views on...

RootMusic Raises $2.3 Million To Help Bands Build Spectacular Facebook Pages

RootMusic, a San Francisco-based startup that essentially makes it easier for bands and musicians to set up phenomenal-looking pages on Facebook, has raised $2.3 million in financing according to an SEC filing.

If you’d like to learn more about RootMusic, check out Orli’s post, but basically, RootMusic lets musicians and bands establish fancy Facebook pages, featuring artwork, music, photos, videos, a concert calendar and whatnot.

There’s a free option and a paid option for bands who want to dive deeper into the customization of their so-called ‘BandPage’.

This is the BandPage for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers if you’re interested in an example, or check out RootMusic’s tour.

We reached out to RootMusic about the financing round, but they declined to provide more details at this point. We’ll update their CrunchBase profile when they get around to do so.

RootMusic image

Website: rootmusic.com
Location:San Francisco, California, United States
Founded: October 1, 2009
Funding: $2.3M

We founded RootMusic to level the playing field; we turn two days of hard work into two clicks online. Whether it’s your band’s first gig or scheduling your second arena tour, RootMusic gives you the power to get it done. BandPage by RootMusic is the… Learn More

Information provided by CrunchBase

http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/05/rootmusic-funding/?utm_source=feedburner&utm...:+Techcrunch+(TechCrunch)&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

Filed under  //   Music   start-ups