The Future Just Arrived - Grey Area Is Developing A New Kind Of Mobile Gaming Genre From The Ground Up
Grey Area, a small startup operating in stealth mode, is gearing up to change the cityscape for everybody. I get back to how they are going to do this later in the post, but the story of how this startup came to be is equally interesting.
I first met the guys back in OpenCoffee Helsinki what must be more than a year ago. I remember Mikko Hämäläinen telling me how they were exploring possibilities to set up a company with two of his friends, Andreas Karlsson and Teemu Tuulari, from Ericsson. All three had started at Ericsson in 2003-2004 and met when they were put in the small team with the task of developing an Ericsson network node.
Nosco Sells Shares In Ideas. Want To Buy One?
This is the first post in a series of posts on startups that presented at the ArcticEvening in Copenhagen at the end of June. First up is Nosco, a nifty Danish startup that's specialized in idea management.
Nosco offers an idea management tool Idea Exchange. An online suggestion box, where you buy shares in ideas. I don't have experience in using the product, but by looking at some of their customers' experiences, there's clearly something there. Much more than in my previous job, where the management tried to engage and encourage the staff coming up with new ideas by going through all the trouble of setting up a one new email account. So if you feel an urge setting up ideas@yourdomainhere.com as your new organizational initiative, check out Nosco instead.
20 More Tickets To ArcticEvening in Stockholm
Due to a absolutely overwhelming demand we have issued 20 new tickets (here) to our 6th pan-regional event taking place in Stockholm, in the Obaren (map) on the 2nd April from 6pm to 9pm. Taking into consideration the size of the venue we cannot issue more than 20 new tickets. If you have a ticket, do let us know ASAP if you can't make it and we'll be able to reallocate your ticket. Thanks.
The evening’s theme will be startups and the future of mobile. Come and hear what's hot in mobile, where we are going, what's in store for the future and where does the biggest opportunities for mobile startups lie.
Make sure you'll show up if you get a ticket (they are free!), or you'll end up on our black list which means there's no coming to our events in the future.
ArcticEvening in Stockholm, Sweden - Startups And The Future Of Mobile
ArcticStartup will be hosting its 6th pan-regional event in Stockholm, in the Obaren (map) on the 2nd April from 6pm to 9pm. The evening’s theme will be startups and the future of mobile which is as topical it gets now when iPhone is pushing the industry forward in everything it does, bloggy.se is gaining ground from Jaiku across the region and Spotify is busy building its mobile version. Come and hear what's where we are going, what's in store for the future and where does the biggest opportunities for mobile startups lie.
Just as before, the structure of the evening will take into account the wishes of participants from earlier events. We have been asked to leave more time for networking, but have a solid panel in middle. Thus, we will have one panel with industry heavy weights and the rest of the evening will be left for networking and discussions between participants. Each panel participant will have a chance to introduce themselves before the panel.
They say best things in life are free and so is ArcticEvening (watch a short video on the event here), but we will still have a sign-up system to the event, which we will be opening on the 16th March at 9am (GMT+1 ie. Swedish local time) . Without exceptions, the tickets have sold out extremely fast, so make sure you are here to get your ticket. We are able to host the event free of charge for participants due to our wonderful sponsors. Our sponsors are presented below.
Panelists
Morris Packer, The Bonnier Group
Morris Packer, born 1962 i New York and living in Europe since 1968, continues to cross borders. With more than 15 years within the media industry he has closely followed the evolution from desk top publishing to the mobile web. With a slightly Faustian relationship to technology he loves print and always has a new gadget to show. Since April Fools Day 2004 he runs the department of Bonnier Mobile Services that provides know-how and technology to all brands within The Bonnier Group.
Teemu Kurppa, Co-founder, Huikea / Ex-Jaiku (Google)
Teemu Kurppa is the co-fouder of Huikea, a mobile startup still in a stealth mode. Before co-founding his own startup he was part of the founding team of Jaiku, a microblogging service that was acquired by Google in 2007. After leaving Google last fall Teemu came back to Finland to found Huikea that he now runs. Teemu is an experienced mobile developer having over 6 years experience of developing end-user mobile applications.
More panelists will be announced in due course.
Sponsors
Our event is made available by our Sponsors. Do take time to get to know them - they are one of the most interesting organisations in the industry. We hand pick our sponsors to bring value to the evenings - these guys are truly worth your time.
Sombiz
Sombiz is a Social Media Business Network of Finnish social media & Web 2.0 companies, research institutions, and other organisations and individuals operating in the field of social media.
Sombiz provides a network for organisations to collaborate, learn from each other, and create partnerships. By connecting business with research Sombiz is stimulating the creation of new innovations. The ultimate goal for Sombiz is to find new business opportunities and help companies to grow and go international.
Sombiz operates as a thematic network of the Finnish Digibusiness Cluster and is a part of the government funded Centre of Expertise Programme (OSKE). In 2008 the building of the Sombiz network was selected as the national “OSKE Top Project”. The project is funded by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy.
The background organisation of Sombiz is Technology Centre Hermia Ltd.
Sombiz is a Finnish-based network operating internationally. The strategy of Sombiz is a “BUGC” approach: linking Business, Universities, Government, and Communities in order to build and boost the social media business ecosystem.
Hammarström Puhakka Partners
Hammarström Puhakka Partners, Attorneys Ltd is a law firm specialised in business law. The firm has a good corporate practice with experienced M&A advisers acting constantly for domestic and cross-border clients. Specialists provide M&A services to public and private companies relating to assignments concerning private equity and venture capital transactions. The firm is constantly involved with complex transactions in connection with private equity firms and experienced in advising private equity/venture capital investors in divesting their investments.
Skype Spear Heading A Bigger Change
Whatever you say about the materialized synergies of Ebay and Skype after Ebay paid $2.6 billion in up-front cash and eBay stock in 2005 to acquire the IP telephony trail blazer, Skype is currently really making me smile by changing the landscape.
Despite, or perhaps because of, the spiraling global economics outlook, Skype last year earned US$550 million in revenue, a 44 per cent rise, year on year. During the last ArcticEvening that we held in Tallinn, Stem Tamkivi, Skype's Chief Evangelist, told me during the panel that interestingly Skype actually saw the economic downturn coming quite early as their usage started to rise like it has not risen in years.
Not only that, according to PCWorld, Skype maintains that separate research points to 95 per cent of business users saving money using it, with about a third cutting their phone bills by half. Almost 80 per cent of the survey of 'Skype for Business' users, showed that nearly 80 per cent had seen an increase in productivity and were working closer with their co-workers because of using Skype ... [And] the research shows that some 62 per cent of business subscribers were using Skype to better communicate with their customers. Some impressive figures. For us, here at ArcticStartup, this is clear sign of the times.
Mark my words. If it wasn't clear to you before that IP Telephony was taking its next significant step speeded up by the economic belt tightening in the firms, now it should be crystal clear and I believe we see sigficant even if gradual changes very soon in the way small businesses and individual employees start to exploit this opportunity in cross border communication.
I already personally make 100% of my business calls to Tallinn via Skype. Many firms in Estonia have even a separate Skype button on their website to contact them via Skype. This is surely something we could take upon and start running our business more wisely, not only across the Scandinavia and Baltics, but globally.
Yes, some still claim it does not cut it when it comes to the quality of the sound, and you just can't afford to have a bad connection when you're talking to customers. A fair point. But Skype 4.0, should now offer higher quality audio, through 'super wideband audio' and a new bandwidth manager for video calling.
And we're not alone in our praise. The Finish giant, Nokia, has also made a big move. On Tuesday Nokia announced that they are planning to fully integrate Skype into their devices:
The first Skype-enabled Nokia N97 devices will be rolling out from the third quarter. Using Skype on your S60 device isn’t new, but the level of integration with the service and the device is. Skype won’t be running as a separate application, but actually plugged directly into your contacts...
Congratulations for both companies and especially to the users. I have high expectations and it makes me hopeful seeing Nokia having the balls to stand up to the operators. The same enabler that works for small businesses can do much more for the developing countries, which are exactly the markets where Nokia is strong. This announcement alone could mean a bigger chance towards a higher quality of life over time to many people in developing countries than a whole lot of World Bank projects together. Yes, there's a long way to go and now for example the WiFi hotspots are few and far in between in the least developed countries, but there's still a lot of people who can benefit from this from South America to Africa.
ArcticEvening Helsinki - 3rd of March, 2009
ArcticStartup will be hosting its 5th event in Helsinki, in the good old Dubrovnik Lounge and Lobby on the 3rd of March from 6pm to 9pm. The evening's theme will be financing which will surely be of interest to many startups and early stage companies as it's one of the corner stones of building a successful business.
The structure of the evening will take into account the wishes of participants from earlier events. We have been asked to leave more time for networking, but still with build the evening with some presentations and talks. Therefore, we will have one panel with very strong industry experts and the rest of the evening will be left for networking and discussions between participants. Each panel participant will have a chance to introduce themselves before the panel.
We will have a sign-up system to the event, which we will be opening on the 18th of February at 9am. We will have at least 100 tickets available for participants. Last time we organised our event in Tallinn, the tickets sold out extremely fast, so make sure you are here to get your ticket. We are able to host the event free of charge for participants due to our wonderful sponsors. Our sponsors are presented below.
Panelists
Artturi Tarjanne, General Partner, Nexit Ventures
Artturi Tarjanne is one of the most experienced Finnish investors out there, he has more than 20 years' investing experience from various industries - mainly telecom.Jussi Harvela, Partner, Veturi Growth Partners
Jussi Harvela has more than 20 years' experience in running and managing high tech startups and corporations. He successfully transformed a small Finnish startup to an established global software company, from Finland to Cupertino, California.Nils Forsblom, Founder, Fruugo
Nils Forsblom has a colorful career starting companies here and there. His latest thrill has been the hyped, feared and appreciated e-commerce startup named Fruugo. He has gathered financing in many different economical conditions so he will surely have a say in the panel.Jouko Kiesi, Attorney at law, senior advicer, Hammarström Puhakka Partners
Jouko Kiesi is one of the corner stones of HPP's success. He has a strong background in startup financing, about 30 years worth. He has worked with legendary startups such as Riot-E and Iobox. Needless to say, there will be some interesting stories told.With more than 80 years' worth of experience on the panel - it'll surely be one of the most anticipated get togethers ever experienced in Finland. Make sure you get your ticket on the morning of the 18th of February. If Madonna's concert in Helsinki sold out in a few hours - we'll be quicker.
The ticket's will be available on this blog on the morning of the 18th of February and on the ArcticEvening page.
Sponsors
Our event is made available by our Sponsors. Do take time to get to know them - they are one of the most interesting organisations in the industry. We hand pick our sponsors to bring value to the evenings - these guys are truly worth your time.
Sombiz
Sombiz is a Social Media Business Network of Finnish social media & Web 2.0 companies, research institutions, and other organisations and individuals operating in the field of social media.
Sombiz provides a network for organisations to collaborate, learn from each other, and create partnerships. By connecting business with research Sombiz is stimulating the creation of new innovations. The ultimate goal for Sombiz is to find new business opportunities and help companies to grow and go international.
Sombiz operates as a thematic network of the Finnish Digibusiness Cluster and is a part of the government funded Centre of Expertise Programme (OSKE). In 2008 the building of the Sombiz network was selected as the national "OSKE Top Project". The project is funded by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy.
The background organisation of Sombiz is Technology Centre Hermia Ltd.
Sombiz is a Finnish-based network operating internationally. The strategy of Sombiz is a "BUGC" approach: linking Business, Universities, Government, and Communities in order to build and boost the social media business ecosystem.
Hammarström Puhakka Partners
Hammarström Puhakka Partners, Attorneys Ltd is a law firm specialised in business law. The firm has a good corporate practice with experienced M&A advisers acting constantly for domestic and cross-border clients. Specialists provide M&A services to public and private companies relating to assignments concerning private equity and venture capital transactions. The firm is constantly involved with complex transactions in connection with private equity firms and experienced in advising private equity/venture capital investors in divesting their investments.
Arctic Evening on the 2nd October
We're back with events and would like to invite all of our readers to enjoy a laid back evening at Dubrovnik atmosphere with some drinks, networking and discussion on our very own startup scene on the 2nd October, 2008.
Wisened up from the feedback from you guys, we aim to keep the program brief and to the point, but still interesting. We will have Peter Robinett flying over from Amsterdam to come and chat with me about the lastest developements in the Amsterdam startup scene, the hottest Dutch startups, and even the Silicon Valley scene in general and what we could learn from the two to make the Finnish startup ecosystem more dynamic for all of us.
Peter is an accomplished coder and a web designer. He's originally from Palo Alto, California which is undisputedly the most dynamic start-up ecosystem in the world. After moving to Europe he quickly settled in Amsterdam, Netherland and have been active impacting the local start-up scene by organizing Luch 2.0, Barcamps and most recently the iPhone Dev Camp.
In addition to the discussion with Peter, we will have an open mic for any start-up, entrepreneur or other like minded persona to talk about their project, product launch, open source project and what not. Addition to this we attempt to bring in one interesting speaker that will be revealed at the beginning of the evening itself.
The venue will be the tried and tested Dubrovnik Lounge & Lobby in Helsinki, Finland. We will start at 6pm and wind down the official program around 9pm. Naturally those willing are welcomed to go until the wee hours.
To pay the bills we are looking sponsors for the event. If your company is interested email Miikka your contact details at miikka [at] arcticstartup [dot] com and he will contact you. We'll give you proper visibility and you can say a few words about your company at the beginning of the evening.
We're are also celebrating our one-year birthday, so leave the NDAs at home and come along to toast with us to the buzzing local startup scene and to the entrepreneurs we have here.
Edit 14/09/2008: Please register here if you have a Facebook account and you're planning on attending, so that we'll have an idea of how many will attend and can prepare for it. If you don't have a Facebook account feel free to write me or tell us you're coming at the comments. Thanks guys!
