Altaide Valley

(FR) G1 tested by Guillaume Dumortier

Guillaume works in San Jose (California) for Bouygues Telecom US. He made this video to demonstrate the Google phone and give his first feeling...
The video is in French...

Paul Graham is speaking: "Why to Start a Startup in a Bad Economy"

Image via CrunchBase

I'm not supposed here to pick up any content I found on Internet, but more give feedback from my entrepreneur experience with Altaide Valley.
But to me Paul Graham is definitely someone we have to follow very closely, mostly if you ran a startup or you've got a project to start.

So please read his last post...

"The economic situation is apparently so grim that some experts fear we may be in for a stretch as bad as the mid seventies.

When Microsoft and Apple were founded.

As those examples suggest, a recession may not be such a bad time to start a startup.  I'm not claiming it's a particularly good time either.  The truth is more boring: the state of the economy doesn't matter much either way..."

Read full article here.

Mybooo.com still on the Road in Silicon Valley

Mybooo.com is still pursuing its roadshow in Silicon Valley...

Guys have been chosen by UnderTheRadar conference Team to be one of the 24 mobile startups to present at Microsoft offices in Mountain View, November 12th 2008.

Under the Radar: Mobility is a one-day conference uncovering 32 vetted, test-driven startups that have launched within the year in categories such as iPhone apps, location-based services, gaming, social networking, enabling technologies, and marketing/advertising.
Under The Radar is organizing really well reputed conference, so it's a very exciting spot for the team!

"MyBooo wants to free you from your laptop"... That's LindaGreen's conclusion from her perception of this mobile desktop. If you wanna test the service, contact me and I'll be very happy to bring you an activating key!

Box.net now lunching its french version: a US startup expanding in France!

Box.net, a San Jose based startup, has recently announced the release of its new French version.
The three main uses of Box.net are to backup, share and access files from anywhere.
The company started to run in 2005, have now 500 BtoB clients (having each an average of 3to 10 user, a few have some hundreds)...
Box.net is a very good example of a pure startup, creating a new service, meeting then Google as main competitor, and on its way now to expand internationally...
I asked few questions to Alexandre Scialom, Stategic Marketing at Box.net...

- Could you tell us few words regarding Box.net international strategy? Can you give us some metrics?

Box.net is an online file storage and collaboration platform. It allows our 2.1 million registered users to put any kind of files (whether they are word documents, spreadsheets, presentations, pictures, videos) online "in the cloud"... They can then access their content from any computer or cell-phone, share it with specific people, and collaborate at work, school or home. Thanks to over 20 OpenBox Services, Box users also have access to an extensive set of specific functionality provided by our partners' services. For instance, they can edit documents and spreadsheet hosted on Box with Zoho, send fax with eFax, edit pictures with Picnik, send documents to Twitter, and more.

We manage more than 100 million files and serve 1 million files from our servers every day. In 2005, Box.net started as a consumer product and we learned how to design simple and efficient applications that anyone can use. Since the end of 2006, we also propose an offer specifically tailored for enterprises. We now have more than 500 Box Enterprise clients, a majority of them having between 3 and 10 users, and some of them up-to several thousand users.

Our service is currently used in more than 200 countries. We're going to use what we've learned through our experience in the US to accelerate the development of Box.net internationally. For instance, our affiliate program and our Box Enterprise reseller program will be made available to businesses who wish to distribute our application abroad. We're also talking to local internet actors to expand our base of partners that already encompasses companies such as Dell, Facebook, or Netvibes.

- Did the fact Google recently came in your market as direct competitor accelerate your international expansion?

Competition is very aggressive in the online storage market. New start-ups are created every month even though we recently saw Omnidrive, XDrive, and Mediamax, 3 companies that pioneered the industry, close their services. Microsoft recently entered the game too, but as far as I know Google doesn't offer an online storage service so far... Anyhow, we don't really intend to wait for them and we know we have to expand our business as fast as possible. Going international will help us towards that goal.

- Why choosing France as first localization? What are your objectives?

French-speaking users have been very actively asking us to translate the site in their language. Many of them also proposed to help us translate the site, and it was natural for us to fill their need. Today we have over 80,000 users in France, some of them using Box.net in the biggest French companies in the engineering, financial services, telecom, fashion, or advertising companies. Our goal is to make sure we put the right marketing and business development effort to continue extend our reach on the French market.

Thank you Alex, and all the best to Box.net in France and everywhere else!
Box.net and Dell has signed recently an online and storage collaboration deal: more here...

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If you can't meet Guy Kawasaki, read him!

Image by Laughing Squid via Flickr

Guy Kawasaki is a very well known hi-tech evangelist, mostly due to his work at Apple where he worked in 80's then 2 years in 90's. He has written some books, and he's doing seventy five speeches a year, he's Managing Director of  Garage Technology Ventures (a venture capital firm which specializes in high-technology start-up firms located in Silicon Valley) as well as co-founder of Nononina, the company that created the Truemors and Alltop websites.

I did not have the chance to meet him for real yet... surely best way would be to walk through University Avenue and see him by chance for a 5 minutes coffee!
What makes me really impressed and interested by Guy's work and talks is simplicity...

Listen to one video you can find on his blog:

Now for entrepreneurs, Alltop is aggregating two interesting themas... just click on the one you prefer!

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Mobile 2.0 in San Francisco: Startup registration!

The Mobile 2.0 conference organized next month in San Francisco Monday November 3rd 2008 provides a platform for pre-A round and A round start-ups focusing on mobile applications & services looking for funding and trade press, tech blogger and early-adopter attention.

The only thing entrepreneurs in mobile have to do is fill-in the registration below to apply to present at the Mobile 2.0 Launch Pad at Mobile 2.0 Event - any start-up with a mobile service or application can apply.

Entering the start-up selection costs $249.00. If your company is not selected you can apply your payment to the Mobile 2.0 registration fee.

Deadline for submission is October 17, 2008 at midnight PST.

The selected startups will get to present at the Mobile 2.0 launchpad and will also be invited to participate in the -invitation only- investor breakfast.

Part of the team organizing the event is well known in mobile space, like Rudy De Waele or Daniel Appelquist.
See you next month in San Francisco then!

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Announcing Startup Ignite at Web 2.0 Europe!

Are you a hot technology startup? Are you in Europe? Do you have a new announcement you want to share with the Web community? On the first night of Web 2.0 Expo Europe we will highlight six companies on the main stage, presented in front of an audience of industry peers, media and VCs. The format is simple, five minutes on stage and a maximum of 15 slides. No demos. Videos are allowed.

Date & Time: Tuesday, October 21, 17:15 – 18:00
Submissions Deadline: Friday, October 10
Submissions Form: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pGj9uVDQ6OGMO4pja5WCsFQ&hl=en

A committee of esteemed industry judges will be reviewing submissions:

• Brady Forrest, Web 2.0 Expo Europe conference co-chair & O’Reilly Radar
• Lukasz Gadowski, Spreadshirt
• Mike Butcher, TechCrunch UK
• Christophe Maire, gate5 & Plazes

Companies DO NOT have to be launching but company, product or project announcements MUST BE new. Words of advice: aim to present something that is interesting but also entertaining!

I'm more than happy to encourage any entrepreneurs who will attend Web2.0 Europe and whom startup is corresponding to criteria to register this specific Ignite.
I'm organising Ignite events in Paris, and this is a really great space to give all the best from your ideas, your vision, your passion... No need for dozens of slides, boring bullet points, hours of blablablas: just the best, just the simple...

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