BootstrapLabs

Witsbits close funding round with Chalmers Innovation Fund

2010-06-24T15:34:30Z

Gothenburg and Silicon Valley, June 24, 2010

BootstrapLabs company Witsbits® AB, the Scandinavian pioneer in cloud computing solutions for metering and billing of cloud infrastructure today closed a funding round with Chalmers Innovation Seed Fund, a Swedish early stage investment fund.

"The Go-Cloud technology is one of the most exciting solutions in the Cloud computing space right now. It enables Internet carriers, Service and Hosting Providers to quickly do metering and billing of cloud infrastructure." - says Timo Lehes, Chalmers Innovation Seed Fund.

"Chalmers Innovation adds both a capital injection that allows us to grow to the next level, and a network of resources to help us move Witsbits further much quicker." - says Mikael Lirbank, CEO and founder of Witsbits.

The Cloud Hosting Platform Go Cloud™ is a software based Cloud Hosting Platform that turns current infrastructure into a full-blown Public Cloud, including both Storage and Computing. Go Cloud™ enables Internet Carriers and Server Hosting Providers to start selling their capacity through the cloud (electricity) business model. The Go Cloud™ platform provides end-users with access to the hosting providers' server and Internet capacity in a secure and controlled manner.

Go Cloud™ is a customizable turn-key solution that enables hosting companies to provide their clients with a self-service compute and storage cloud, including billing, high-resolution utilization meters, web-API, management console, and more, from their own premises. All the components required to start selling self-serviced cloud computing are included.

About Witsbits
Witsbits (www.witsbits.com) is a pioneer in cloud computing software solutions. The company is the creator of Go Cloud™, a software suite that quickly turn of-the-shelf servers and infrastructure into a unified compute and storage cloud. It targets Server Hosting Providers and Internet Service Providers who wants to start selling Internet and server capacity in a utility-like fashion – and enable them to “Go Cloud”.

About Chalmers Innovation
Chalmers Innovation is a Swedish investment fund and business incubator that focus on high-tech rapid growth companies. Founded in 1999 by Swedish Chalmers University of Technology, Chalmers Innovation has contributed to the starting of over 90 companies. The succes rate of the incubator is one of the highest in the world with 73 out of 90 companies still in operation. Chalmers Innovation Seed Fund was founded in 2008.

For more information contact:

Nicolai Wadstrom, Witsbits USA, +1 415 935 1469, nicolai@witsbits.com

Timo Lehes, Investment Manager, Chalmers Innovation Seed Fund, +46 702 115 133, timo.lehes@chalmersinnovation.com

Mikael Lirbank, CEO and founder, Witsbits, +46 708 309 588, mikael@witsbits.com

Witsbits® is a registered trademark of Witsbits AB. Go Cloud™ is a trademark of Witsbits AB. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. Other product or company names mentioned may be trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.

Serial Entrepreneur Lars Hagelin joins BootstrapLabs

2010-06-23T04:23:43Z

We are excited to announce that today Lars Hagelin, a Swedish serial entrepreneur joins the BootstrapLabs team.

Lars will focus on media and commerce related projects with-in the BootstrapLabs business lab, and brings over 15 years of experience as entrepreneur, consultant and business angel in the internet, media and interactive gaming industries.

Serial entrepreneur Nils Svangard joins Witsbits

2010-09-01T16:38:21Z

BootstrapLabs company Witsbits, add another serial entrepreneur to its advisory board that also invests an undisclosed sum in the company. Witsbits is the company behind Go Cloud™, a software suite that quickly turn of-the-shelf servers and infrastructure into a unified compute and storage cloud, for Internet service providers. More information follows:

Gothenburg, June 1, 2010. Witsbits® AB, the Scandinavian pioneer in cloud computing solutions for metering and billing of cloud infrastructure, today announce that Nils Svangård, a Swedish serial Entrepreneur invests in Witsbits and joins the Advisory team and the board of directors.

"Witsbits has one of the most promising solutions in the Cloud computing space, that enables big and small Internet carriers, Service Providers and Hosting companies, to quickly and efficiently do metering and billing of cloud computing infrastructure.

What really caught my attention in Witsbits' Go Cloud Platform is the strong resource metering capabilities with real time usage history. Combined with the strong level of sales automation makes it a must-have product for hosting firms of today."

- says Nils Svangård.

"Nils Svangård is a very valuable addition to our team and our investors. His start-up and technical sales experience helps Witsbits to more quickly attract new customers."

- says Mikael Lirbank, CEO and founder of Witsbits.

About Witsbits

Witsbits (www.witsbits.com) is a pioneer in cloud computing software solutions. The company is the creator of Go Cloud™, a software suite that quickly turn of-the-shelf servers and infrastructure into a unified compute and storage cloud. It targets Server Hosting Providers and Internet Service Providers who wants to start selling Internet and server capacity in a utility-like fashion – and enable them to “Go Cloud”.

The Go Cloud™ platform provides end-users with access to the hosting providers' server and Internet capacity in a secure and controlled manner.

Go Cloud™ is a customizable turn-key solution that enables hosting companies to provide their clients with a self-service compute and storage cloud, including billing, high-resolution utilization meters, web-API, management console, and more, from their own premises. All the components required to start selling self-serviced cloud computing are included.

About Go Cloud™ – the Cloud Hosting Platform

Go Cloud™ is a software based Cloud Hosting Platform that turns current infrastructure into a full-blown Public Cloud, including both Storage and Computing.

It enables Internet Carriers and Server Hosting Providers to start selling their capacity through the cloud (electricity) business model.

About Nils Svangård

Nils Svangård is a Swedish serial entrepreneur with a background of research in Artificial Intelligence at Chalmers University of Technology and past 10 years starting and building companies such as Aitellu AB, ICU Intelligence AB and most recently ICE House AB, a cutting-edge behavioral targeting and realtime advertising platform for advertisers and e-commerce sites.

Nils operates a privately held fund for angel investments with focus on emerging and disruptive technologies, since Svenska Spel AB's (the Swedish Governmental-Owned Gaming Company) recent acquisition of Playscan AB from ICU Intelligence.

For more information contact:

Mikael Lirbank, CEO, Witsbits, +46 708 30 95 88, mikael@witsbits.com

Nils Svangård, Nirusu AB, +46 702 863 763, nils@witsbits.com

Nicolai Wadstrom, Witsbits USA, +1 415 935 1469, nicolai@witsbits.com

Witsbits® is a registered trademark of Witsbits AB. Go Cloud™ is a trademark of Witsbits AB. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. Other product or company names mentioned may be trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.

Anna Wilkens joins BootstrapLabs as Communications Officer

2010-04-28T19:06:56Z

We are very happy to announce that Anna Wilkens have joined BootstrapLabs as a Communication Officer to work with BootstrapLabs communication, but primarily help our companies implement and manage their communications, web and social media presence.

Anna is a professional Communication Officer with 10 years experience in communication, manages the BootstrapLabs internal and external communication, and help's our companies be more effective and targeted in their communication strategies and implementation.

ProgrammersHeaven.Com launch Flash section with Adobe

2010-04-23T21:14:25Z

BootstrapLabs company ProgrammersHeaven.com this week launched a section dedicated to developing applications using Flash and Flex.

The website can be seen here:

http://flash.programmersheaven.com/

And also on the ProgrammersHeaven.com homepage: http://www.programmersheaven.com/

This gives the members at ProgrammersHeaven.com an easy access to flash related resources, as well downloads of SDK's, Tutorials and a wealth of other information.

Ivory report interview with BootstrapLabs founder Nicolai Wadstrom

2010-09-01T17:02:38Z

This week Ivory Report, a Swedish analyst company, that provides reports and insight on early stage startups, published an interview with BootstrapLabs' founder and CEO, Nicolai Wadstrom.

The report covered topics such as differences between the Swedish and Silicon Valley entrepreneurial climate, and eco-systems for innovation.

"Silicon Valley provides a critical mass of skills, risk willingness and capital" - says Nicolai Wadstrom

The report is available in its entirety for subscribers to Ivory Report.

Interview with Computer Games legend Scott Adams

2010-04-23T20:58:52Z

BootstrapLabs company ProgrammersHeaven.com meet with Computer Games legend Scott Adams for an interview, and asked him about what he thinks about the Computer Games industry today and the new social web games.

Read the full story here.

ProgrammersHeaven launch hosted subversion and bug tracker

2009-10-23T18:28:06Z

This week one of our Business Lab project's launched hosted developer tools for subversion and bug tracking.

It's a very cost effective way for development teams to host their source code with full version control, and also get a bug tracker for free at the same time.

More information here.

Whiteboard Accelerator Announces Launch of Silicon Valley Operations

2009-10-08T05:29:35Z

Quick-Start Program Provides Game-Changing Line of Sight to Revenue for Global IT Companies

San Jose / Redwood City, California -- October 8, 2009

Whiteboard Accelerator, a global business accelerator, today announced the opening of Silicon Valley and San Francisco Bay Area operations with offices in Redwood City and San Jose. The world-class mentoring and business development company, hosts rapid growth off-shore companies seeking to establish U.S. operations and to accelerate revenue and customer growth.

Initial companies hosted by Whiteboard include Prezi, a Hungarian-based presentation software company (www.prezi.com) ; and iSerenata (www.iserenata,.com), a rapid growth mobility consumer services company out of Mexico. Whiteboard offers sales and business development, market validation, marketing, access to capital sources, discount pricing on tier-one vendor support services and office space and infrastructure specifically for companies looking to establish and grow in the U.S. market.

Whiteboard will strategically pair the management of these emerging companies with a hands-on team of business development professionals with direct experience in the hosted company’s industry. Whiteboard’s mission is to propel disruptive or game-changing technologies and companies to the next growth plateau.

Whiteboard Accelerator has gathered a senior team of entrepreneursand industry veterans, along with a highly-respected advisor network. These industry leaders combined with a proven business infrastructure create a "quick start" program for disruptive off-shore and domestic companies to get an accelerated business launch in Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Some of the celebrated executives in the Silicon Valley that are part of the Whiteboard network include Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning (founders of Tesla Motors), J. Peter Herz (founding CEO of 3ware) and Ian Sobieski (Executive Director of the Band of Angels) and others.

"Whiteboard Accelerator offers an exciting and very real opportunity for non-US companies to come to the Silicon Valley and succeed. Companies need more than a bootcamp, part-time mentoring and a small sprinkling of funds to have a chance to do well here. Whiteboard provides the structured process, insight and access to critical business channels and direct reference customers necessary to launch competitive global businesses. I am pleased to be associated with Whiteboard and its objectives.”

- Martin Eberhard, Tesla Motors founder and part of Whiteboard Accelerator Advisory Network

"Whiteboard is an accelerator that is the next step for rapid-growth companies. We are not an incubator. We carefully select the companies and management teams we work with to assure that we can provide these companies not only with advice and strategy, but help them to execute, grow and connect them with opportunities, realize revenue growth – and obtain expansion capital if needed to fund the next development phase for the company.

- Nicolai Wadstrom, Co-Founder/Partner of Whiteboard Accelerator

Whiteboard was designed to be different from the many incubators and mentoring organizations prevalent in the Valley. Our advisor network consists of some of the most successful innovators and company builders in the Valley. This resource, combined with our focus on executing on business opportunities uniquely positions Whiteboard to help create the next generation of game-changing global companies.”

- Mark Cameron White, Co-Founder/Partner of Whiteboard Accelerator

"Whiteboard will provide a vital link between local sources of venture capital and 'out of the area' companies; this is a win-win patnership opportunities for VCs looking for their next great deal and companies not thoroughly knowledgable with the best VC that its their needs"

- Ian Sobieski, Managing Director of Band of Angels, who is part of the Whiteboard Accelerator Advisory Network and will help international and domestic companies by providing key connections to Silicon Valley investors.

Whiteboard has named high tech industry veteran Steve Palladino to head Whiteboard's Business Development Services Group. Palladino– a sales and business development specialist based in Silicon Valley - will help international and domestic companies by offering a suite of key services critical to market success.

"Companies launching products and services in the United States, especially those coming from foreign markets, need immediate access to crucial business resources., Whiteboard Accelerator delivers a powerful solution to quickly put companies on the map in the U.S. market and provide line of sight to revenue"

- Steve Palladino, Head of Whiteboard Accelerator Business Development Services Group

About Whiteboard Accelerator

Whiteboard Accelerator (http://whiteboardaccelerator.com) is a global business accelerator based in the Silicon Valley that provides a world-class network of senior entrepreneurial business development executives, innovation leaders and strategists that work directly with the management of Whiteboard companies to rapidly grow customers and revenues in the U.S. Whiteboard hosts companies that have an established product or service platform to present to targeted U.S. customers and channel partners. Whiteboard provides infrastructure, business development planning and execution, and a dedicated ecosystem of over 20+ tier-one services vendors at discounted pricing. The Company was founded by Nicolai Wadstrom, a Swedish technology entrepreneur and founder of Bootstrap Labs LLC, and by Mark Cameron White, a founding partner of White & Lee LLP, a boutique corporate transactional law firm. Steve Palladino, the CEO of Array Partners, heads Whiteboard’s Business Development Services Group – Mark White will lead Whiteboard’s Financial Services Group. Whiteboard currently has the capacity to host up to 75 companies at its Silicon Valley offices, and also works with companies seeking access to the Whiteboard network and services that do not require infrastructure.

For more information contact:

Nicolai Wadstrom, Founder/Partner,

Whiteboard Accelerator

+1 (415) 935-1469, nicolai.wadstrom@whiteboardaccelerator.com

Mark Cameron White,

Founder/Partner,

Whiteboard Accelerator

+1 (650) 619-8664, mark.white@whiteboardaccelerator.com

Steve Palladino,

Head Business Development Services Group,

White Board Accelerator

+1 (707) 478-1329 steve.palladino@whiteboardaccelerator.com

BootstrapCrunch website is up!

2009-10-02T18:34:02Z

Today we made the BootstrapCrunch website public, at least our first version!

There is still some work to be done before we can launch our first competition in Stockholm, at the moment we are targeting to run the competition this Winter, Q1 in 2010!

Be sure too sign-up to get news from us, and we will keep you posted!

Kind regards,

Nicolai Wadstrom

BootstrapLabs partnership with two incubator facilities in Silicon Valley

2009-09-11T19:32:06Z

10th of September 2009 San Francisco Bay Area. For immediate release, BootstrapLabs established partnership to secure access to two incubator facilities in Silicon Valley for bringing companies from Europe to Silicon Valley.

The two facilities are in the heart of Silicon Valley, one being in Redwood City and the other in San Jose, and can host more than 50 workspaces. The two incubators are part of the BootstrapLabs network and open for the companies in the BootstrapLabs business acceleration program.

"This allows us to offer a soft landing spot for the companies that we bring here from Europe. We now have the infrastructure to support the companies that we work with, and can offer all of our companies a 'home' in Silicon Valley, and is part of our goal in offering an end-to-end infrastructure and support organisation for companies to go to Silicon Valley."
- says Nicolai Wadstrom, CEO and founder of BootstrapLabs.

BootstrapLabs (www.bootstraplabs.com) is a Silicon Valley Business Lab and out-post, founded and run by Swedish serial Entrepreneur Nicolai Wadstrom. BootstrapLabs allows European companies to quickly and efficiently get an entry to the US market and Silicon Valley in particular. BootstrapLabs can help early stage companies that are in a commercialization phase and ready to go-to market to establish themselves in Silicon Valley, scale up, find licensing and partnership opportunities as well as funding and exit partners.

For more information contact:
Nicolai Wadstrom, CEO/Founder, BootstrapLabs, +1 (415) 935 1469, nicolai.wadstrom@bootstraplabs.com

IDG Blogger Magnus Penker about BootstrapLabs [Swedish]

2009-09-10T23:28:54Z

IDG Blogger Magnus Penker blogged about BootstrapLabs (in Swedish), read it here:

http://blogg.idg.se/magnuspenker/entry.jsp?messid=11959

What we are doing here at BootstrapLabs now

2009-08-14T22:10:18Z

We have been updating our website this week to better describe what we are doing right now, and where we are going.

Basically we are offering an entrepreneurial eco-system where we can take ideas in the Business Lab, test them and term the best ones into Startups, and them accelerate their development, and then expand them quickly, through our BootstrapAccelerator , where we offer two different programs depending on the stage the company is in.

This allows us to launch many ideas at once and turn the best of them into companies, attracting the human and financial capital necessary to bring them to market.

We are actively engaged with matchmaking business opportunities, partners and exit opportunities for the companies in our system.

We are tapping into the vast experience of our network of experienced Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs to build our Accelerator business, and during this fall we will be able to offer everything from space, to rapid acceleration of the learning go-to market cycles to internationalization and scale-up for more established companies coming to the US.

Prezi close VC-round and establish advisory board with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey

2009-07-23T21:54:13Z

21st of June, San Francisco. For immediate release.

BoostrapLabs client Prezi, Inc closed a series A-round from Danish VC SunStone Capital. At the same time Twitter founder Jack Dorsey is coming onboard as an advisor to Prezi, to assist Prezi

BootstrapLabs has been working with Prezi since February this year; advicing the founders and helping establish strategy, roadmaps, funding and advisory members for it's US establishment, and this week it is official that:

Prezi, Inc has been established and Prezi now has it's head company in the US (Silicon Valley).
Prezi, Inc has closed an funding round from danish VC Sunstone Capital to further accelerate the company's product development and international roll-out.
TED is investing in Prezi, Inc.
Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, Inc (and the originator of the idea), is coming onboard as an advisory board member to advise Prezi on matters ranging from fund raising to
technological development.

TechCrunch wrote about the funding round and there is more information on the Prezi blog as well.

State of the European VC industry

2009-07-19T16:21:06Z

TechCrunch reported on the state of VC funds in the UK. The funds are running out of money, and do not have much sources for filling them. The estimated total available VC funding is at par with Marc Andreasen's single fund. When keeping in mind that UK has had one of the more virbant VC sectors in Europe, and the rest of Europe might not be far behind this development.

BootstrapLabs is here to help your company (or your fund's portfolio companies) get to Silicon Valley; get traction here and grow in the best entrepreneurial eco-system in the world.

Andreessen Readies a New Venture Capital Firm

2009-07-03T23:23:57Z

The Silicon Valley star's company has attracted lots of interest, and $300 million. Can he deliver with his innovative approach?

This is a structured angel funding approach that might work very well, see the video and read the whole Business Week article here.

Arctic Startup about Witsbits

2009-07-14T01:17:55Z

Arctic startup's Paula Marttila article about Witsbits not too long ago:

"Witsbits, a Swedish startup company, is the first and so far only actor in the Nordic and Scandinavian region providing cloud computing services. They started already in 2004, in the era when cloud computing still was called utility computing. The journey into cloud computing began in 2003 when running Render Planet, an automated render farm service offering free, remote, distributed rendering over the Internet."

Witsbits to go-to the USA with BootstrapLabs

2009-09-10T23:47:11Z

23rd of June 2009 San Francisco and Göteborg. For immediate release, Witsbits has entered into an agreement with San Francisco based BootstrapLabs to establish US presence.

Setting up US presence is the first step of an extensive agreement between Witsbits and BootstrapLabs. BootstrapLabs is additionally to provide Witsbits with advisory and strategic planning, secure an initial round of funding from early-stage investors and to prepare for a US market entry and scale-up.

"Witsbits provides a very exciting opportunity for Hosting and DataCenter companies to quickly get on-board the Cloud Computing race. Witsbits has the right product in a market that is just opening up, and growing very quickly and I see great opportunities for Witsbits in the US and Silicon Valley, the majority of all web based services in the world is being hosted in the US, and thus the majority of the target customers for Witsbits are here in the USA.
- says Nicolai Wadstrom, CEO and founder of BootstrapLabs.

"USA is the world's biggest market for hosting web services and with a US presence, we are able to pursue that market. BootstrapLabs allows us to quickly set up presence in the Silicon Valley to capitalize on business opportunities and to be closer to future funding partners. With the momentum and reception we've received from our recent launch we believe we will quickly create an impact on the US market."
- says Mikael Lirbank, CEO at Witsbits.

Witsbits (www.witsbits.com) is a cutting edge cloud computing software company. Witsbits offers a turn-key Cloud Computing platform called Go-Cloud, that includes everything from management, billing to monitoring and allows Hosting and Data center companies to quickly start to offer coud computing to their customers with the infrastructure they already own.

BootstrapLabs (www.bootstraplabs.com) is a Silicon Valley Business Lab and out-post, founded and run by Swedish serial Entrepreneur Nicolai Wadstrom. BootstrapLabs allows European companies to quickly and efficiently get an entry to the US market and Silicon Valley in particular. BootstrapLabs can help early stage companies that are in a commercialization phase and ready to go-to market to establish themselves in Silicon Valley, scale up, find licensing and partnership opportunities as well as funding and exit partners.

For more information contact:
Mikael Lirbank, CEO, Witsbits, +46708309588, mikael@witsbits.com
Nicolai Wadstrom, CEO/Founder, BootstrapLabs, +1 (415) 935 1469, nicolai.wadstrom@bootstraplabs.com

ArcticStartup.com writes about BootstrapLabs

2009-05-01T21:23:21Z

ArcticStartup.com's Paula Marttila wrote about BootstrapLabs today. Great article, and really sums up what we are looking for here at BootstrapLabs (and our excitement about Prezi!)

If you are a Scandinavian startup or interested in Scandinavian startups, vc's and Entrepreneurship, make you follow ArcticStartup.com, which I think is very well on it's way to become Scandinavia's version of TechCrunch.

Pressrelease - Prezi to go-to the US with BootstrapLabs

2009-09-10T23:46:33Z

28th of April 2009 San Francisco, Stockholm and Budapest. For immediate release, Prezi has entered into an agreement with San Francisco based BootstrapLabs. to help Prezi establish a US presence.

This is part of an agreement between Prezi, BootstrapLabs and CrossConnect, to provide Prezi with advisory and strategic planning and help Prezi establish a senior advisory board, secure an initial round of funding from business angels, and to reach cash flow positive with-in 12 months, and prepare for a US market entry and scale-up.

"Prezi is one of the most exciting companies I have worked with during my 13 years as a serial Entrepreneur, and I see great opportunities for Prezi in the US and Silicon Valley, and I think that Microsoft and Google should watch Prezi closely, because Prezi is disrupting the way we present information."
- says Nicolai Wadstrom, CEO and founder of BootstrapLabs.

"Prezi stands out as an combination of exceptional innovation within the area of user-interface technology combined with an almost unlimited market potential. Prezi will change the way people make their presentations and the way we present and interact with information on the web; both for businesses and individuals"
- says Magnus Bergman, CEO and Partner at CrossConnect.

"USA is the world's biggest market for presentation tools and we need to capture the strong interest we are seeing in our products. BootstrapLabs allows us to quickly set up presence in the Silicon Valley to capitalize on business opportunities and to be closer to future funding partners. And with the momentum and reception we received from our recent launch we believe we will quickly create an impact on the US market."
- says Peter Arvai, CEO at Prezi.

Prezi (www.prezi.com) is a leading provider of a new zooming presentation technology. It allows presenters to move beyond the slide-by-slide approach and to simply create amazing non-linear presentations. Prezi launched it's product 5th of April 2009 after a year of a closed beta period.
This week Prezi also won the award "Most likely to succeed" by the Swedish angel investor network Connect Sweden (East), which gives the company access to a a large number of business angel investors.

BootstrapLabs (www.bootstraplabs.com) is a Silicon Valley Business Lab and out-post, founded and run by Swedish serial Entrepreneur Nicolai Wadstrom. BootstrapLabs allows European companies to quickly and efficiently get an entry to the US market and Silicon Valley in particular. BootstrapLabs can help early stage companies that are in a commercialization phase and ready to go-to market to establish themselves in Silicon Valley, scale up, find licensing and partnership opportunities as well as funding and exit partners.

CrossConnect (www.crossconnect.se) is a management and technology-consulting firm that advise leading technology and service intensive companies in strategic planning and operations management. The partners at CrossConnect are serial entrepreneurs with a strong track record of building successful businesses within the area of information technology, telecom and digital media.

For more information contact:
Peter Arvai, CEO, Prezi, +36 703 403070, peter.arvai@prezi.com
Nicolai Wadstrom, CEO/Founder, BootstrapLabs, +1 (415) 935 1469, nicolai.wadstrom@bootstraplabs.com
Magnus Bergman, CEO/co-founder CrossConnect, +46-7066 417 00, magnus.bergman@crossconnect.se