Meet the Nominee of the Day (9), Zendesk, Denmark

Company Bio

Zendesk is inspiring the help desk 2.0 movement through a focus on enlightened customer support. By leveraging the benefits of Web-based communications and social media, Zendesk extends good help desk karma to any company looking to offer professional-grade support service with very little effort. For nearly two years, Zendesk has helped companies large and small move their help desk and customer support operations to the Web.

Country

Denmark

Website

http://www.zendesk.com

Snapshot

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SIME Talks 11: Mia Rose, the youtube sensation says its all about being honest

Mia Rose, born January 1988 is a music sensation of the digital era. In days where artists are shelling out loads of money to get music distributed, she went right into the heart of it all, youtube, and did not shed a single penny towards distribution. But, et voila, guess what, she is now youtube’s most subscribed musician ever, all in a matter of couple of years. It might be a bit unfair to call it a “gotcha” moment and state the unobviously obvious claim that music should be solely based on channels like youtube and we can stop the bleeding in the music industry. But calling Mia a one off wonder would also be a bit harsh. It was just the right thing at the right moment at the right place and a bit of business sense that made her a sensation of tomorrow.

View Mia’s Youtube channel, Facebook Page, MySpace and Web

Last year at SIME, we had Mia on a panel with Dr. Stefan Glänzer and Ulk Ekberg of Ace of Base fame to talk about of all things music. Mia, a digital sensation, Stefan pioneer of Internet music through Last. FM and Ulf, a man who belonged to the analog age but loves the digital age just as , a potent mix together with SIME moderator Ola Ahlvarsson (former VP of Boxman, a service that used to sell music CD’s online in the 90′s). And Mia’s comments were stark, that, you can do music online, and you ‘can’ find dedicated followers and the model just about works as much at your own convenience.

Radon caught up with her after SIME, and chatted her up about her whole journey so far. And for her its all about being honest and truthful to yourself, your music and your fans. Something that cannot be disputed we say.

Mia Rose from SIME on Vimeo.

We have put this as part of our SIME Talks this week, again, a small shining torch that we hope will illuminate the dark sky of the music industry. Last.FM, Grooveshark, Spotify  and tons of other services are justifying the same ends through different means. May the music industry see the light at the end of the tunnel.

SIME Awards: The wait is over, Round 2 of the Mighty 36 launched!

Yes, finally, the wait is (partially) over for the companies that made the cut in the Round 2 launch of the SIME Awards Mighty 36, and our hearty congratulations go out to them! SIME cannot be more thrilled to have you on board. From here on the journey can only just get better.

Read about SIME Awards Mighty 36

View Round 1 of the Mighty 36 Nominees here

The companies that made the cut are:
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Meet the Nominee of the Day(8), SoundCloud, Sweden

Company Bio

SoundCloud lets you move music fast & easy. The platform takes the daily hassle out of receiving, sending & distributing music for artists, record labels & other music professionals.

Web

http://soundcloud.com

Country:

Sweden (located currently in Berlin)

Snapshot:

Meet the founders

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The Mighty 36 – Second Round of Nominees to be released tomorrow

The Mighty 36 are really going to go on a SIME magic ride. And we have some exciting cool things lined up for them. Tomorrow is going to be a path changing day for 12 more of the Mighty 36 as we announce the second round of nominees.

View the first 12 of the Mighty 36 here

Read about the SIME Awards Process here

It’s going to be again a mix of companies from all the Scandinavian countries, true to the spirit of the name SIME. Out of the Mighty 36, 3 are chosen to present during the SIME Awards Dinner and Gala in front of an audience that would consist of top managers, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, marketing heads – everyone who is going to look at the idea and think about doing something strategic with it, in short, an audience that you would want to terribly impress with your best suit, best smile, and most importantly your world changing idea.

So till the launch tomorrow, we ask the nominated companies (view the list here) to hold their breath, and if you do make it, take a little bit of cool air, and give yourself a pat on your back, for the excitement has just begun.

Ola Ahlvarsson: Snacks from the World Economic Forum, Dalian, September 2009

It’s an elite party, quite much the movers and shakers of the world. From academicians, to the political clout, the big names in Wall Street, to the entrepreneur of different kinds, the World Economic Forum (WEF) team brings the elite of the elite thought leaders under one roof.

Ola Ahlvarsson, the chairman and moderator of SIME has been a regular feature at the WEF sessions, and has been conferred the title of “Global Leader of Tomorrow” in the previous WEF session held in Davos, Switzerland. SIME Stockholm will have some participants from the organizing committee of WEF, so you can get a chance to meet and talk to them when in Stockholm.

This year, the annual WEF event was held in Dalian, China on September 10, 11 and Ola has some interesting thoughts to share from the session he took part in. Below, you can also find take home messages by Sir. Martin Sorell, CEO of WPP WorldWide and Ben Werwaayen, CEO of Alcatel – Lucent.

Ola Ahlvarsson from the World Economic Forum

View Ola’s profile

We are entering the century of Asia (as anyone who has spent time in Asia lately can confirm). The growth is fueled by optimism and an energy that comes from a generation who has a much better life than they had 10 years ago and considerably better than their parents as apposed to many of us living in the western world. But the growth comes at a price in economies where the only currency that counts is money and not life quality or respect for human rights. The Chinese and Indian poverty is a competitive advantage not only to make fake Gucci bags but increasingly to innovate and create. In the century to come military strength is not what defines hegemony but rather the ability to create. The opposite of war is not peace, it is creation.

But Asia is by no means one country and it could be argued that China and India are more similar to our societies than to each other. Or as one of the speakers said: “ “Asia” is just a term coined by the ancient Greeks to explain everyone not living in Europe, it has no meaning as a descriptive term for anything.

The good news is that the Asian century is a party that we are all invited to and international products, ideas and capital will be instrumental in sustaining the expected hyper growth, it is up each one of us if we see that as a threat or opportunity.”

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Meet the Nominee of the Day (7), Wimp, Norway

Company Bio:

Wimp is a music service that gives you full access to play from a library of several million tracks. Our selection is growing rapidly and our focus is always to have the most complete selection possible. At the moment we have a special focus on our selection of Norwegin music. The service is at the moment only available as a closed beta version and in a limited number of countries. As a registered user you can download our application for Windows, Mac or Linux and when you log in you will have access to all the music in the library. The music is not downloaded to your PC, but as long as you are a registered user you will have full access to all the music. During the beta period we will also have the option to purchase and download music. You are also free to transfer these files to your mobile or MP3-player.

Web:

http://wimp.aspiro.com

Country:

Norway

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Mid Autumn Summary from the SIME Team

SIME Stockholm 2009 is gathering a lot of steam. It is slowly taking shape into something that promises to be very interesting, unique and extremely catalyzing to the entrepreneurial environment, taking us closer to our lofty vision of giving the best ever SIME in the 13 year history. From inspiring keynotes and panelists to business galvanizing workshops, and SIME Awards and gala that celebrate Nordic’s finest in the heart of Stockholm city, a true fitting to the SIME aficionados, we have them all weaved into 2 days full of inspiration, knowledge, business and fun – the mantra that the SIME crew lives by.

Check the SIME Stockholm Web

This post aims to summarize all the developments that have happened from the month of July aiming to keep track of all the blood and sweat that is going on behind the scenes to take the Nordics (Stockholm) by storm this year.

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Blogger Press Passes for SIME 09

This year SIME will again welcome a number of interesting bloggers to attend the event on a Blogger Press Pass!

If selected for a Blogger Press Pass, you get a full conference ticket to SIME09, which means you get access to the two conference days on November 11-12, but not the SIME Awards gala dinner. Unfortunately we don’t have room for everyone, so please fill out the simple application form below and we will consider your request.

What do we expect from Blogger Press Pass attendants? Basically – nothing. We hope you participate and make SIME a great conference, and cover topics you find interesting and that fit your blog as you normally would. You will have the opportunity to talk to and interview many of the international top speakers.

Please send your application before October 18. We will announce the Blogger Press Passes on October 26. If you have any questions about this initiative, please contact Mahesh Kumar mahesh@result.com

Meet the Nominee of the Day (6), Spotify, Sweden

Company Bio:

Spotify has created a lightweight software application that users can simply download, log in and thereby enable on demand streaming of music. Spotify is a proprietary peer-to-peer music streaming service that allows instant listening to specific tracks or albums with almost no buffering delay.Music can be browsed by artists, albums or created playlists as well as by direct searches. The program/service in its free version is only available in parts of western Europe during the ongoing beta program although the subscription model should be available in almost all countries. Spotify recently also launched into the iPhone, Android mobile platforms

Read background information on Spotify

Country:

Sweden

Web:

http://www.spotify.com

Founders:

Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon

Meet Daniel Ek

Daniel is a 26 year old technologist who started his first company 1997 at the age of 14. Currently he is the CEO and founder of Spotify, a legal music service that helps people discover, browse and play music.

Spotify was founded as a reaction to the decline of the music industry. People listen to more music than ever, from a bigger diversity of artists. The underlying business has changed from being about ownership to an access model. Spotify facilitates that by offering a service in the cloud.

Prior to Spotify, Daniel was the initial CTO of Stardoll, the fashion & entertainment community for tweens. He was also the CEO of µTorrent, the worlds most popular BitTorrent client with more than 100 million downloads. Daniel has also founded Advertigo, the advertising company acquired by TradeDoubler, as well as been a part of the nordic auction company Tradera (acquired by Ebay).

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