Comments on: The problem with Web Mission http://www.carsonified.com/web-apps/the-problem-with-web-mission We love the web! Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:36:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.5 by: The Global 5 million at Luckyspin.org http://www.carsonified.com/web-apps/the-problem-with-web-mission#comment-62511 Wed, 07 May 2008 07:44:15 +0000 http://www.carsonified.com/web-apps/the-problem-with-web-mission#comment-62511 [...] A couple of weeks ago I watched DDH’s presentation at Startup School. It was actually a lot better than I was expecting. The guy has charisma, clearly. There was a lot of really good stuff in it, but the thing that really resonated with me was his characterization of what should be the target audience for a web startup: the Global 5 million. Instead of trying to do a youtube, why not build a profitable, successful business and enjoy life? Right on! I think it hit the nail square on the head with the problem I have with a whole host of startups out there, even the ones I have worked for. youtube is a freak occurrence, albeit a great one for the guys who started it. But if you set out with that goal in mind, take a bunch of VC cash and succumb to the pressure to generate 10’s of million in revenue, you’re in for a hiding. It’s something that Ryan has been talking about too. [...] […] A couple of weeks ago I watched DDH’s presentation at Startup School. It was actually a lot better than I was expecting. The guy has charisma, clearly. There was a lot of really good stuff in it, but the thing that really resonated with me was his characterization of what should be the target audience for a web startup: the Global 5 million. Instead of trying to do a youtube, why not build a profitable, successful business and enjoy life? Right on! I think it hit the nail square on the head with the problem I have with a whole host of startups out there, even the ones I have worked for. youtube is a freak occurrence, albeit a great one for the guys who started it. But if you set out with that goal in mind, take a bunch of VC cash and succumb to the pressure to generate 10’s of million in revenue, you’re in for a hiding. It’s something that Ryan has been talking about too. […]

]]> by: blogging… » “Going” to America: Getting visas to do business in Silicon Valley http://www.carsonified.com/web-apps/the-problem-with-web-mission#comment-61861 Mon, 05 May 2008 07:36:08 +0000 http://www.carsonified.com/web-apps/the-problem-with-web-mission#comment-61861 [...] While the Silicon-Valley v. Rest-of-The-World debate rages on and on there are still some companies for whom it’s essential to be in the heart of the industry. Getting a visa to come the valley is not easy though and with more first generation immigrants than almost anywhere else I’ve been, every San Franciscan foreign accent has a war story of how they battled their way into California. [...] […] While the Silicon-Valley v. Rest-of-The-World debate rages on and on there are still some companies for whom it’s essential to be in the heart of the industry. Getting a visa to come the valley is not easy though and with more first generation immigrants than almost anywhere else I’ve been, every San Franciscan foreign accent has a war story of how they battled their way into California. […]

]]> by: TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » アメリカへの道－シリコンバレーでビザを取得してビジネスを始 http://www.carsonified.com/web-apps/the-problem-with-web-mission#comment-61345 Fri, 02 May 2008 20:34:45 +0000 http://www.carsonified.com/web-apps/the-problem-with-web-mission#comment-61345 [...] While the Silicon-Valley v. Rest-of-The-World debate rages on and on there are still some companies for whom it’s essential to be in the heart of the industry. Getting a visa to come the valley is not easy though and with more first generation immigrants than almost anywhere else I’ve been, every San Franciscan foreign accent has a war story of how they battled their way into California. [...] […] While the Silicon-Valley v. Rest-of-The-World debate rages on and on there are still some companies for whom it’s essential to be in the heart of the industry. Getting a visa to come the valley is not easy though and with more first generation immigrants than almost anywhere else I’ve been, every San Franciscan foreign accent has a war story of how they battled their way into California. […]

]]> by: Coming to America: Getting visas to do business in Silicon Valley http://www.carsonified.com/web-apps/the-problem-with-web-mission#comment-61276 Fri, 02 May 2008 09:22:11 +0000 http://www.carsonified.com/web-apps/the-problem-with-web-mission#comment-61276 [...] While the Silicon-Valley v. Rest-of-The-World debate rages on and on there are still some companies for whom it’s essential to be in the heart of the industry. Getting a visa to come the valley is not easy though and with more first generation immigrants than almost anywhere else I’ve been, every San Franciscan foreign accent has a war story of how they battled their way into California. [...] […] While the Silicon-Valley v. Rest-of-The-World debate rages on and on there are still some companies for whom it’s essential to be in the heart of the industry. Getting a visa to come the valley is not easy though and with more first generation immigrants than almost anywhere else I’ve been, every San Franciscan foreign accent has a war story of how they battled their way into California. […]

]]> by: socialprofilr http://www.carsonified.com/web-apps/the-problem-with-web-mission#comment-60646 Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:08:23 +0000 http://www.carsonified.com/web-apps/the-problem-with-web-mission#comment-60646 I do not have the luxuries of a getting hands on funding in the UK for a Social Network I intend to develop, however I believe the niche I intend to target will get the exposure I need from the right people to see this happen. I intend to go the social enterprise route to get some startup assistance and the rest will come from investors intending to support this type of niche social network, you just got to think out of the box. Incidentally the service wowjoomla.com has over 1000 registered users and we intend to offer training and tutorials for the Joomla CMS. It will hit the target of 2100 paying customers at $40 so should see that cool million coming in. This will take about 18 months to achieve realistically but should get there, I do not doubt it. By that time the Social Network will be ready to go live. It will partly replicate features of a *cough* US version that generates $20million revenue per annum, but that is just inspiration to drive the service. Although I do not anticipate that kind of revenue, but certainly it will be a high profile service that will hit mainstream, just the nature of the niche it targets. I work in that field and see the potential that exists, just got to get the mechanics right. Government funding will be accessed for this service and I confident it will be achievable, I understand this market well enough to get there. I do not have the luxuries of a getting hands on funding in the UK for a Social Network I intend to develop, however I believe the niche I intend to target will get the exposure I need from the right people to see this happen. I intend to go the social enterprise route to get some startup assistance and the rest will come from investors intending to support this type of niche social network, you just got to think out of the box.
Incidentally the service wowjoomla.com has over 1000 registered users and we intend to offer training and tutorials for the Joomla CMS. It will hit the target of 2100 paying customers at $40 so should see that cool million coming in. This will take about 18 months to achieve realistically but should get there, I do not doubt it. By that time the Social Network will be ready to go live. It will partly replicate features of a *cough* US version that generates $20million revenue per annum, but that is just inspiration to drive the service.
Although I do not anticipate that kind of revenue, but certainly it will be a high profile service that will hit mainstream, just the nature of the niche it targets. I work in that field and see the potential that exists, just got to get the mechanics right. Government funding will be accessed for this service and I confident it will be achievable, I understand this market well enough to get there.

]]> by: Carsonified » Blog Archive » Our idea of success is all messed up http://www.carsonified.com/web-apps/the-problem-with-web-mission#comment-60544 Mon, 28 Apr 2008 15:48:22 +0000 http://www.carsonified.com/web-apps/the-problem-with-web-mission#comment-60544 [...] My last post on Web Mission stirred up a lot of discussion so I’d like to expand on my original thoughts. [...] […] My last post on Web Mission stirred up a lot of discussion so I’d like to expand on my original thoughts. […]

]]> by: Mike Butcher http://www.carsonified.com/web-apps/the-problem-with-web-mission#comment-60345 Sun, 27 Apr 2008 07:19:24 +0000 http://www.carsonified.com/web-apps/the-problem-with-web-mission#comment-60345 Just to be clear about the tangible outcomes of this exercise: Apart from raising awareness of UK startups generally, and those on the trip specifically, each startup had private meetings about potential investment, partnership, distribution/marketing deals and other meetings. I know for a fact that several real commercial deals will be announced as a result of this trip in the coming weeks and months (Skimbit was the only one to be in a position to confirm three new partnerships during the week). Check TechCrunch UK for the costs involved (see link). Each startup contributed £1200 towards the costs, with UK Trade and Industry paying (I hear, off record) a tiny £125 per startup. No doubt this will now ignite another debate along the lines of "why oh why oh why won't the UK government promote startups more abroad?", leading to all the previous critics of WebMission to disappear in a puff of contradiction... Just to be clear about the tangible outcomes of this exercise: Apart from raising awareness of UK startups generally, and those on the trip specifically, each startup had private meetings about potential investment, partnership, distribution/marketing deals and other meetings. I know for a fact that several real commercial deals will be announced as a result of this trip in the coming weeks and months (Skimbit was the only one to be in a position to confirm three new partnerships during the week). Check TechCrunch UK for the costs involved (see link). Each startup contributed £1200 towards the costs, with UK Trade and Industry paying (I hear, off record) a tiny £125 per startup. No doubt this will now ignite another debate along the lines of “why oh why oh why won’t the UK government promote startups more abroad?”, leading to all the previous critics of WebMission to disappear in a puff of contradiction…

]]> by: Simon Grice http://www.carsonified.com/web-apps/the-problem-with-web-mission#comment-60154 Sat, 26 Apr 2008 08:25:30 +0000 http://www.carsonified.com/web-apps/the-problem-with-web-mission#comment-60154 One of the reasons that the UK doesn't have the same startup culture as in the US is the difficulty in raising early stage (seed) funding. The process is 'still' shrouded in mystery for many entrepreneurs - I know - I've been there. The main challenge is the time & effort involved in connecting with the investors in the first place. We're (http://ideas.org/ are building - SeedFund (http://www.seedfund.co.uk/) as a platform to connect entrepreneurs and investors in the UK (a US version will follow too). We're filming (each company has a 3 min video pitch filmed in HD) on the 15th May - if you're a startup raising an early stage round (£50k - £1m) and you think SeedFund may help feel free to register on the website and we'll be in touch with more details. One of the reasons that the UK doesn’t have the same startup culture as in the US is the difficulty in raising early stage (seed) funding. The process is ’still’ shrouded in mystery for many entrepreneurs - I know - I’ve been there. The main challenge is the time & effort involved in connecting with the investors in the first place.

We’re (http://ideas.org/ are building - SeedFund (http://www.seedfund.co.uk/) as a platform to connect entrepreneurs and investors in the UK (a US version will follow too).

We’re filming (each company has a 3 min video pitch filmed in HD) on the 15th May - if you’re a startup raising an early stage round (£50k - £1m) and you think SeedFund may help feel free to register on the website and we’ll be in touch with more details.

]]> by: The Indian-European Connection… And even the Valley. | Indian Startups In News http://www.carsonified.com/web-apps/the-problem-with-web-mission#comment-60097 Fri, 25 Apr 2008 23:06:51 +0000 http://www.carsonified.com/web-apps/the-problem-with-web-mission#comment-60097 [...] The Indian-European Connection… And even the Valley. (Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008) Published by Startups News in India, Vijay at 5:43 pm. Skip down to comments or read the others. Seems like we are not the only set of folks who are wanting to fix the problems we see around us and build a “sustainable” atmosphere around us. There is a post by Ryan who runs FOWA taking a stance against the Web Mission effort that is getting organized by the UK Government and quite a fair list of heavy weights, including Techcrunch. I think this post is important to observe for a couple of reasons. The striking similarities that we hear from folks around us in: 1. Thinking that the Silicon valley for some reason offers more opportunities. 2. Europe just like India, in most cases, seems to think that you only get funded if you hit the valley. Atleast we aren’t that bad. We have much more easier access to capital. 3. There are folks like FOWA (Future of Web Apps) who are trying to build a vibrant community of users, developers and startups in Europe, very much like how we are working on the same - with arguments that they have “everything that they require right there” 4. There are also people, most of them, who seem to think that the UK companies should be looking into the valley for users and potential exit strategies. I’ve been working on a post that shows a snapshot of interaction between startups, venture capitals and the markets from across the globe - the valley, Canada, Australia, Europe and India. You’d be surprised how similar most conversations are. Trust me, things are not so hard because we are in India, neither too easy because we are here. We are just facing the same harsh realities as anywhere else. Perhaps the world is flatterning. Huh! who thought I’d agree to that, so easily! I’ll leave you with this comment by Phil Bradley in that post, which just gets the message home without any explanations: “The equity gap between seed and series A that plagues the UK will not be resolved if we can’t demonstrate maturity and ability to build profitable businesses.” Paul Graham has written a recent article where he is wailing and moaning on the same topic. And I think he lives in the heart of where the action lies. To Quote Paul from his Article, “I used to think of VCs as piratical: bold but unscrupulous. On closer acquaintance they turn out to be more like bureaucrats. They’re more upstanding than I used to think (the good ones, at least), but less bold. Maybe the VC industry has changed. Maybe they used to be bolder. But I suspect it’s the startup world that has changed, not them. The low cost of starting a startup means the average good bet is a riskier one, but most existing VC firms still operate as if they were investing in hardware startups in 1985.” That just eerily sounds like the issue we face here. PS: I haven’t thought through this yet, but I believe this only applies to Internet/Media related startups. [...] […] The Indian-European Connection… And even the Valley. (Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008) Published by Startups News in India, Vijay at 5:43 pm. Skip down to comments or read the others. Seems like we are not the only set of folks who are wanting to fix the problems we see around us and build a “sustainable” atmosphere around us. There is a post by Ryan who runs FOWA taking a stance against the Web Mission effort that is getting organized by the UK Government and quite a fair list of heavy weights, including Techcrunch. I think this post is important to observe for a couple of reasons. The striking similarities that we hear from folks around us in: 1. Thinking that the Silicon valley for some reason offers more opportunities. 2. Europe just like India, in most cases, seems to think that you only get funded if you hit the valley. Atleast we aren’t that bad. We have much more easier access to capital. 3. There are folks like FOWA (Future of Web Apps) who are trying to build a vibrant community of users, developers and startups in Europe, very much like how we are working on the same - with arguments that they have “everything that they require right there” 4. There are also people, most of them, who seem to think that the UK companies should be looking into the valley for users and potential exit strategies. I’ve been working on a post that shows a snapshot of interaction between startups, venture capitals and the markets from across the globe - the valley, Canada, Australia, Europe and India. You’d be surprised how similar most conversations are. Trust me, things are not so hard because we are in India, neither too easy because we are here. We are just facing the same harsh realities as anywhere else. Perhaps the world is flatterning. Huh! who thought I’d agree to that, so easily! I’ll leave you with this comment by Phil Bradley in that post, which just gets the message home without any explanations: “The equity gap between seed and series A that plagues the UK will not be resolved if we can’t demonstrate maturity and ability to build profitable businesses.” Paul Graham has written a recent article where he is wailing and moaning on the same topic. And I think he lives in the heart of where the action lies. To Quote Paul from his Article, “I used to think of VCs as piratical: bold but unscrupulous. On closer acquaintance they turn out to be more like bureaucrats. They’re more upstanding than I used to think (the good ones, at least), but less bold. Maybe the VC industry has changed. Maybe they used to be bolder. But I suspect it’s the startup world that has changed, not them. The low cost of starting a startup means the average good bet is a riskier one, but most existing VC firms still operate as if they were investing in hardware startups in 1985.” That just eerily sounds like the issue we face here. PS: I haven’t thought through this yet, but I believe this only applies to Internet/Media related startups. […]

]]> by: One thing is definitely still missing | Crossbone Systems http://www.carsonified.com/web-apps/the-problem-with-web-mission#comment-60087 Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:13:18 +0000 http://www.carsonified.com/web-apps/the-problem-with-web-mission#comment-60087 [...] When I read Ryan Carson’s post about the UK having everything it needs to foster new businesses, especially those that are web or technology-based, I was in full agreement. However, having made the trek from Cambridge to the docklands area of London today, I can state that there is one thing that is sorely missing (and has been for several years): easily accessible wi-fi that doesn’t cost the earth. A quick overview of my day: [...] […] When I read Ryan Carson’s post about the UK having everything it needs to foster new businesses, especially those that are web or technology-based, I was in full agreement. However, having made the trek from Cambridge to the docklands area of London today, I can state that there is one thing that is sorely missing (and has been for several years): easily accessible wi-fi that doesn’t cost the earth. A quick overview of my day: […]

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