Archive for the 'Entrepreneurship' Category

Abu Dhabi Magical Media Summit by Ola Ahlvarsson Part I (feat. Rupert Murdoch)

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Published
by
Mahesh Kumar
on March 12, 2010

This post is about Blog, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration and Knowledge

People that not only have the power to change the media industry but, because of the power of the media industry, also to change the world in which we live in - Edward Borgerding, CEO, Abu Dhabi Media Company

Abu Dhabi Media Summit an invite-only event featuring the cream of the cream in the media industry seems to have made ripples across the industry. With the top brass from NewsCorp, Google, AOL, Microsoft et al under one roof, it might have been silly to expect anything else actually. Our very own SIME Chairman, Ola Ahlvarsson was also around for the event this week, and inspiration seems to be an unsaid theme in all the 4 days from March 9-12, 2010. Below is his recount of the keynote by Rupert

The first day of Abu Dhabi Media forum. A World Economic forum like super elite gathering of media dignitaries where people like Rupert Murdoch, Eric Schmidt, Esther Dyson are chit chatting in the corridors with the royalties of the region ( disclaimer: I don´t consider myself being one of them but am very happy to be a fly on the wall J).

abu-dhabi-summit

The opening statement by the BBC anchor

“ The people in the room are the smartest in media in the world. The media industry can change the world more than any other industry, over these days we will find out which future you will shape”.

Welcome Rupert Murdoch

Murdoch was clearly interested in the Arab region where he sees that old traditions if they are good are compatible with a sky touching modern skyline. He felt that the region has drawn from its strong past while pointing at the future….

“ There is a creative wind blowing from the dessert and it reeks of technology but it is easy to be blinded by the bling of technology and forget what is really interesting – content. What is an e-reader without good journalism or authors telling stories? Only meaningless toys. People will be drawn to creativity wherever they can find it and furthermore they will
add their own creativity. It is about unlocking creativity more than about technology. If you tell a good story people will listen. Avatar has already brought in close to 3 billion USD, it was produced to a large extent in New Zealand…

So how do you foster creativity in a region ( like the Arab world)? Well it takes money. You also have to create a market place where creativity can be funded and exit. The advertising market must be fair and transparent, copyright laws in place, international competition is essential to make the local companies and thoughts globally competitive. But it also takes individual freedom where governments must have a gentle touch if they have to interfere with creativity. The potential asset of creativity is larger than that of oil. It is also cleaner, endless, creates jobs, excites and ultimately creates a better world.”

For one, I am looking forward for tangible ways to help the media dinosaurs shift the bandwagon into the new spectrum, live in a new world where things have changed upside down. Media companies have more unsold ad inventory which they are not able to connect to good content or revenue model. People are paying less for “traditional” digital advertisements, and concepts such as behavioral
re-targeting and sharing analytics of visitors seems to be more relevant serving as a better investment for those advertising dollars. All in all, the landscape is interesting and we are looking forward for more personal recounts by Ola in the coming days.

Some coverage of the summit can be found here, here and here

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SIME Talks Season 2, Episode 3: What’s the next entrepreneurial hub / hot spot in the world?

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Published
by
Mahesh Kumar
on February 19, 2010

This post is about Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Knowledge

Last year at SIME, a series of people were asked to name 1 city / place they thought would be the next hot spot / hub (in the next 2 - 3 years) for the digital scene in the world. Answers ranged from “Silicon Valhalla” (Scandinavian tradition), Berlin, Amsterdam, Shanghai, Beijing, Barcelona to a multiple other cities. And most entrepreneurs chose their own home / region they operate from as the next hub, either because they really like the place or they have not explored other options. I am guessing knowing the DNA of the crowd at SIME who are typically go global entrepreneurs, they would want to marry opportunity with capital and network. European cities being closer than other cities in Asia or South America for instance have a spill over effect probably helping smart entrepreneurs gravitate to the city.  Of course there were insights such as “I like all places since it helps me meet new kind of entrepreneurs”, and the bottom of the pyramid segment makes a lot of sense, but if we quantify it with hard numbers the usual suspects are revealed again.

What do you think? We are developing an in-house matrix of parameters that we can use to understand the vibrancy and buzz of the city - lets call it the “SIME Vibrancy Index” and we plan to present it soon. In the meantime go ahead, voice your views, do not let facts stop you from talking your gut out.

SIME participants are wondering about the next Hotspot in the world from 23tv.de on Vimeo.

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SIME Talks Season 2, Episode 2: Young entrepreneurs, listen to this.

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Published
by
Mahesh Kumar
on February 10, 2010

This post is about Blog, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration and SIME People

Young entrepreneurs, listen to this.

There is no secret recipe to reach the top, but listening to this might atleast give you inspiration, help you correct your mistakes faster, understand what makes things work, the value of partnerships and business alliances, risk taking approach, the importance of finding the right team to work with, learning quick from failures and ultimately putting in those long hours day and night. May be the usual run of the mill if you read the text, but listening to these experts and entrepreneurs talk might atleast rekindle that lost memory, the hidden thought and hopefully supply some fuel to excel in these cold long days. The first advise I got from my mentor couple of years back was “Having a great idea is a liability without the right execution”, and these are such very valuable insights that reshapes the way you think about your business. This is a great resource, thanks to 23business for interviewing the folks at SIME 2009, editing and putting all the thoughts cohesively.

SIME Stockholm 2009 - Tips and advices for young entrepreneurs from 23tv.de on Vimeo.

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SIME Talks: Season 2, Episode 1 - an introduction about SIME and plans for SIME 2010

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Published
by
Mahesh Kumar
on February 4, 2010

This post is about Blog, Entrepreneurship, Events, Inspiration, Knowledge, SIME News, SIME People and Upcoming

SIME Talks, inspired by a similar version from TED features interviews, expert opinions around things digital from friends of the SIME house. We started the weekly routine of featuring an expert and focusing on a take home message revolving around different topics since last July, and the concept has quite much caught on.

We love the whole routine of putting up the show since it gives us the chance to revisit old interviews caught amongst dusty tapes (not that they belong there, but because they didn’t connect with the right medium as yet) and realize the messages conveyed by various thought leaders who have been to SIME. Particularly interesting is if you look at predictions made, from how Tom Crampton and Michael Oreskes connect media content, freemium and quality back in 2007 to the cloud computing movement by SUN, it is fascinating to actually realize these guys figured out the solution before people could understand the problem.

Last year, we featured 15 talk shows and 1 digest edition putting together them all under the banner of ‘all things digital’. And true to our nature of spreading digital knowledge, being inspired by the latest revolutions and innovations and hence inspiring our readers, we feature an introductory talk to kick off this season’s episode. Ola Ahlvarsson, the soul of SIME, moderator and catalyst for the whole brand talks about SIME to the folks from 23 Business (who have a great set of interviews btw at their vimeo channel) about SIME, the various editions of SIME in different cities and plans for 2010.

For those who  are new to SIME, this is a great start for you to get a tweet-vator pitch (not quite, but almost). Welcome to SIME and the family!

You can catch all the SIME Talks, Season 1, all Episodes here
A digest edition if you want to save time (I bet!)

Ola Ahlvarsson about SIME 2009 in Stockholm from 23tv.de on Vimeo.

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Lights Camera Action! SIME is set to take off.

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Published
by
Mahesh Kumar
on November 11, 2009

This post is about Agenda, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Knowledge, SIME People and SIME09

At Rigoletto, and the stage is perfect. The ambience music is in, people are slowly trickling in with their “FIKA” and “Kannelbulle”, the speakers are all gung-ho, the workshops and match-making desks are screaming to your senses, the lovely ladies with interesting “SMS Me” T-Shirts are everywhere taking interaction with them (and quite good number of followers, yes all men, some even thinking it’s their number), it’s time of that year where it’s a whole new world with SIME. The journey is about to begin in minutes.

Some relevant links before we begin:

Agenda: http://sime.nu/09/stockholm/agenda

Speaker Profiles: http://sime.nu/09/stockholm/speakers

SIME Live!: http://sime.nu/live

And it’s rare 2 days where the Scandinavians are forced to rig off the shyness, and talk to the camera, it’s not an option, it’s an order. So be ready to be filmed, flashed till your eyes bleed with photos, and make sure you suck the juice out of SIME by meeting people.

SIME is set to take off. Tighten your seat belts, it’s going to be  journey of inspiration, knowledge, business and fun.

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Lights, Camera, Action! SIME is set to take off.

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Published
by
Mahesh Kumar
on November 11, 2009

This post is about Agenda, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Knowledge and SIME09

At Rigoletto, and the stage is perfect. The ambience music is in, people are slowly trickling in with their “FIKA” and “Kannelbulle”, the speakers are all gung-ho, the workshops and match-making desks are screaming to your senses, the lovely ladies with interesting “SMS Me” T-Shirts are everywhere taking interaction with them (and quite good number of followers, yes all men, some even thinking it’s their number), it’s time of that year where it’s a whole new world with SIME. The journey is about to begin in minutes.

Some relevant links before we begin:

Agenda: http://sime.nu/09/stockholm/agenda

Speaker Profiles: http://sime.nu/09/stockholm/speakers

SIME Live!: http://sime.nu/live

And it’s rare 2 days where the Scandinavians are forced to rig off the shyness, and talk to the camera, it’s not an option, it’s an order. So be ready to be filmed, flashed till your eyes bleed with photos, and make sure you suck the juice out of SIME by meeting people.

SIME is set to take off. Tighten your seat belts, it’s going to be  journey of inspiration, knowledge, business and fun.

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SIME Speaker Series: Johan Siwers, Managing Director of Match.com, “The Silent Years is when real business is built”

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Published
by
Mahesh Kumar
on October 15, 2009

This post is about Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Knowledge, SIME People, SIME09 and Speakers

johan_siwers1Below is a guest post written by Johan Siwers, Managing Director of Match.com CEO Nordics. Johan Siwers is a seasoned online media executive with a passion for entrepreneurial game changing companies. Johan has over the past 15 years been involved in breaking ground for a wide range of media and online media ventures within companies like Kinnevik, Spray, Shibsted and InterActive Corp (IAC). Johan is also part of the SIME Awards jury.

I recently sat talking to some friends and fellow online veterans.

We started talking about a number of companies that we remembered as the cool and hot media darlings of the online world only a few years ago, but that we lost track of. What had happened? Did the founders loose interest, did they scale down their business when they were about to run out of cash or did they simply go bust? What happened with Polar Rose – Technology pioneer at WEF 2008; and Table Finder – Seed camp winner 2007 or Rebtel – celebrated internationally and raised $20 million in 2006. What about Jaycut - årets nykomling IW 2007

We started to unwind 10-15 stories of these and similar hyped companies and found some interesting cases:

1) About a third of the companies had actually gone bust, sold or merged in a way that had left very little value left
2) Another third were still in business, but was just barely struggling to survive and had lost most of their visions
3) The last third had realized headlines in the media does not pay the bills. They had gone silent, worked on their business model and come out on the other side with a strong offering and business.

In the first category the “entrepreneur” could often be stereotyped into a financial entrepreneur, i.e. a person that put the monetary aspect of running a business first – I want to become rich.
The second category had entrepreneurs that lost the sparkle in their eyes. They often seem to have a problem accepting that they were not saluted success stories any longer – and as success junkies they lost their drive and momentum.

The third category of entrepreneurs and companies kept working hard on their value proposition during Silent Years, learnt from their mistakes and step by step they created a strong and solid foundation for their business. The initial media attention gave them a kick start, but that was more coincidental than part of a plan or reason for being. Many times these entrepreneurs had tweaked and adjusted their initial idea quite drastically, and landed with an improved execution better adapted to reality. The improved execution did not always include the-sky-is-the-limit approach any longer, but all showed a sound profitable company.

The Silent Years showed that these entrepreneurs were never in it for the love of making money, not for the love of seeing them self in the news paper but for the passion of creating something out of a core idea or insight. Tetra Pak lost money the first 15 years. It took IKEA 15 years to start its first store out side of Scandinavia, it took H&M 17 years to do the same.

What would those stories tell us?

  • If you want to get rich, don’t plan on getting rich
  • If you have a passion, work with it, twist and turn, to get it to become a business
  • Most business ideas are not invented, they are grown out of passion and hard work over longer - often Silent - periods of time
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SIME Awards, the doors open to the Mighty 36: Meet the first 12.

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Published
by
Mahesh Kumar
on September 16, 2009

This post is about Awards, Blog, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Knowledge, SIME Companies, SIME News, SIME09 and Upcoming

Yes, its finally official. After months of screening, indexing, and going through some of the best companies from the Scandinavian soil, we have opened the doors to the SIME Awards officially to present them to you.

View the SIME Awards Process Info here

SIME Awards this year focuses on 2 categories (as explained in the prev. post)
“SIME Rising Stars from the North” and “SIME Grand Prize”, the former committed to finding the next Skype from Scandinavia, the later awarding the “most innovative big company”.

We at SIME started working behind the scenes through the summer, stealthily attending various entrepreneurial events, going to places where the young minds congregated, going for the geek girl meet up’s, going for those likemind and social media lunches, we took all the effort to make sure we covered every corner of the entrepreneurial news sources, and voila, we came up with a grand list of companies that we thought were befitting to be considered for our prize.

View the full list of nominated companies and the chosen 12 of the Mighty 36 here

Then we hand picked some top digital minds within Scandinavia, the one’s that in their sleep dream of startup’s and new media, and the one’s that help big companies make such dreams come true, the geeks, the big intrapreneurs, and in all true spirit of SIME, with a smile on their face, they congregated like in the Vatican secret conclave, went through the long lists, and came up with their jury words of wisdom.

View the list of jury here


» Continue reading ‘SIME Awards, the doors open to the Mighty 36: Meet the first 12.’

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SIME Talks 9 - Nostalgia Edition: Morten Lund “I say a lot of Bullshit. Everyone does. No one really knows anything”

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Published
by
Mahesh Kumar
on September 16, 2009

This post is about Blog, Entrepreneurship, Inspiration, Knowledge and SIME People

Maverick, Crazy, Non-conformist, Radical, Innovative, the hippie entrepreneur, all can also go by the 2 letter word, “ML” (for Morten Lund). He is so outspoken, loud, daring, and if you have watched him speak, you can lose a million dollars betting that he is not Scandinavian. Some say he is the pride of the lost Scandinavia, the one that went down with the Vikings.

Morten on SIME in his blog

Whatever be his roots, the wiring in ML is quite simple. He does not believe in bull shit (in his own words) such as “going by the books, go by the rules, go by the mainstream”. Instead the man is a complete “screw it, just do it” kinds, and he wears that attitude every day to work, be it investing in Skype or being part of starting up dead duck companies (that made him officially bankrupt in 2008) . For him, its all about just doing it, or as he says “just fu**ing doing it”. And ML has never failed to entertain us at SIME (Stockholm 1998, 07,08, Copenhagen 07 and Barcelona 09) during his last 2 year’s of continuous “crowd-raving-audience-loving-controversial-provoking” statements of candor that scream loud on your face making you slip deep within your chairs and giving you the “Argh, I ought to get out there and do something big” feeling.

View his talk at Le Web here

ML has a ripple effect in you, in the sense that, he is so calm, cool and sexy, but is yet aggressive and delivers the knock out punch just at the right time in your head making you stand up and take notice of the message in between his “swear words smeared take home message”.

Enough personal bias, here is some formal introduction to the man if you have not heard of:

Morten’s wiki, crunch base, facebook, twitter, blog

And below his message is, err, “Everyone says a lot of bull shit. No one really knows what they are talking about; so just go out there do it”. The timing cannot be more precise, with the SIME Awards Nominees to be released soon ( in like a matter of minutes), this is the perfect message for them.

SIME 08 - Morten Lund from SIME on Vimeo.

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SIME Awards Stockholm: Process, meet the jury

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Published
by
Mahesh Kumar
on September 15, 2009

This post is about Awards, Blog, Entrepreneurship, SIME Companies and Upcoming

SIME Awards this year has taken a completely new path. From the previous year’s edition of allowing companies to nominate themselves and then doing a yes or no jury vote, this year we decided to hand pick the “deserving” companies ourselves and then do the jury process. We dare to say that we have the who’s who of tomorrow’s digital stars of Scandinavia all indexed and tagged, ready to go through a stringent jury committee to capture the top prize at the Awards Gala and Dinner on November 12 in Stockholm.

View the agenda for SIME Stockholm here

SIME Awards has 2 categories this year:

  1. SIME Rising Stars of the North: The pioneers and innovators within the tech scene. Companies that have a working product / service, do not have more than 50 employees and, preferably was founded in the last 2 years. We call them the rising stars, the one’s that will be the toast of Scandinavia, giving the SIME audience a chance for a “aha” moment (more in the likes of “aha, we saw them first in SIME 09″)
  2. SIME Grand Prize: The Big Industry Star are the big lions that are roaring past the competition, finding interesting niches and most importantly, constantly innovating in the Scandinavian digital landscape.

View more info on the Awards here

At the present moment, we have made a list of companies that fit into these criteria, and passed it to the jury members. Once the jury express their opinion and reach a consensus, the nominees will be announced through the blog. The chosen companies will then be given a chance to talk and connect with you, make a quick blog even on why they think they would / should win the top SIME prize.

The jury for SIME Awards 09 consists of a handpicked team of experts within the areas Internet, technology, journalism and entrepreneurship. You can find their quick SIME - twitt- profiles, their online hang out spots right here

Good luck jury, looking forward to present the nominee list soon.

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