Marc Samwer to Nordic Entrepreneurs: See if you get traction locally, then go international

In this short interview with investor, serial entrepreneur and SIME friend Marc Samwer, he talks to the SIME blog about US concepts to watch and interesting companies on the rise. He also gives some advice to Nordic entrepreneurs.

Ulf Ekberg, Martin Varsavsky, Marc Samwer, Tariq Krim on the European Stars Panel, SIME 06. Photo by skrivanet.

SIME Blog: You have a great track record of finding concepts in Sillicon Valley and
bringing them to Europe. What are the hottest concepts now in the US that we
have not yet seen in Europe?

Marc Samwer: Glam.com is a very interesting concept which has no equivalent so far in Europe. And I believe there is a lot of room for people to develop successful Facebook applications and start their own companies based on a suite of such Facebook applications.

SIME Blog: You are also involved in many other startups across a broad range of
services that leverage the new web. What are some of the new exciting
projects for you at the moment? Where is the action?

Marc Samwer: Reachlocal (Los Angeles) is a very interesting and successful company which helps small and medium businesses to spent their marketing money online instead in yellow pages. Bigpoint (Frankfurt) is a leader in online browser games which is a big trend because people want to play interesting games without having to download them before.

SIME Blog: If you would give one piece of advice to entrepreneurs in the Nordic
countries, what would it be?

Marc Samwer: Start local to see if your idea gets traction but then quickly develop an English-speaking version of your website and go international. And all this while not spending a lot of (marketing) money but with as little money as possible.

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