Archive for the ‘thoughts’ Category
Over the last few months I had not much time for The Silicon Road. Firstly, I was completely absorbed with work end of 2009. Afterwards, I had a great opportunity to travel several countries until I arrived at my destination, the South-East Asian city state Singapore. During the last four months, I again learned a lot at our company, I met entrepreneurs and great people along my travel, and surely I am starting to explore the start-up cluster here in Singapore. Let’s take one thing at a time.
Time did not stand still
After a hard time in the first half of 2009, we experienced that the economy and corporate investments in software picked up again after summer. Sales cycles seemed to become shorter and old ‘pre-crisis’ leads could be re-activated. This trend continued towards end of 2009 and we were happy to see several large companies going live. Hence, we had a great, busy start into 2010.
No need to say that time did not stand still for other start-ups either. I was happy to see several ventures raising funds, launching products or simply being successful and taking off. I hope this will continue in 2010 along with global economic growth.
Amazing Travel
The year 2010 began personally with an amazing travel experience. The highlight of my trip was definitely my trip to Iran. There were so many breath-taking moments, which I surely will not forget: I met liberal, conservative, and religious people. I spend hours looking at the beautiful cultural heritage in Persepolis, Isfahan and Shiraz. Travelling to Teheran, I passed the internationally discussed nuclear power plants (not taking pictures). I had inspiring talks with young and elder Iranians about their history and their future. Have a look at my blog posts here (in German).
Singaporean Entrepreneurs
I arrived here a month ago. So far, I have met several promising ventures (also thanks to Sandbox). I will keep an eye on the Singaporean start-up cluster for sure and keep you posted with interesting insights.
I hope, my offline time is over as far as this blog is concerned. If you have any suggestions for posts, please send me an email.
Today morning I visited Wuala for coffee. The company, which is well-known for its online storage service and which was acquired by LaCie early this year, has reason to celebrate. The first reason (and presumably the more important one) is the fact that more than 100 million files are now stored with Wuala technology in the “cloud”. In addition to that, they relocated to new offices downtown Zurich.
Congratulations, Wuala, on 100 million files and on a new office!
We also moved offices this week. Luckily, we only moved one floor downstairs (this is our incubator). Still, it is always a disruptive moment for the team – packing, throwing things away and seeing the place you’ve spent so many hours totally empty; at the same time it is exciting to move in at the new place, with more or less a clean desk. Besides this and the view from your window not much changes for a web start-up. Your computer is still the same. Everything should be running the same way. Moving offices is a good moment to move on and to implement new processes, new structures and new habits. This is just psychology, this is how we act.
Wuala is doing really good, as far as I can assess. It was a nice coffee break this morning. Thanks for having me and I hope you enjoyed the Grittibänz. Have fun working in this spacious, great office. We’re staying tuned what interesting products you’ve got in your pipeline!
Pictures by Wuala, click here for more
Does someone know the following people personally? This my personal wish list of people, who I would like to meet once in my lifetime. I know, I know, I am dreaming. Since these meetings are unlikely to happen, I also present you some questions, I would like to ask them. Read full story »
His speech is over. He’s proud. What a great chance to pitch his new start-up in front of all these people. His elevator pitch was the last one of this session. All guests leave the sticky room quickly. Outside, selected drinks are offered. Food is set on several smaller tables throughout the room. Business angels, journalists, and businessmen wander about the area; drink in one hand, trying out delectable nibbles with the other. He gets a glass of white wine and approaches a group of gray-haired men. As he joins the group and politely greets them, the man standing opposite to him says: “Ah, you did the last presentation, right? Good speech! Your company name sounds funny… hyzloo. So, tell me, what do you do again? ” Read full story »
Starting a venture is like having a baby: it gets very frightening as soon as you realize that you’ve taken over responsibility for something you’ve never had before. Will I be a good father? What if the baby gets sick? How do I know that it’s sick? How do you do this? Do that? Am I gonna kill it like the hamster I had? … omg, will I be a good father?
If you’re asking these questions as a father-to-be, I suppose it’s too late to pull back. As an entrepreneur-to-be your live is still a bit more maneuverable. Last Friday, I had the pleasure to speak in front of a group of exchange students about entrepreneurship and our company Cassiber. Nextech Venture, a venture fund in early-stage healthcare, and Télésonique, a Swiss telecommunication operator, presented as well. During the Q&A sessions and the subsequent panel discussion, the students’ questions remembered me of the time when we started.
I’ve put together a list of useful links and advices you might find interesting.
The world is spinning fast; definitely faster than it did fifty years ago. New technologies and globalisation has brought us closer and increases business transactions and innovation cycles.
For more than two years, I’ve been reading and consuming blog posts, tweast, chats and personal advices form entrepreneurs. A bit more than 17 months ago, two friends and I took the opportunity to found our first venture together, Cassiber, based in Zurich, Switzerland. I won’t pitch Cassiber here, but I like to contribute with my experiences to other entrepreneurs.
I am always happy to meet other entrepreneurs and learn about different markets and new technologies. Share with me your thoughts! Two heads are better than one. So don’t hesitate to comment or drop me a line to rico [at] thesiliconroad.com. I’ll be happy to answer.
