I was kindly invited by Microsoft to join their UK launch of BizSpark - a worldwide initiative from Microsoft in which they will give participating startups three years of free software licenses, mainly to their development tools, server and database software as well as Microsoft-powered cloud hosting. Further Microsoft provides some level of additional support through their network partners and selected people within the broader Microsoft organization, as well as some sort of visibility on Microsoft’s website and through their communication. After the three years startups are asked to pay a $100 program enrollment fee and (obviously) purchase the necessary licenses for your, then hopefully humming, business. Participation rules are simple: Your company must be less than 3 years old and generate less than $1m in annual revenue.

Sounds good? Even great? Ready to enroll?

Well - not so easy my dear friends. Consider what the program really means for your company on the one and evaluate the real benefits on the other hand.

Let’s start with the benefits: You get development tools, server and database software for free. Well - big deal. My companies (and many, many more) are developing software with free tools since the dawn of the Internet. The magic sauce is called Open Source - Webserver happily hum along using Apache, databases run smoothly under mySQL, applications are served by PHP, coders spend nights happily hacking away using Eclipse. And this is only one set of possibilities. There are nearly endless options for you to have all the best (literally the best) tools in the world for free. So - what I get from Microsoft is something I would get for free anyway.

Ah - I forgot. Cloud hosting. Well - I get really cheap and reliable hosting from a whole stack of companies. And great cloud hosting from companies such as Amazon (with their amazing S3 and EC2 services) or Mosso (which is essentially RackSpace, one of the great hosting companies out there). So - yes, Microsoft is offering me something for free which I would otherwise pay a few dollars per month for. But at which price?

Now this brings me to my second point - the true costs of the program: What Microsoft is obviously trying to do here is lock you in. Just as they locked you in with Windows and Office, they lock you in their .Net framework as well as Microsoft server and database systems. Even the rather long period of three years for the benefits of the program are really cleverly chosen - after three years you are normally at least at version two of your software. Which makes it really unlikely that you will switch the technological backend anymore.

What does vendor lock-in mean for you? Hmm… it might not mean anything for you and your business. It might mean that you will need to pay dearly for licenses at the end of the three year program. It definitely will mean that your options in this evolving world of technology are reduced - you put your bets on a single horse and have to go with it.

In essence I applaud Microsoft for their program - I am all for every support the startup community can get. But you have to weight the advantages and disadvantages of a program like this - and personally I will continue to build companies who’s servers run on Open Source software. Simply because it’s a better business decision for me.

This is officially my 100th blog post (with my first post being published a mere 6 months ago on May 21st). There has been a lot of change since then - personally I moved from focusing full-time on FoundersLink to a terrific new role at Mozilla; on the macro-economic side of things we moved into the biggest recession in recent times.

Now - time to crank up the dial a bit and make this blog a tad more interactive: Let’s create more of a dialog on this blog - thus I ask you to send me any questions or thoughts you have around the topics of entrepreneurship, funding, management and any other area you find of interest and I will try to give you my perspective on this blog.

Put your questions into an email, post them in the comments or ping me on twitter - I am very much looking forward discussing topics with you, which are truly close to your heart.

This - for once - will be a rather personal posting…

Those of you who have known me for a while, know that I strive to work in areas which tend to be real challenges and where I aim to somehow make a dent (if not in the universe than at least in the area I work in). A dear friend of mine once described this as “choosing the stony path”. It is just so much more satisfying and fun.

Now - after a rather long search - I found a new calling: Since a few days I work with Mozilla (home of the Firefox browser) on creating their Open Innovation program (to get a glimpse of the things to come check out Mozilla Labs’ Concept Series). This is a tremendously exciting opportunity - working with some of the smartest people around (Chris Beard, Mozilla’s Chief Innovation Officer or Aza Raskin, Mozilla’s Head of User Experience to name just a few) on a topic which hasn’t been done before and which has the potential to change the way innovation is done on the Open Web.

This is - hands down - one of the most exciting jobs in my life (it actually reminds me a lot to those nights we worked through, while being part of the Transaction Services Group at eBay - oh, good times!). And for those in the know: Yes, I will once again work with Jane. Something I am really looking forward to.

Great times…

There you have it. I said it.

Now you might ask yourself: Why is he saying this? There is no reason to be so angry with nice little Facebook. Well - in general I would agree. If it wouldn’t have been for my tremendously bad experience with the largest social network on the planet. Let me explain:

Since about 5 days or so I can’t log into my Facebook account. I believe it is after I last changed my password. Hmm… stuff like this happens. It might be my browser, it might be an old cookie. Whatever. So - I try two different browsers (Firefox and Safari), delete cookies and saved passwords. The whole shebang. Nothing - Facebook still thinks that I shouldn’t be on their network. Well, well - no worries. We can still go to the ominous ‘Forgot your Password?’ link… only… Facebook tells me that every single of my email addresses is unknown to the system! At the same time I still receive status emails from Facebook to my primary email address (which is also one of the email addresses Facebook pretends it doesn’t know).

Now - all this can happen. At the end of the day Facebook is software - and software has bugs. But now it gets really frustrating: Did you ever try to find an email address for Facebook’s customer support? Well - there doesn’t seem to be one. GREAT! So there is nothing I can do about it - I’m simply locked out of my account for good. But to make the story a really good one - I just successfully registered a new account with the very same email address Facebook is still sending me status messages from my original account to.

Bravo Facebook. You really… ah - whatever. It doesn’t matter. Really.

P.S.: As I guess that this is it for me on Facebook (I’m really not interested in recreating my account again), please refrain from pinging me on Facebook. I won’t be able to answer you. Even if I would like to.

This just in: The team from Amazon’s Webservices (EC2, S3, etc) are coming to London on November 4th to discuss cloud computing, how it can help your startup to scale while keeping costs in check and how you actually implement their offerings into your product.

In their own words:

———

The AWS Start-Up Tour

What does every successful leader need, besides a great idea? The ability to scale their business and their infrastructure - on demand. Amazon Web Services provides its customers access to Amazon’s robust infrastructure and technological resources via services such as Amazon EC2 and Amazon S3. Utilizing these AWS solutions, you can compete on ideas, not resources, and turn your idea into a successful business. Come learn how Amazon Web Services empowers entrepreneurship, innovation and sustainable growth.

Who should attend:

• Entrepreneurs, founders and leaders of start-up/early-stage companies and venture capitalists

Reasons to attend:

• Understand how to integrate Amazon Web Services into your business
• Find ways to cut fixed infrastructure costs while increasing reliability and scalability
• Network with start-up leaders and investors from your area
• Learn from successful start-ups about their use of Amazon Web Services

Agenda:

• 2-5pm: Presentations from Amazon Web Services and from local start-ups on how they built their businesses on AWS
• 5-7pm: Networking/Cocktail Reception

Where/When:

• London, Nov. 4, ExCel London, Canary Wharf

Please RSVP here.

———

I’m a huge fan of cloud computing - and Amazon is certainly the 800 pound gorilla in this space (personally I have been involved in projects which utilized both Amazon’s EC2/S3 infrastructure as well as Rackspace’s excellent Mosso scalable cloud computing platform). If you are attending the event, make sure to spot me and say hi!

p.s.: Don’t forget to drop me an email if you are interested in some free advice on your pitch - see my blog post from yesterday.

This is something I wanted to do for quite some time now… so here we go:

You are new to my blog? Hey - welcome! To get you started, here are couple of my better articles (yeah, this is arguable… at least I like ‘em) - most of them center around the broader topic of entrepreneurship.

• Startups beware - Which type of company do you want to be?
  [Link | 15/10/08]
• Mind the Capital Gap - a Post-Seedcamp Insight
  [Link | 13/10/08]
• Why FOCUS is the SINGLE most important thing for your startup
  [Link | 09/10/08]
• What trainers can teach your startup…
  [Link | 01/10/08]
• In a startup? You better follow-up…
  [Link | 29/09/08]
• Advertising is not a Business Model (for Startups)
  [Link | 22/09/08]
• Mozilla’s CEO John Lilly on Management
  [Link | 12/09/08]
• Guy Kawasaki on Funding
  [Link | 04/09/08]
• Start-up for Start-up’s Sake
  [Link | 10/07/08]
• The 10x Factor
  [Link | 04/06/08]

P.S.: I will add and make changes to this list, so feel free to bookmark this article and come back from time to time.

My long-time favorite social commerce company Zlio just launched an extremely interesting extension to their business model on their French site: Zlio Suppliers.

To understand what Zlio is doing here, you need to understand their general business model: Zlio allows everyone to create a store (including tons of social tools like reviews, recommendations, etc). The store is filled with products from affiliate partners - i.e. the store operator doesn’t sell his own stuff but merchandise which he selected from a broad range of affiliated partners, earning a commission from every sale he generates. This is a wonderful model for a lot of content producers (blogs, etc) to add some ecommerce capability to their store without the need to actually run a real ecommerce operation. For example could a blogger, who writes a blog about diving, create a store full of his recommended diving gear and thus would create a highly relevant shopping experience for his readers.

Now Zlio took this a huge step forward: Zlio Suppliers works directly with the suppliers of merchandise and thus increases the margin both for the store operator and Zlio dramatically (in an affiliate model the store operator only gets a few percent of the final sale price). What makes this model so interesting is the scale of Zlio - the guys have literally a couple of hundred thousand stores active. What makes Zlio an extremely interesting sales channel for manufacturers and other suppliers of merchandise. Great news if you are sitting on inventory which you want to move.

It will be very interesting to see which types of merchandise this model will attract and for which merchandise it will generate a solid sell-through rate. Also interesting to see when Zlio will roll this out internationally.

Disclaimer: I consulted for Zlio in the past.

I’m just out of the Pitch Camp x.0 session at Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin (who on earth came up with this silly x.0 thing by the way?). It was an interesting experience - I was somewhat shocked (hmm… not sure about the word - might be a bit too harsh) about the basic level of the program. It still looks like German/European startups need to hone their pitching skills on a very fundamental level - so events like these are very helpful.

Having said that, I’m amazed about the fact that startups don’t work on this on their own more and realize the need for them to actually being able to sell themselves in order to attract financing and/or partner with large, established companies. This somewhat falls into the same category as my earlier blog post about startups not following up with their mentors after the Seedcamp week. So - go out to your favorite book store and buy yourself a copy of ‘The Art of the Start‘ from the amazing Guy Kawasaki. Should be necessary reading for every startup. Seriously.

As a couple of my friends and colleagues keep asking what to do when they are in Berlin for Web 2.0, here are some of my favorite places. Feel free to add to this list in the comments.

- Have dinner & drinks at the Solar, you’ll enjoy one of the best views of the city, the food is good, the cocktails are to die for and the place rocks! It’s on top of a large block of flats, you’ll take a glass elevator to the top, it’s really, really cool. It’s located close to Potsdamer Platz and thus quite easy to get to. You MUST book in advance - do so now, they fill up early. You’ll find the number on their website. This is a total Berlin insider.

- Have breakfast or tea at Barcomi. It’s a bit hard to find (it’s in a courtyard - there is a sign outside and a small door opens into the courtyard - a lot of people don’t have the courage to walk through as it looks like it’s private property. So go ahead and just walk in there - it’s no problem at all). It’s close to Hackescher Markt (really cool and trendy area with lots of little shops and cafes) and they serve amazing sandwiches and cakes (all home-made) and roast their own coffee. I went there at least once a week for breakfast (I had an office around the corner - that helped).

- Go on top of the TV tower on Alexanderplatz in the night (they are open till 12 I think) - the tower has a great view and the interior looks like it’s from a 70s James Bond movie. A classic! Don’t go during the daytime - the nightview is much nicer.

- Obviously see the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag. If the queue to the Reichstag rooftop is not too long, go up there. It’s cool.

- Next to the Brandenburg Gate there is the new Jewish holocaust monument. It’s dazzling - very, very good. Just walk through the area - it’s an interesting experience as it gives you a feeling of displacement.

- If you have a little bit of time go to Treptow Park and see the Soviet War Memorial - it’s a 15 min cab ride from Alexander Platz and well worth it. Really impressive area, great memorial - so out of this world. Don’t forget to bring a camera - this is perfect photo material.

- Walk through Tiergarten and enjoy the scenery - if the weather permits have a beer in the beer garden Cafe am Neuen See. This is a real hot spot for Berliners and one of the nicest beer gardens in Berlin.

- Breakfast at Cafe Einstein on Unter den Linden - easily one of the best breakfasts in town, Cafe Einstein is Vienna coffee house tradition. When you go there walk straight through the front part of the cafe to the back. In the front it’s noisy and you only have tourists, in the back it’s really civilized and you’ll find tons of Berliners (including a lot of politicians and actors who love the place).

- If you are up to a true Berlin experience have Currywurst at Ku’Damm 195 - Currywurst is a sausage with curry ketchup, normally you have it with fries. It’s THE Berlin specialty and the ones from Ku’Damm 195 are easily the best. The shop is open 24/7 and this is the place where Berliners have their Currywurst at 4am in the morning after a night out clubbing. The place is located on Kurfuersten Damm (Kudamm) No 195 - which is in the western part of town and not far from the famous Bahnhof Zoo, Ku’Damm is one of the main shopping streets in Berlin.

- Dinner at Gugelhof in Prenzlauer Berg. Amazing food (they specialize in food from the bordering region of Germany and France), super-nice service and a great selection of local wines. Bill Clinton went there when he was in Berlin. I love going there - it can be full so be prepared to wait a little bit at the bar or book ahead.

By the way - the whole Prenzlauer Berg area (it’s slightly north of Alexander Platz and easy to reach with a cab or the excellent public transport in Berlin) is an area well worth exploring. Great, old houses in the typical Berlin style of the beginning of the 20th century, tons of little places, shops and cafes. Nice. I lived there for a while.

And now - enjoy Berlin and see you there!

This just in - the Mozilla Labs guys (to be precise: Aza Raskin and Dan Mills) will host a great event alongside Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin (also see my earlier blog post). As there were a few misunderstandings around this event - the event is free, you can hop in and out at any time (you don’t need to spend three days there) and they are really looking forward meeting you (believe me - I just spoke to Aza while visiting the Mozilla HQ in Mountain View). The Labs team also posted an updated agenda on their blog - read it here.

So - why should you care? Easy - Mozilla Labs is at the very forefront of the stuff which is going on in the world of the Internet and especially the browser. Aza and Dan are amazing visionaries with a ton of experience - and are happy to share it. Which makes this event a great opportunity to exchange thoughts, get some fresh perspectives and ideas. And it is only a stone-throw away from the Web 2.0 Expo location.

With Web 2.0 Expo looming ahead of us (to be precise - next Tuesday is kick-off), Aza Raskin from Mozilla Labs just announced that they will host the Mozilla Labs Hack Days alongside the Web 2.0 Expo. Location will be the excellent C-Base, which is just a few minutes to walk from the Web 2.0 Expo location. Sounds like a great event - and an amazing opportunity to talk to the guys behind some of the more interesting innovations in web browsing these days (Geode, Ubiquity, Weave).

And in case you still haven’t got your ticket for Web 2.0 Expo - get a free expo pass with the voucher code webeu08bn5 or 35% off a full pass with the voucher code webeu08gr67.

See you in Berlin!

Update: I just saw that the Labs guys are also in London; on the evening of October 20th they will hold a session at UCL, all infos here (scroll to the middle of the page).

Just received a newsletter from O’Reilly where they promote a free expo pass for the upcoming Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin - in case you don’t have a ticket yet, don’t want to shell out the money for a full pass but would like to be there, see the expo area and watch all keynotes for free, use the following code when you register:

webeu08bn5

(To make this utterly clear - with this code you get a free ticket for ‘Expo Hall Only’ which includes all keynotes, expo hall & all events there (Wednesday-Thursday), sessions in sponsored sessions track and BoF sessions)

In case you haven’t heard about it (or seen the video) - Tim O’Reilly held a very interesting speech at Web 2.0 Expo in New York. The two main topics he explored in his speech are the move towards a web of interconnected sensors which exchange data (think washing machines in a washing salon notifying you when they are empty and thus available) and something labled by CNET as “Stop throwing sheep and focus on stuff that matters“. In this later part of his speech Tim points out that we (entrepreneurs, developers, startups, companies) need to focus on building real applications - apps which solve problems instead of toying around with technology for technologies sake (anyone bitten by a vampire on Facebook lately?). This is a very valid point and certainly something to think about - it kind of goes into the same direction as my startup mantra that startups should be build to make money and provide employment opportunities. Pretty much nothing else.

Here’s Tim’s speech:

It will be interesting to see and hear the discussions at the upcoming Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin - especially as the current economic climate should push Tim’s point even more to the forefront.

P.S.: In case you haven’t registered for Web 2.0 Expo yet and want to save 35% - register using the following code: webeu08gr67

With Seedcamp week now behind us, it’s time to get ready for the next big event: Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin. Seedcamp brought us a great bunch of early stage startups (well, admittedly some were better than others) with seven (instead of the originally planned five) winners, each receiving 50,000 Euros and three months full of mentoring in wonderful London. Dan Kaplan of VentureBeat has a really nice write-up on the winning teams - check it out if you are interested in the stuff you get from early stage startups these days. There’s also an interesting comment thread on the Seedcamp site where the Finnish company HammerKit accuses one of the winning teams (BaseKit) of basically copying their service. Looks like the culture of copycats doesn’t stop at events like Seedcamp…

Moving on from Seedcamp we have the wonderful Web 2.0 Expo in Berlin ahead of us - as mentioned earlier the event features a really impressive list of speakers, workshops and there will be a ton of un/associated events go on around the main expo. Just check out the session schedule and you know that you’ll have a busy week in Berlin. From all I can see (and I saw at last year’s event), Web 2.0 is a really nice venue if you want to get some inspiration, ideas, exchange with like-minded people, validate some thoughts you might have about the future and meet some of the most important people in Internet business today. So get your business cards ready, book your flights and I’ll see you in Berlin.

Having mentored four teams at Seedcamp yesterday, here are some initial thoughts (still pretty raw I guess):

• The overall quality of the teams is better than last year; the teams are further down the road of their development process and are in general more mature than last years crowd.
• Not surprisingly you see quite a few plays in the emerging space of the semantic web (which I applaud) but also plays in areas which are very, very mature (think travel for example).
• As usual some teams are really on the ball and seem to be well prepared to get the most out of Seedcamp (they have good and very specific questions and know what they would like to get out of their mentors), some teams are pretty catastrophic and don’t really seem to understand themself why they are actually there (and no - I won’t tell you who left this impression on me!).
• There is a stronger international flavour to it than last year; it’s really nice to see companies from pretty much all over Europe. This might be a bit cliche but at least at Seedcamp it seems to be true: Startups from Eastern Europe seem to be more technology oriented, teams from Western Europe are much stronger on topics like brand, marketing and user value proposition.
• There is a distinct lack of coffee at the venue! How on earth can you run a conference like this and don’t have plenty of coffee around?

So far I haven’t seen anything which really stands out - let’s see what today will bring.