Scandinavian Startup Night at RocketSpace

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We know it is last minute, but join us and meet founders of your favorite Scandinavian startups, among others Prezi CEO/Founder Peter Arvai, and hear them reflect on their journey to the Valley. The event is at Rocket Space, what BootstrapLabs and many of our startups call home in San Francisco.

Learn how the Scandinavian mindset plays in a startup context and how deeply ingrained social norms must be challenged to run a startup. Develop an understanding of why Scandinavians are hard workers in general – and why their startups are prone for success.

Register here: http://scandinaviannightrocketspace.eventbrite.com/

Join BootstrapLabs founder and meet the best in Northern Europe on 16th to 18th of October 2012

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Join BootstrapLabs founder and CEO, Nicolai Wadstrom as he keynotes Arctic 15 on the 16th of October this year!

Arctic 15 is the annual conference for Nordic and Baltic growth entrepreneurs. Two days full of action, including an invite only day for  founders, investors, C-level executives and our partners. Besides our own Founder of BootstrapLabs, great startups and networking, you will hear an amazing line-up of speakers: Founder of Evernote – Phil Libin, Founder of Zendesk – Mikkel Svane, Founder of Klarna – Niklas Adelberth and the Founder of Erply – Kristjan Hiiemaa.

Read more at the Arctive 15 website

Audiodraft launch the sound of Tim Ferris contest

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Tim’s new book “The 4-Hour Chef” is coming soon. Now you have a chance to do the sound design for the teaser video. Go nuts! Any kind of styles, genres or moods are welcome. Be creative and you’ll be noticed. Vast amount of likes and shares for your entry doesn’t hurt either.

Read more at the Audiodraft contest page and on Tim Ferris blog.

Mancx Secures $3 Million In Financing and Opens US Headquarters

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Our portfolio company Mancx Secures $3 Million In Financing and Opens US Headquarters.

SAN FRANCISCO AND STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN, June 12, 2012 — Mancx, the only trusted community for business answers that allows for private individuals to securely buy and sell their knowledge with others, announced today it has secured $1.65 million in financing led by Almi Invest and Chalmers Innovation Seed Fund bringing the total money raised to $3 million. The money will be used to expand the world’s first community for paid business answers through social networks such as LinkedIn and Viadeo. The patent-pending Mancx platform matches incoming questions with the right person’s expertise while managing all aspects of the transaction. This ensures that the questioner gets the information he or she needs while the answering party gets fairly paid for his or her efforts.

“Mancx is there when you need the right business answers,” said Henrik Dillman, Mancx CEO and Founder. “Most Q&A websites only provide advice, opinion or self-promotion. Some of the answers are even too old to be useful. Our research shows that professional business users prefer answers they can trust from a community that can deliver ‘industrial strength’ information quality that is fresh and calibrated to their specific needs. Mancx matches users with the right people to answer their questions,provides an easy pricing model and lets users pay easily on the spot – similar to PayPal – so that they can be very efficient at every step of the process. It is perfect for executives, entrepreneurs, sales professionals and anyone who needs tailored information that either cannot be obtained by routine online searching or would take too much time to find. For business professionals, time is money.”

Unlike other services, Mancx offers the following benefits:

  • Handles answers in almost any form, from picture, sound files and cad/cam-drawings to .doc and .xls files. This is necessary since many business answers don’t come in just plain text
  • Allows for full anonymity both for buyers and sellers, while enabling them to contact each other for more information detail as needed
  • Automatically matches profiles and distributes by email
  • Manages the negotiation of price and expectations
  • Provides money-back guarantee and quality assurance

“Mancx is a great place to get business answers,” said Tim DeBenedictis, founder of the astronomy app SkySafari. “Whether I need detailed business intelligence, tailored information – basically anything I would bet my job on – I got to Mancx and get the answers I need.”

“Mancx Business Answers™ is the next generation of Q&A tools,” said Mattias Guilotte, Mancx CMO and Founder. “It is the first service with a global payment solution and a trusted community for businessanswers you can’t find anywhere else.”

About Mancx

With dual headquarters in San Francisco, CA and Stockholm, Sweden,Mancx.comis the only trusted community for business answers that allows for private individuals to securely buy and sell their knowledge with others. Winner of the “Hottest Startup in the Nordics/Baltics” at the Arctic15, Mancx is the world’s first network for business questions and answers through networks such as LinkedIn and Viadeo. The patent-pending technology behind the Mancx Business Answers™ community matches incoming questions with the right person’s expertise while managing all aspects of the transaction. This ensures that the questioner gets the information he or she needs while the answering party gets paid for their efforts.

Read more about Mancx on blogs and Media today

Audiodraft joins BootstrapLabs

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We are exicted to announce that Audiodraft joins BootstrapLabs.

Advertising agencies, production companies and game studios in the US are pouring $5B into custom audio through an outdated process. Audiodraft is disrupting this market by creating the global marketplace for custom audio.

The creative production industry is struggling with complicated procurement and licensing to get custom audio. Audiodraft has created an efficient process and simplified licensing by connecting any company in need of custom audio to thousands of talented sound designers across the globe. Audiodraft offers an effortless marketplace to crowdsource custom audio production, through a contest model.

Big brands and agencies love Audiodraft:

To “Audiodraft” is already starting to become a verb in audio production.

Audiodraft emphasizes the meaning of audio branding. With Audiodraft you can get custom made music and sound design easily whether you need background music for a TV commercial, Online Video and content, theme music for a mobile game, or an audio logo for your company.

By coming part of the BootstrapLabs portfolio, Audiodraft will now accelerate it’s presence in San Francisco/Silicon Valley where Teemu Yli-Hollo, CEO/Co-founder of Audiodraft is already based. This means Audiodraft will accelerate the US market roll-out and Silicon Valley funding to capture the global market for custom audio.

BootstrapLabs is today also launching an Audiodraft contest to crodsource the audio branding of BootstrapLabs, check it out here!

Read more about Audiodraft…

Mancx joins BootstrapLabs

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We are happy to announce today that Mancx joins the BootstrapLabs portfolio of startups that we accelerate from Europe to Silicon Valley.

Mancx vision is to make any and all information available at the right price. With a patent-pending knowledge trading platform and connections to the largest business networks in the world Mancx gives you new opportunities.

Mancx connects people looking for answers with those of who have them. Some users of Mancx are in search of that particular little piece of information that will change a business forever. Others are looking for leads to reach their next sales quota or maybe looking for that intriguing piece of knowledge to boost next morning’s presentation to the board of directors. No matter what your needs are, Mancx is the place to find what you are looking for. Mancx offers crowdsourcing of the most valuable information.

Read more about Mancx and sign-up to give Mancx a spin her!

European Demo Day in San Francisco with Startup Sauna

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Come and meet some of the most exciting European startups here in San Francisco!

Together with our friends at Startup Sauna and I/O ventures we are organizing a demo day, so please join us and experience the Northern European and Russian startup scene right in the Bay Area! The stars of the day are Startup Sauna early-stage teams from Finland, Sweden, Russia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland that are going to pitch and demo their products!

We have drinks and snacks available, awesome guests and a special treat that most of the world hasn’t tasted before: Finnish Lake Water 😉

Venue: I/O Ventures (780 Valencia St. – between 18th St & 19th St)

Program

  • 6:00pm – 6:30pm Doors open
  • 6:30pm – 6:45pm Tribute to the most awesome keynote ever
  • 6:45pm – 7:30pm Demo time
  • 7:45pm – 8:00pm Feedback, selection of the winner
  • 8:00pm -> Networking and aaaafteerrparttyy!

The startups presenting

  • Antslab – Application that helps people with diabetes track their condition by automatically downloading their glucose levels from their glucose meter to their mobile phone (Lithuania & Spain)
  • InBelly – Crowd sourced online- and mobile guide to educate consumers about food additives. (Lithuania)
  • Linkedviews – Small device which turns the mobile phone into a TV remote. (Finland)
  • Maxygen – 10 minute, 10$ DNA test with disposable cartridges. (Russia)
  • MobileBrainBank – A huge mobile developer community. (Finland)
  • Qminder – Mobile queue management app. (Estonia, winners of mini Seedcamp Prague)
  • Yodiz – Project management software for developers focusing on SCRUM and AGILE -methods. (Finland)
  • Zonear – Created Boilerbuild, which builds, optimizes and deploys HTML5 apps with one click. (Finland)
  • Ovelin. Creator of the educational real life guitar hero game WildChords. No. 1# Music App in 27 App Stores (Finland)
  • Zerply – The professional network for the Twitter generation (Bay Area, originally from Sweden & Estonia)
Looking forward to see you there!
More information and RSVP here!

Startup Exits Event

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Startup Exit Event #4 is now starting to materialize, so please save the date for 19th of January, 2012 in San Francisco!

Join successful entrepreneurs and startup acquisition professionals for a special evening event in San Francisco on the topic of “Startup Exits.” Hear stories from entrepreneurs who’ve sold their companies– how they did it, what they learned, and what they would do differently next time.

The event is going to rock, and will give crucial insight for any VC and startup Entrepreneur, the current line up for the panel is made up of:

  • Ilya Fushman, Corporate Development, Dropbox
  • Bruce Jaffee, EVP of Corporate Development, Glam Media
  • Lorraine McDonough, VP of Corporate Development, eBay
  • Tom Duterme, Corporate Development, Groupon
  • Nathan Beckord, Principal, VentureArchetypes Startup Advisors (Moderator)

Prezi hearts Facebook: One click signup, embed prezis to your wall

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Fresh from the Prezi blog:


Signing up for the free Public Prezi account has become even easier. Now you can sign up with your Facebook account, and start to create your first prezi immediately.

Embed prezis to your Facebook wall

Sharing nice prezis from our public library, or put your latest work to the test in your Facebook community became more effective as well. Paste the link of any public prezi as a status update to our official Facebook page. Your link will be converted to an embedded prezi that can be clicked through or set to full screen straight from Facebook. It works just like YouTube video embeds.

Please note: if you already have a Prezi account, you cannot log in using your Facebook account.


Read more…

Prezi Zooms to 5 Million Users

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Fresh from the Prezi blog:

We are thrilled to announce that, today, Prezi crossed the 5 million user mark!

Prezi Zooms to 5 Million Users on Prezi

You continue to inspire us with your creativity, enthusiasm, and with the amazing prezis you create. Please continue to innovate and let us know if you have new ideas for how to use Prezi.

Thank you!


Read more…

European Startup Demo Night in San Francisco

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BootstrapLabs, in collaboration with PariSoma, is looking for three European startups that are ready to come to Silicon Valley to participate in the European Startup Demo Night in San Francisco on July 21st.

The European Startup Demo Night is an invitation only event, that will match a select group of 10 startups with an audience of over 40 investors. Many leading angels and venture capitalists will be in attendance – among the anticipated audience: DFJ, Bessemer, Intel Capital, Accel, Trident and Google Ventures among many others.

All of these investors focus on early stage venture capital and/or angel rounds.

BootstrapLabs will select 3 candidates based on presentation, product / technology, team, and market potential.  Candidates who are selected will be allowed to give a 4 minute presentation, followed by a 4 minute Q&A at the event in San Francisco.

Participating companies will be responsible for all costs during the trip.

Requirements:

  • European startups looking to raise an early stage round in Silicon Valley
  • Roadmap that includes going to Silicon Valley
  • You must be able to come an present in Silicon Valley at the event on July 21st.
  • Product focus in IT, Internet, Software, Cloud, SaaS, Digital Media.

Reach out to us here.

UPDATE: We have now found our 3 referral companies for the event.

BootstrapLabs now also in San Francisco!

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Starting in May, BootstrapLabs now also has an office location in SOMA in San Francisco. CEO/Founder of BootstrapLabs, Nicolai Wadstrom will be working from this office from now on. At this location we also have space to host our European founders when they are in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Redwood City through our Partnership with White & Lee (and Whiteboard Accelerator), will continue to be a great location for our companies, to host their staff and operations. With the addition of the San Francisco location, we are also close to all of the startup activity in the San Francisco SOMA area, and a great location for events and networking.

Nordic Incubator Night with BootstrapLabs Founder on April 13th

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Please join BootstrapLabs founder, Nicolai Wadstrom, on April 13, 2011, from 5:30pm to 8:00pm for a Silicon Vikings evening focusing on the needs of Nordic companies in transitioning to Silicon Valley, and the services, training and preparation which ought to be offered by incubators in the Nordic region to prepare start-ups for the journey.

University based business incubators are needed to facilitate commercialization for university developed technology as well as to give entrepreneurs hands-on practical training. What practical training do they need? What is the feed back loop? What regular program of “show and tell” sessions will ensure that entrepreneurs get feedback early and often.

While an incubator cannot duplicate or replace an entire ecosystem, learning to interact with the other players in the entrepreneurial startup ecosystem is a key driver — how is this to be done? Where and when does the tech transfer office get involved? How do the incubators prepare the startup for the challenges and opportunities of Silicon Valley?

Silicon Vikings has gathered a panel (including BootstrapLabs founder, Nicolai Wadstrom) to debate these topics and offer observations and suggestions. The audience will include the heads of Innovationsbron, SIVA, Aalto Venture Garage and many other University affiliated incubators from the Nordic Region in the Valley to attend the National Business Incubator Association Conference in San Jose April 10-13.

More details at Silicon Vikings Website.

Please RSVP here.

 

Arctic Startup: Zerply Wants To Be The Next Generation Professional Network

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ArcticStartup writes about Zerply:

Zerply is California based startup, that has its roots in Sweden and Estonia, through its co-founders. Zerply aims to be the best way to present yourself in a professional way. What they currently have available to the public, is bunch of very stylish profile pages which integrate relatively seamlessly to other online services. However, there’s a lot more in store according to Christofer Karltorp.

Read more here.

Social professional networking company Zerply joins BootstrapLabs

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Today it’s official that the exciting professional social networking startup Zerply is part of the BootstrapLabs accelerator companies. We have been advising and working with Zerply for a few months, and we are really exciting about what Zerply is doing.

Zerply is catering for the fact that the established leader in the professional networking space, is a fairly “corporate” service, that really just made papers resumes into digital versions. Today communication and networking on the web is social, and moves in real-time and not static.

In short Zerply is redefining how professional social networking is being done, LinkedIn took paper resumes online, and Zerply is making them social.

The company is based in Silicon Valley, and was founded by Christofer Karltorp and Taaniel Jakobs.

And yes, of course I am also on Zerply!

More about Zerply here.