Web marketing in Europe and Russia

Ban Parr, ex-editor of Mashable.com: How to approach a journalist with your topic?

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 20:25:00 +0000

How much cost the acquiring fan in Facebook?

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 20:23:00 +0000

Interesting facts for those, who are looking for ROI implementation in Facebook Ads based on the catigories.

The growth of social media globally (infographics)

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 12:23:00 +0000

Simple infographic about social media growth globally. Fro the first point of view there is nothing new and amazing. But there are some significant trends:

75% of Likes are belong to advertising
The fastest growing group of audience is students
53% of employees research for potential job candidates on social networks

And more more note, there is no statistic regarding world professional network XING, which is covering right now German speaking world and Asian regions. It's quite ridicules, don't you think so?

Sean Marshall, Director of SEM at PPC Associates: If Quality Score decreases, so be it.

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 10:56:00 +0000

SEM industry moves too quickly and frames not only with Google AdWords UI. So I decided to talk about last trends and news, SEM myths and customer’s profitability and sustainable growth with a well-know specialist Sean Marshall, who is coming on 15th September to Kiev for special presentation.

BIO

Sean Marshall, Director of SEM at PPC Associates. Based on his words, he is managing a team of 13 SEM and Facebook account managers - crafting processes to facilitate the growth of our team and client base. He likes to roll his sleeves up and help account managers create the right strategies for PPC Associates clients. Before that Sean had a great experience in Webtrends with end to end paid search (SEM) campaign management and optimization on all major networks (Google/Yahoo/MSN/Ask) for B2C and B2B clients across a broad spectrum of verticals.

- How do you see main trends in future SEO? Mostly regarding the issue that the SEO industry already suffers from a negative reputation caused by poor service being dished out by too many inexperienced and under qualified SEM providers...

- In my opinion, the biggest trend in search engine marketing is attribution. Understanding how customers interact with your ads, and how SEM fits into all marketing, is very important.

The reputation of the SEM industry is strong but many agencies provide poor service. There are many inexperienced people with great potential but, you should work with experts. SEM is complex and requires deep knowledge.

- Google is calling for help in identifying a long-running problem: scraper sites in its search results — and particularly scraper sites that are ranking higher than the original page. Here is Matt Cutts tweet about it. What is your point of view on this news? Is it a signal that Google is testing algorithmic changes for scraper sites (especially blog scrapers)?

- Luckily, we do not have to worry about scrapper sites in SEM. Some people double-serve ads but Google has gotten better at policing this (like they are with scrapper sites).

- Not so far Marcus Taylor made s simple test about how Google+ Like button influence on web site ranking. Did you mention any interesting facts during that time regarding new social network and SEM?

- Since my focus is PPC, I am interested in Google+ as it relates to Facebook. Google has struggled in the social space and I doubt they will succeed here. As an SEM, I would mostly like Google+ to grow because it would be easier to advertise via AdWords than Facebook’s UI.

- What is the most boring task you had as SEM specialist?

- I think most SEM’s will agree that the most boring task is looking for negative keywords. While this is very important work, studying thousands of queries for negatives is time consuming.

- What are main common myths regarding SEM, which you heard from your top clients such as Microsoft Store, ExactTarget, Dickies, Mass Mutual, SunTrust, LightInTheBox.com and etc.?

- Most SEM myths are about Quality Score. You hear many opinions on what Google looks at to calculate Quality Score. In the end, only one thing matters: click through rate. SEM’s need to be careful when trying to improve CTR. There are many cheap tricks to increase CTR that might help Quality Score but attract the wrong customer. Focus on conversions and finding the right customer. If Quality Score decreases, so be it.

Digital marketing in Asia-Pacific Region

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:27:00 +0000

Like Putin - a new Russian web game. Don't pass it!

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 22:25:00 +0000

Today I would like to shere with you some fun. A new promo game “Like Putin. Прокачай свой ВВП” – new Russian web-hit. In this game you can lead Mr.Putin (x-president of Russia) through web sites while completing different tasks. It’s ridiculous because web sites content is also connected with those tasks. I would rather say that it looks like a Magnum Pleasure Hunt. With Mr. Putin (similar as a with a girl from Magnum Pleasure Hunt project) you need to run through web sites and gather some bonuses (gold coins) to increase your score in game. You can manage the hero while clicking on keyboard keys (left, right, space).
The main idea is that web sites conent is based on last popular news regarding Mr.Putin in Russia. For example, on the web site about auto Mr.Putin is getting into the car Kalina and driving directly to YouTube. Then he is singing well-known “Blueberry Hill” :) and finally fighting with some ninjas… That is not all! Just try it by yourself to see the end of game.

The project if not a part electioneering. It just… self PR for Agency One. From my point of view it is creatively different. The game was created during 3 months. And in first 4 hours of its launching it was played by over 50 000 users. And now try it and share your opinion regarding the Russian gumption!

Reshma Sohoni, CEO of Seedcamp: European start-ups should prove how commercial they are!

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 10:51:00 +0000

We continue to publish interviews with StartUp Week Festival speakers. Today I'm talking with Reshma Sohoni, CEO of Seedcamp - one of the biggest incubators in Europe. Our discussion is about European startup ecosystem, its perspective, global tech incubator bubble and why European investors are not so aggressive.

- Do you think that the Seedsummit termsheet template favors one side too much?
- Yes, I think so. And I think the important thing I to understand sort of what is it. What the term sheet does is that it not meant to be a kind of a standardized. What it is doing is bringing transparency. So this term sheet, the versions of it, has been used by the VCs and business angels for the past several years but they have been quite private. What we wanted to do is to bring it to public. And this is a very big deal because they have never been put to a pubic like this.

- What could be next steps after it? I mean what do you see, how do you see them?
- It’s a great step for standardization in Europe. For investors, this is the way to be more active. And for the entrepreneurs this is a possibility to have a generally accepted type of terms that they should expect in term sheet. And honestly, this is a really good step in education for EU startup ecosystem. This document should be something that entrepreneurs get to understand and figure out what parts they want to negotiate, what parts to accept, they can have more educated conversation with their own lawyers and investors.

- Why a lot less European VC’s than in the US for tens of thousands of startups funded each year in Europe? How to change the situation that European VC’s prefer to invest is less risky project and help in early stage European technology companies?
- I think the investors are part of the story but entrepreneurs are equally part of that story. I think entrepreneurs should continue to build differentiated businesses and really commercially exciting businesses. I guess I have 2 answers to that. One is it will take time. The European VC has been sort of burned in the past and also sort of it is more based in its own development. I think time alone will help us as European venture capital matures. Then secondly, actually what we see is IT companies they are able to attract both US funding and EU funding. I think the more US VCs invest in Europe, it will send even a clear signal to EU VCs that they need to step up the game and invest the European startups. So it’s probably both of those answers. And the third one is that the EU startups need to continue to prove how commercial they are, how aggressively they grow their businesses.

- From your point of view, is there a European tech incubator bubble right now? If yes, what kind of problems it could instigate?
- There is also tech incubator bubble in the US: large number of accelerators and incubators are appearing monthly. Maybe proportioned to the number of startups that we have, that sort of bubble seems even more obvious. I do think that in EU mentors do get stretched with different programs where they can be part of and the accelerator and incubators that are no different from each other, that are doing the exact same thing. So I would say that if you would want to start something up as an accelerator/incubator you should focus on something that should be really different, what’s you advantage as such. And I would look on such areas that aren’t addressed by accelerators to-date.

- So do you think that Europe really needs that everyone with actual entrepreneurial background would create an incubator now?
- I just say it’s a really hard work. It’s easy to set an incubator up. Being as it is a small capital to rise in order to create a company. But to actually out-value it and to actually help those businesses to succeed is a very difficult job.

- Seedcamps don’t have the infrastructure to do what a VC would do with ongoing help for start-ups. So what is the main adventure of Seedcamps? What you really can do better?
- We’ve been doing it for four years now, long before anybody else in Europe at least got into doing such. I think there are few things: approach is really something different; it’s extremely scalable compared to anybody else. We are able to mentor more than 200 companies a year. That’s a huge difference when compared to anybody else. Secondly it goes to the quality of mentor network, quality of the companies that have been funded by us for the past four years, where they’ve ended up, the level of cap that they’ve been able to attract. Those continue to be two big differentiators.

- It is clear that the US market is overheated. Another important point to make here is that the world’s top ten tech companies, based in U.S., more and more often invest or buy start-ups in Europe (remember Skype). What can European funds do to take advantage of this opportunity?
- I think its visibility. Both entrepreneurs and ecosystem that work with entrepreneurs need to bring European startups visibility in front of the US investors and the US corporate as well. So EU entrepreneurs really need to show that they have commercial ethic and commercial drive for doing their businesses. That is not just to get European startup for cheap. It’s potentially a better value investment. And actually you might have a huge business success in this.

- It’s very well known that the main risk for startups is to prove that they are really reliable and can reach result is to prove that they have a good team. The main risk is usually human resources because it’s quite difficult to find really good team, which will work together and stay together. What is your way to find such kind of leaders and young entrepreneurs? How do you see it?
- When companies apply to SeedCamp we take a close look at formation of the team: who is working on the development, tech development, what kind experience do they have, whether there are superstars or whether it’s a competition and so on. Also we evaluate project in three aspects: design, development, distribution. And when we meet them in person at the SeedCamp it looks a lot like it. But in Europe we continue to see two skill sets that we need to improve on. As I said, the commercial which goes into distribution I guess, roughly.

- What was the most creative “take break” that you have heard the startup has gotten? What kind of thing they did?
- That is cool, that is quite an interesting question. One of our companies, what they do is they spend one weekend a month and they work on something totally different from the business at hand. It’s taking Google’s 20% and making it actionable inside of small startup of four or five people. They work on a project that is completely not part of their business. That really helps them get refreshed. The other thing I always say is even for startup companies you just have to kind of go exercise, go do something fun, not just work 24h a day every day of the week. You do need to step out of it and get refreshment. So that is sort of exercise or being around family and friends or as there guys do work on a completely different project, using their skill set, do something different.

- The last question is what do you actually expect from Startup Week Europe Festival in Vienna? What results would you like to achieve there, what is your vision?
- I think it’s incredible to have a week and to there are these people coming from different parts of Europe. So hopefully, I will just meet a lot of really interesting startups and people from ecosystem. For us is we just see a lot of good startups coming from the NL and coming from Eastern and Central Europe, continue making SeedCamp relevance to them.

The mobile user generation gap: How adults use mobile phones?

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 13:49:00 +0000

Esther Dyson: The worse mistake for business is to invest in bad team with good idea!

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 08:04:00 +0000

3 -7 October in Vienna will take place a significant event StartUp Week Festival Europe, which will gather more than 70 international speakers: investors and business men, top managers and startuppers, journalists and bloggers. It will last 5 days and consist of 30 sessions and workshops from experts.

Why it’s important for start-ups to be there?
If you are startup with international ambitions and looking for fundraising or networking – you should be part of this event!

Welcome words from Esther Dyson
Before StartUp Week Festival Europe we proposed you to ask some questions from our great speaker – Esther Dyson, investor (Evernote, Flickr, del.icio.us, 23andMe, Meetup, WPP Group, Eventful.com, Boxbe, Yandex, XCOR Aerospace, Space Adventures/Zero G, Constellation Services, Icon Aircraft, Coastal Aviation Software and Airship Ventures). Thank you very much for your interest!

- How young start-ups can convince the market, while presenting a new business model, especially if it has potential to change the industry in general? What are main steps you would recommend in this case?
- It really depends. If it was easy or there were a single answer, it wouldn’t be really new. But you do need to think about how it’s useful for the customer, not about why it’s new or different.

- What is a driving force of a start- up: idea, management or a founder’s creativity?
- The combination, but without leadership and execution, an idea is worth nothing.

- Do you have own secret in leadership for the start-up team?
- Remember to listen more than you talk! Admit your mistakes early and then fix them.

- Do you think that innovations and technology open new horizons for women in business?
- Not really. It’s more an issue of culture – both among men and among women.

- Looking back, what was your biggest mistake in the business?
- A few cases where I fell in love with an idea and invested in a person who was not as good as the idea. If the idea isn’t good enough, the management can improve it (this process is called a “pivot”), but if the people aren’t good enough you have a big problem!

- Cloning of US projects seems to be the latest hot trend in the global startup community (i.e. Darberry.ru and CityDeal clones of Groupon). From your point of view is it: 1) legal/moral, 2) needed/unavoidable?
- It’s legal and moral to reuse an idea and do it better, and ideally, to do so creatively with an understanding of the local market. It’s not moral to copy an interface and in extreme cases it’s illegal. In the end, as I said above, innovation is not interesting without implementation. Personally, I like to invest in new ideas.
FWIW, I don’t think Groupon itself is a very good idea. It’s basically e-mail marketing, and the current margins are not sustainable.

- Do you think, American investors have prepossession against European and Russian market?
- Generally, investors prefer to invest in markets they know – which makes a lot of sense. However, yes, outside investors generally have a pretty negative opinion of Russia. In fact, it’s justified in many parts of the Russian economy. But in the Russian consumer Internet, there’s a culture of honesty and transparency just as in the rest of the world. In short, you can bribe one person for a small amount to win a big contract with a big business, but you cannot cost-effectively bribe consumers to use your products and services…

- From your point of view, is necessary for the Russian/EU start-up to move in USA (Silicon Valley) in case of success on global market?
- That really depends on what kind of company it is. But no, it is not always necessary.

- What kind of risk assessment usually investors are using for evaluating start-ups?
- Personally, I believe almost nothing they tell me… but then I invest anyway. One or two real wins make up for a lot of mistakes.

- In what stage of project development is better to look for investor?
- That depends. Usually you should go as far as you can before raising money so that you get a better valuation, but you should make sure to raise the money before you get desperate for cash, because that will *lower* the valuation (if it doesn’t put you out of business).

- When was the last time you have faced a real challenge full of passion that made you not to sleep at nights? Would you like to have one?
- I’m going through a couple of these right now. They have to do with management issues… CEOs who aren’t managing effectively, conflict between managers and the like.

- Do you think with the hyper inflated IPOs that we are headed for another crash?
- I do think there’s a bubble in some parts of the market, but I hope that it’s not broad enough to cause a crash when it pops.

- Do you have to be in Silicon Valley to have a chance to succeed with your startup? Would Europe work? How about Vienna?
- Perhaps the best answer to that question is Yandex, based in Moscow, which just went public at a valuation around $8 billion. I am on its board.

To meet Esther Dyson personally come to StartUp Week Festival. You can buy tickets here. Till 10th of August price for “early birds” is only 149 euro.
And we will continue to publish actual interviews and posts with speakers for you. Keep in touch and don’t miss a chance to be part of historical European startup event!

Market insights in real time: new facts, which you didn't know about Qriously

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 19:07:00 +0000

Here is a nice story, which my friend told me. It’s about right argumentation for reaching investments. Founder of one start-up came to VC and ask for presentation of service for measuring real-time, location-based public sentiment just in 5 minutes. He asked investor to put some question into service web interface, for example “What kind of drink prefer EU citizen? Pepsi or Coca-cola” In few minutes app provided around 100 replies.

- Ok. And why should I care? - summarized investor, - you have nice idea, but how long it will take for you to create a prototype?

- It’s already working and providing you results from all over the world in real time.

- Amazing! How you would like me to invest in your project?

That was the short story. And name of hero is Qriously. This Software Development Kit was already installed about 15 million times in less than one year. TechCrunch and other media already wrote some posts about this start-up. But I would like to present you some insights, which you don’t know.

Note:

Qriously is a service for measuring real-time, location-based public sentiment. It works by replacing ads with questions in smartphone apps, tablet apps and the mobile web. This makes the opinions of millions of people available to everyone in real-time.

New facts

Fact 1
Everything started one year ago, when Qriously won competition at StartUp Europe.
It’s founders is originally from the US and just moved to Austria. But right now team is based in UK and consist 6 people:

Christopher Kahler (CEO & Co-Founder),
Abraham Müller (CTO & Co-Founder),
Gerald Müller (Head of Web & Co-Founder),
Adam Paulisick (Chief Commercial Officer),
Christoph Peter (Interface Architect),
And George Wigley (Account Manager)

Number 2
Qriously is the evolution of first start-up, which guys ran in China. They were so poor at one point that the co-founders survived on €100 a month and slept in the same bed, unable to pay for rent.

Number 3
It’s well-know also that Qriously was funded by Accel Partners, who funded before Facebook, Groupon and other web giants. The total amount raised was 1.6m USD. But you might not know that they closed financing with Accel on Christmas Eve 2010. Couldn't have been any closer to the line! I heard quite a lot from start-uppers about dead season for investment during Christmas days.

Number 4
In the office guys have a 'Canning Bell' at the office. Every time team 'can' (get rid of) a feature, a page, a substantial amount of code or a slide in a deck they ring the bell.

Number 5
Team has mascot. It’s a meerkat, because they needed something that connoted curiosity, and is thin enough to place in the left side bar of Qriously question unit.

Use of service
Qriously goal is twofold: To make consumer insight universally available and to give 'free' mobile content an alternative means of monetization.

As I see main target audience of the project are market researchers, brand agencies, publishers. Those people always need insights in real time. In service you can ask 3 types of questions

Here are examples of web interface, I found it very user-friendly and easy and of course used my chance to try it!

Also participants answers are presented in clear form, that you can easy define main insights form your target audience. For those, who would like to have more locally results can purchase addition feature - geotargeting.

And the last point is - Reporting system. It's efficient and all data could be transfered into graphical document with all details included.

From my point of view, what makes Qriously model special is the distribution and the fact it’s on mobile. So while other common services exist, Qriously is improving location (providing statistic globally and locally) and arranging other pieces of information to make the data more colorful. It’s not just a toy to find out which brand is more popular, but a serious tool for marketing and PR specialist, which can find out here actual data and customized service based on needs.

Here is what they say about themselves:
“We think that we are increasingly entering an age where decisions that used to be made in months and based solely on intuition can and should be based in real-time and on data. Qriously is just responding to this data list - and as a result we're seeing a really inspiring myriad use cases. Not only traditional market researchers are using it for brands, but for politics, creative campaigns, academics, journalism: any area where you need to know what many people think about something, right now. We definitely think there is a self-serve / long-tail play for Qriously - there are a few kinks to iron out before we can commit on a date.”

Why start-up doesn't need business plan? Tips from Business Analyst, who saw already several fails

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 07:54:00 +0000

Can Ertugrul is a Business Analyst at i5invest - a start-up incubator that grows the successful web and mobile business models of tomorrow, focusing on B2C Web 2.0 ventures.
He is also trainer on European start-ups meetings and events. This guy explaining serious and complicated things in simple words for those, who just start the way of entrepreneur.
Before interview Can mentioned that main skills for start-upper is to listen and watch. The reason is, that they should be able to find opportunities there, where other people see only risks.

Side Note: Can highlighted, that his expressed views are his opinion, not absolute facts with focus on the matter of innovative web- and mobile startups (most not valid for other industries or more traditional smaller businesses)

Future of start-up ecosystem in Europe from Markus Wagner, serial entrepreneur

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 17:31:00 +0000

Today my guest is Markus Wagner - a serial entrepreneur.
Right now he is board advisor at Tupalo.com (a social yellow pages community, connecting locals and travelers alike with local businesses around the World) and 123people.com project (a real time people search service that looks into nearly every corner of the Web).

Also he is founder at i5invest - an it/telecom incubator company in Austria.

We are talking about serial entrepreneurs in European start-up ecosystem. What it misses and what perspective it has? About investor’s risks and business models (the most important part for you, guys), which are actual now for Europe.

Google Plus or Minus?

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 10:12:00 +0000

Seems it's coming same information wave with Google+ as it was with Google Buzz. Media and bloggers are trying to define benefits and disadvantages for this new social communications tool. I would rather say about why people will be interested in Google+?

Google+ provides now better services comparing with Facebook:

Possibility to divide contacts based on type of communication. For example, colleges and friends, customers and partners (acquaintance), family and etc. Also based on this conditions you can customize your information wave (aka Wall in Facebook) to each of communication type.

Spam filter (no updates from groups and fan pages). It means minimization of social noise from your circles and customization of information wave based on your interests.

Video chat (Hangouts) directly in browser, which allows to communicate with your circles through instant text chat and conference call (up to 10 people). No additional apps downloads needed.

User-friendly and clear interface, which was already mention by thousands of people all over the world.

Aggregation settings. Google+ has tentacle-like reach into every part of you Google world and connections. Plus it has connection to your Yahoo! and Hotmail accounts.

Integration of social network with Google Apps, which will make it amazing tool for sharing everything.

From my point of view it's a new ingratiation of Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter social networks, well customized for any needs. Something universal, one point for entrance, which let people to communication easy in one click.

Suppose those advantages might help Google+ to become a favorite social toy for people in the future. But we also need to consider reply from Facebook side, which announced about sooner Skype integration. Plus Facebook has already 750 millions users, who are already quite familiar with that social network environment. So Google+ really needs creatively attract users.

If you do not have jet account to test Google+, read this interesting article: how to hack Google+ and reach invitation or just contact me and I will send it to you :)

My favorite quotes about marketing 3.0: tips for young but smart entrepreneurs

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 16:08:00 +0000

Here I got a collection of amazing quotes regarfing marketing 3.0 Maybe they will bring you some new ideas, maybe they will provide you to read new books... Who knows, but anyway those thoughts are increadble clear and those people already reached some great results in business, which prove that we can learn from them quite a lot!

…the Internet has turned what used to be a controlled, one way message into a real-time dialogue with millions.
Danielle Sacks, writer and author of “Fast company”

Increasingly, the mass marketing is turning into a mass of niches!
Chris Anderson, author and the “Ling Tail”

If you have more money than brains, you should focus on outbound marketing. If you have more brains than money, you should focus on inbound marketing.
Guy Kawasaki, former Chief evangelist of Apple

Bring the best of your authentic self to every opportunity.
John Jantsch, author of “Duct Tape Marketing”

You can’t just ask customers what they want and then try to give that to them. By the time you get it built, they’ll want something new.
Steve Jobs, CEO at Apple

Make the customer the hero of your story.
Ann Handley, Chief Continent Officer at MarketingGrofs.

Before you create any more “great content,” figure out how you are going to market it first.
Joe Pulizzi & Newt Barrett, authors of “Get Content – Get Customers”

The attention economy is not growing, which means we have to grab the attention that someone else has today.
Brent Leary, co-founder at CRM ESSENTIALS

Search, a marketing method that didn’t exist a decade ago, provides the most efficient and inexpensive way for businesses to find leads.
John Battelle, journalist and founder at Federated Media Publishing

…one way to sell a consumer something in the future is simply to get his or her permission in advance.
Seth Godin, author of “Permission Marketing”

Video interview: Why Europe needs innovations lobby in government?

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 08:07:00 +0000

Today I'm talking with Thomas Friedschröder, business angel and founder of phantasiemanufaktur.at – agency for start-ups developing. Thomas professional experience is mostly focused on communication between Austrian government and business field.

Main topic of discussion is as innovations lobby in European government. Why it’s so important to have it actually? If you, guys, interested in developing start-ups and investment market in Europe and particularly in Austria – it’s time to find out what it needs right now. Additional questions are welcome in comments as always!

Infographics: When to post in social media? Timing and statictics

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 11:55:00 +0000

Here a nice view about best time for posting and tweeting. And even data is regarding USA users, I consider that habits of internet users are similar from country to country. Do you agreed with this facts?

Is it worth to reach new customers or better to carry about current? Infographics

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 09:38:00 +0000

Here is a nice and clear example, when it is not efficient to reach new customers. So have a lott and take decision based on your results...

Andi Klinger, Co-Founder at Garmz: Why start-uppers should not worry about investor in the beginning?

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 08:25:00 +0000

Andi is Co-Founder at Garmz - a stage for upcoming fashion designers to show and feedback their designs to a worldwide audience. Garmz then produces the best of these designs and sells them through it’s webshop.

Andi’s mantra for getting investor is simple: the start-up should show the potential of growth (in cash flow). Pitches in lifts and hunting for right business angel are useless. Just personal contact with investor and successful tracking history (not particularly on own business) – those things could help you, guys, to get what you need – fundraising. Wanna to know more? Listen interview with Andi and ask questions in comments.

More posts for same topic:

How WIN/WIN Strategy Can Help Old and New Economy in Europe?

Lukas Zinnagl, occasional contributor at TechCrunch: Don't send us press-releases, we don't read them!

M-Farm start-up from Kenya: how to reach marketing for free?

Olver Holle, CEO at TheMerger.com: Pitch in lift is the worse way to obtain investment!

Infographics: Social media monitoring tools for business

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 08:18:00 +0000

For the efficient usage of social media and managing campaigns in them it's necessary to use social media monitoring tools. For what reason do you need to do and what kind of tool to choose - all this data you can find below in infographics.
Also I really like clear review of monitoring tools, starting from free usage, than cost not more then 500 dollar per month and than upper. From my point of view, it's quite important information for those marketing managers, who are just thinking about the meaning of social media for business.

Infographics: Social media usage for business

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 14:30:00 +0000

Very simple explanation what kind of benefits your company can gain from social media. Great that infographic consist example and case studies from business. To make research about target audience, to test product before launching, to create or increase data base of clients, to set up interactive communication with current customers - those are just few benefits, which companies can achieve in media channels.

How WIN/WIN Strategy Can Help Old and New Economy in Europe?

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 12:20:00 +0000

Looking at global start-ups boom I need to consider that it looks similar in all over the world. But there is one important thing - environment. It's different: in America it's easy to achieve investment and in case of fail nobody look at entrepreneur as at social misfit. In Europe ecosystem miss a lot serial businessmen and risk investment as such. Majority of investments are coming from Enterprises. Old economy of Europe consider innovations as future benefits for industry. That's why probably European start-ups ecosystem count on this productive dialog between old and new economy.

Today I'm talking with Johannes Bischof, Managing Director of Konica Monolta in Austria. This comapny became main sponsor and supporter of StartUp Europe initiative, a huge event which will take place in the beginning of October in Vienna. More details about this start-up festival for Central and Eastern Europe I will write in next posts.

Infographic: The social commerce future

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 07:15:00 +0000

Mark Zuckerberg proposed for social commerce is the next blow up, future, which is already here. Seems he was right. Check up this infographic to find out why...

Video-interview with Lukas Zinnagl, occasional contributor at TechCrunch: Don't send us press-releases, we don't read them!

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 07:45:00 +0000

Lukas Zinnagl is Co-founder and CEO of Diagnosia.com and an occasional contributor to TechCrunch Europe - covering the Startup and Tech Scence in German speaking Countries. Today we are talking with him about how to prepare an article, which will be successfully published at TechCrunch and about his personal entrepreneur experience in Europe. Curious? Let's find out!

After finishing Med School, he started working for European Web Incubator i5invest. There he was one of the first employees of 123people.com project (a real time people search service that looks into nearly every corner of the Web).

I’m looking forward to reply on your additional questions in comments to this video.

Video-interview with M-Farm start-up: how to reach marketing for free?

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 08:35:00 +0000

Today I'm talking with 2 geek girls from Kenya. They are mobile applications developers and founders of M-Farm project, which is helping farmers to sale their goods in Africa.

Girls shared with me their point of view on start-ups business and also explained how it happened that their project reach such a huge free promotion in globally mass media. And everything started just from strong wish to solve the current problem on the Kenyan market...

Video-interview with Olver Holle, CEO at TheMerger.com: Pitch in lift is the worse way to obtain investment!

noreply@blogger.com (Daria Batukhtina) — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 07:30:00 +0000

I'm starting a series of video interview with European and Russian experts, businessmen and investors. Those tips are for everybody, who would like to become an entrepreneur or create any kind of idea.

First guest in my blog is Oliver Holle.

Oliver is a serial entrepreneur in the internet/multimedia/mobile space. He is CEO at TheMerger.com, a European investment boutique with a special focus on merging small to medium sized companies from the mobile and Internet applications business. Today he explains, why it's so important to think globally, but react locally.

Communication with such kind of person can really safe time and nervous of startuppers. So listen, guys! Your questions and comments are always welcome.

What to do: make a copycat from American proven business model or to create implement idea? If this question is actual for you – find out answer here!