Vanity Acquisitions - Do You Pity Or Appraise Them? Do They Even Exist?
In our discussion area, I posted a while back an item on the Slow death of Dopplr. It didn't receive a lot of comments, but the two that were posted got me thinking for the almost 10 days that this is actually a very interesting, yet very sensitive, topic. Vanity acquisitions are those where the acquirer is mainly buying the talent of the startup and does not have much of a will to integrate the startup's tech or business into their own line of business. Yet, be it a vanity acquisition or not - these sort of deals are (almost) always celebrated in the startup community by all. Is it the ultimate goal of an entrepreneur to sell your company no matter what the consequences? Should we be more interested in whom we sell to or does it really matter if the check is big enough?
Sponsor: Few Steps and Tools for Monetizing Web Services
Soprano Brain Alliance is a fast growing Finnish software developing company, which is particularly specialized in open source web technologies such as PHP, Drupal and Zend Framework. Our clients include large Finnish media corporations, public sector organizations and a handful of start up companies. Company’s founder Jukka Hassinen has build the 35 person employing company in six years. Other key people are Taneli Tikka (Board member), Mikko Hämäläinen (COO), Eetu Hyppönen (Serial Creative Director) and Santeri Lindgren (CTO). Brain Alliance is a part of the NASDAQ OMX listed company Soprano Plc.
Over the years our company has worked with over 60 clients and over 100 projects. Even though we work mainly with medium and big companies, we also like to take part in fresh start-up projects. In fact our key people work with at least one. To mention few: IRC-Galleria, Muxlim, Dopplr, RunToShop, ENCA, Mauton, E8 Personal CRM.
Nokia Looking To Unload Dopplr?
TechCrunch has heard that Nokia is looking to sell off Dopplr, a company they acquired less than a month ago. If this is indeed true, I wouldn't want to be a Nokia shareholder. In essence, Nokia paid for recruiting Marko Ahtisaari, Dopplr CEO (former Nokia) as well as Matt Biddulph, Dopplr CTO. The reason I wouldn't want to be a shareholder is that paying for these kind of recruitment fees isn't the smartest path down the road to gather a winning team of professionals.
We also heard that there isn't a lot of synergies regarding the product roadmaps of Ovi and Dopplr, as they were mainly after the team behind Dopplr. This again raises an interesting point, would you as an entrepreneur sell your company at any cost and whatever the future may look like for your beloved one?
Ahtisaari From Dopplr To Head Nokia Design
We have heard from inside Nokia that the ex-CEO of Dopplr, Marko Ahtisaari has been appointed to head Nokia's Design department. This comes just after Nokia acquired Dopplr for undisclosed sum and a long silence that preceded the official announcement yesterday (see our story here).
At the same time Nokia has announced that it has appointed John Martin, a former Apple Vice President, to head a unit that focuses on Linux based devices running Maemo operating system like the latest N900. (via Finnish Taloussanomat)
It will be interesting to see how Ahtisaari will shape Nokia this time and how long he will stay there. Last time he stayed almost two years with the Finnish mobile phone giant pulling the Design unit from individual separate pieces into a well functioning shop before leaving in August 2006 to Blyk as a Head of Brand & Design. What goes around comes around.
Nokia Acquires Dopplr (This Time For Real!)
Marko Ahtisaari, the CEO of Dopplr, has just posted a blog post on the Dopplr Blog that Nokia indeed has acquired the company. Furthermore, Nokia has confirmed this with their own press release. Last week we quoted on ArcticStartup a rumour originating from Techcrunch that Nokia has acquired them. This stirred up a lot of publicity and since no party confirmed the rumour and one of the co-founders stated the deal was fabricated - we were under mixed messages and were unable to decide which side is right.
Dopplr Acquisition A False Rumour?
It seems that the Nokia acquisition of Dopplr we just wrote about, referring to a TechCrunch rumour, might be a hoax. We're receiving multiple sources referring to this as nonsense. Perhaps one of the most relevant is the fact that Matt Biddulph, one of the founders of the company, has stated that it's completely fabricated.
Nokia To Acquire Finnish Startup Dopplr
There are rumours circulating the web that Nokia is to acquire Dopplr. Rumours started when TechCrunch posted a post on this. Nokia apparently moved in for the scoop when Dopplr was looking for a round of financing. The supposed price Nokia paid is between 10 and 15 million euros.
Despite having its headquarters in London, the company is very much based in Finland. Inoa, one of the free registries to Finnish companies, state that the board members are Marko Ahtisaari, Matt Biddulph, Tyler Brule, Saul Klein and the board is directed by Lisa Sounio.
Dopplr Launches iPhone App, Sees Recession Easing In 2010
On Thursday, Dopplr launched a very cool iPhone app that puts the social atlas into full use. In essence, it's a mobile travel guide getting its details from Dopplr. It's even better when you have an account with Dopplr, you can do the usual stuff of seeing where your friends are and best of all, contact them if you don't happen to remember their contact details at that moment (or don't have them on you).
Do Business Models Just Happen? For Dopplr It Did
Dopplr has finally found its gold mine, the aggregate user travel date. Dopplr plans to anonymize and aggregate all the recommendations that have been added to Dopplr over time and selling the information to those who want to know where the worlds most frequent travelers are visiting.
This will effectively be big part of their business model in addition to the lead generation that has been in place already for a while (see video below). Dopplr aggregates the travel advice and recommendations in what it calls a Social Atlas. Marko Ahtisaari, Dopplr CEO, calls the Social Atlas "pops chart for the cities of the world", which it really is. In effect Dopplr monetizes recommendations made by friends and like-minded people. Not very much unlike Finnish startup TripSay (see our story here). Dopplr's model is still easier to see working, because it does not depend on sharing individuals' insights, just the locations and the times they were visited.
(video via Informilo)
Invest Tech Finland - From Wireless Power to Social Games
Espoo Otaniemi boomed of startups and investors when Invest Tech Finland was held for the first time on last Tuesday and Wednesday. There was a real mix of companies from all round consumer web, nano, medical and material tech.
We got some taste of new startups, more seasoned companies seeking growth and some familiar faces marching forward with their plans. There were quite a few interesting companies to write about, the full list can be found here - check these out. Note that most of companies presented at the event already had some prototypes, partnerships, customers or revenues. Here is some of my picks (not in any particular order):
New Feature In Dopplr - Including ArcticStartup Group
Kind of a catchy title, but it caught your eye - right? Dopplr has just added a new feature titled the Social Atlas. Social Atlas is a simple, yet very useful tool for sharing the places you've been to and liked.
It's an ingenious step towards a new model for sharing and suggesting places around the world. Once you have large anough group of people who share places with you they've been to and liked - Dopplr is able to start using these recommendations to filter the locations and make them more relevant and useful for you. A simple, crowdsourced, alternative for a recommendation engine.
We've also had a chat with our friends at Dopplr and created a group called ArcticStartup. Feel free to join the group and share your travels with us. The reason is simple - you can see the whereabouts of other people in the field and if you happen to be in the same city, go for a beer. This falls well inline with our mission to enable and promote entrepreneurship in the Nordics and Baltics through better networking. Enjoy!
Dopplr and Cubic Telecom Partner to Offer Cheaper Roaming
Dopplr, a Finnish online travel service (previous coverage) has launched cooperation with Irish Cubic Telecom to offer Cubic's MAXroam mobile roaming product with Dopplr branding for travelers.
The Dopplr Frequent Travel SIM card is available in both Dopplr’s and MAXroam online shops (although Dopplr's shop just links to the latter). It is promised to work in 170 countries on 450 mobile networks. According to Cubic Telecom’s CEO Pat Phelan with MaxRoam’s SIM card one can save at minimum 70% on mobile travel bills.
Dopplr allows making of travel plans and sharing them with friends to highlight overlapping visits of same cities at the same time. Cubic Telecom offers a variety of mobile network services starting from infrastructure backend. Dopplr has also some other travel products available in its shop, for example Offbeat travel guides. A somewhat limited offering still, but likely growing quickly.
Joi Ito Is Still Investing, Despite Downturn
I had a chat in LeWeb with Joi Ito of Neoteny. He is also the CEO of Creative Commons and on board of numerous companies and non profits. Joi, like other investors in LeWeb, are still investing despite the downturn but like he said - it's easier to make out the better companies from the noise in times of economic crisis. He also has some tips for Nordic and Baltic companies, so do have a look.
Marko Ahtisaari is Dopplr's new CEO
Dopplr, a part Finnish intention sharing online service that let's you see who of your friends are also in town you visit, announced that Marko Ahtisaari, formerly the head of Blyk's Brand & Design, has been appointed Dopplr's new CEO. The appointment will be effective 1st January, 2009. Ahtisaari is also a founding investors in Dopplr.
Dopplr's current CEO, Lisa Sounio, who is also in a relationship with Mr. Ahtisaari, will step down from the CEO position to act as Dopplr's Chairman of the board. Sounio has run her other company, a design strategy and PR agency Sonay, alongside Dopplr. Thus, effectively dividing her time between the two. This is probably partly the reason for her stepping down when Dopplr is gathering speed and thus needs a full time commitment. Another reason is very likely the second round of financing that Dopplr just received. To stir the pot, Blyk also just landed a major investment, which surely plays a part in the new arrangement along with the others.
As one of the Dopplr's investor's Martin Varsavsky said (video interview here) that the company does not currently have a clear business model. It remains to be seen whether Ahtisaari will drive the company in a new direction that will bring a clear business model with it. The new round of investors might be anxious to see even a theoretical return for their invesment in the current economic climate and be less willing to see one of their portfolio companies just building user base without any hope of a real cash flow.
Serial Entrepreneur Taneli Tikka Shares His Insights
Taneli Tikka, a Finnish serial entrepreneur and currently the CEO of RunToShop, COO of Dopplr and a former CEO of IRC Gallery among other things, has started blogging (here) about entrepreneurship, startups and everything that comes with it.
Taneli promises to openly blog about many of his past endeavors, which is something not very often seen from people with an experience comparable to Taneli's. Not only is this fantastic news for Nordic and especially for Finnish entrepreneurship, but it also sets a great example for all the C-level executives to share their knowledge and insights with the less experienced. To quote Taneli:
I plan to follow the kind of guideline I have often followed: speak my mind on a wide range of issues and topics, as opinionated as it may occasionally be. Sounds like a quick way to get into trouble, doesn't it?
The blog has only a few posts as yet, but there already is valuable advice for all entrepreneurs. Even though this is certainly not the first time someone has published such information it makes all the difference to the entrepreneurs closer to home who don't necessarily don't know where or what to look for from all the blogs published globally.
ArcticStartup applauds the courage for openness and will be sure to follow the blog closely.
Martin Varsavsky Talks About Dopplr
Serial entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky of FON talked to me in London about why he's so excited about Dopplr, the business model (or lack of thereof) and traveling in general. Here's a recent blog post on Dopplr's new set of investors from yesterday.
Dopplr Secures Financing From a Star Line-Up
Dopplr, the Helsinki and London based startup, has secured second round financing from a very admirable group of investors including Esther Dyson, Tyler Brûlé, Thomas Glocer, Yat Siu, Aditya dev Sood, Lars Hinrichs, Joshua Schachter, Brian Behlendorf, Ami Hasan, Daniel Sachs, Joshua Cooper Ramo, Kim Weckström, and Azeem Azhar. Saul Klein, who invested in this round, also invested in the previous round together with Martin Varsavsky, Reid Hoffman and Joichi Ito.
“Dopplr is leading the way in intention sharing services online. It is valuable to know where your trusted friends and colleagues will be, and where you could meet them next,” said Lisa Sounio, CEO of Dopplr. “Partner brands on Dopplr will also give you relevant information and offers tailored to you. For example, when you tell Dopplr your plans to go to Hong Kong, you might get the latest intelligence from Monocle and offers from boutique hotels picked by Mr and Mrs Smith.”
Despite seeing a lot of attention from both the press and investors, there are some questions that people look answers for. One cannot miss the (despite somewhat questionable) data from Compete.com. According to Compete.com, Dopplr reached just over 50k UVs in August. If you're making money from commissions on hotel bookings and such, you need a lot more traffic to make the business model work and therefore focusing on such a small group of people travelling so much might be difficult. Furthermore, Mike Butcher at Techcrunch UK makes a solid point about the dilution of ownership with so many investors. It could be that once you get enough popular investors on board, the odds of you failing are smaller as these investors are looking forwards to making a return (hence they echo the name as much as possible).
Having these questions answered would be interesting, but nevertheless you have to give it to the Dopplr team for getting financed in such a tight market - we haven't heard that many similar stories lately.
RunToShop.fi went live and back
I attended RunToShop party last week at Shaker, Helsinki along with a lot of Finnish entrepreneurs and it was a blast. It was an opening day of the RunToShop.fi service, which was to act as the first step towards opening the service internationally at RunToShop.com
RunToShop is a social recommendation service for stores that rewards its users for recommendations as well as for the actual purchases. Whether it works or not is anybody's guess at this point when the full fledged service is not rolled out yet.
The service at .fi address came and went. I did create a profile and browsed around the service to familiarize with it and decided to came back later on. Yet, today I found that the guys had but the site back behind a login and a password, probably to fix some buggy code. I didn't get a proper look with still so few stores and service providers on the site at the time and am eager to take a another look as it goes live again. Hopefully there will be a lot more to browse through.
What is notable in RunToShop however is the way it was build: The guys behind the concept started building the start-up only in April 2008 and according to RunToShop CEO, Taneli Tikka, the service has already over 150 partners: Mostly in Finland and in the UK.
What is also unusual is the very strong advisory board the start-up has gathered which includes close to 30 experienced entrepreneurs and key figures in the industry. Similarly Taneli Tikka who is driving the start-up as its CEO has a long list of start-ups behind him, including Dopplr and IRC-Gallery to name only a few.
I did a video interview with Taneli, but since I only had my iphone with me Kai from Floobs borrowed me his Nokia N95 to record the interview. Unluckily I didn't have a chance to pick the video clip from Kai last week, and when I gave Kai a call yesterday I got an SMS back saying he was hiking somewhere in the Norwegian Lapland, so it'll have to wait a little. We'll post the interview on the blog as soon as I get my hands on it.
Dopplr's new set of features
Dopplr, a service that lets you share your future travel plans privately with friends and colleagues, released a new version codenamed "Copenhagen" some time ago. There has also been other updates we've been writing about along the way. With this post I wanted to recap some of the developments and go a bit more into detail on how the new features are working for the users.
Among other improvements I can now publish my Dopplr profile page on the Internet for the public to see and for the search engines to find. This is a needed addition as it was frustrating to ask people to create their own profile if they only wanted to follow my whereabouts (yes, there was the widget, but only with one default disclosure option). Dopplr also plays along with what is a desired and much overdue positive trend among many social networks, namely giving users the ability to control how much information they want to disclose to the public. This is done via modules which the user can which on and off as she wishes.
After a little tinkering I was able to find my public profile, but there's still no way to do a search of public profiles on Dopplr's home page. This would be great addition especially since Google's Search bots hadn't found my profile yet, making it practically nonexistent.
Another very useful feature that Tripit already has and which Dopplr has now also added, is the possibility to input your trips to the service via email and SMS. Dopplr didn't stop there but let's the users also use Twitter to input one's itinerary. This was a positive surprise. It took me a few back and forth confirmations to make it work, but not too much to make it an inconvenience. After I follow Dopplr on Twitter I am able to input a new trip just by doodling my destination and the dates into Twitter and post the Tweet to add it to my Trips at Dopplr.
A user can also choose to use Twitter to post her itinerary 'silently' to Dopplr in which case it does not even show in her Tweets. I did this, but due to the usage limits that Twitter has imposed it takes a long while for the posting to go through. Once a trip is confirmed a user can also forward relevant emails such as hotel reservations to the service where they will be automatically attached to her trip.
Email, SMS and Twitter upload is a welcome addition that let's Dopplr to strike back as Tripit already added what was Dopplr's killer feature, namely the serendipity feature which allows me to see all my friends who use Dopplr and are in the city at the same time that I'm visiting there.
I found this quote (from Dopplr blog) fascinating on how Dopplr works out the the dates and other info from the doodlings we send them:
There are an awful lot of ways to format a travel itinerary. When people asked us to extract trips from emails, we looked at our long history of e-tickets, confirmations and reservations, and scratched our heads.Inspiration came in the shape of Apple’s last OS X release, Leopard, and an intriguing feature called “Data detectors“.
We realised that instead of creating a piece of code to decode every email format out there, we could look for patterns of dates and place names in the text (and later, other information too) and turn those into trips.
A happy side-effect of this approach is that as well as extracting information from automatic reservation emails, it works well with short text strings like “I’ll be in San Francisco from 3rd July to 7th July”. This means we can work with many hand-written emails, with Twitters, and with SMSes too.
Of course it won’t work with every variation under the sun (for example, it’s most reliable when an email contains just a return trip in a single hop), but we’ve had very satisfying results in our testing. And of course every email you send us will be added to our test suite so that our engine can get better and better over time.
I've always liked Dopplr for its simplicity, but there has still been the feeling that its a one trick pony with its fascinating serendipity function. With the Copenhagen release this doesn't seem to be the case anymore and I could see myself move all my travel planning to Dopplr, if I only could access my full itinerary from my mobile with the same ease I can Twitter it up there. Something that Tripit makes possible even though not via Twitter but via SMS.
One can speculate if the new version is codenamed Copenhagen because Tyler Brûlé just recently nominated Copenhagen 'the most livable city in the world' in the latest issue of what is supposedly every city hopper's bible, Monocle. Regardless, I think Dopplr has made itself much more useful for all of us with its latest version.
Dopplr adds automated trip updates
Dopplr has finally added three key features that have kept it short of TripIt in terms of ease of use. With their newest update, Matt Jones writes, that you are now able to add trips through Twitter, SMS and e-mail.
Twitter and SMS automations work alike, you need to send a private message to the Dopplr bot and it will add your trips to your account (after you've activated your account to support these of course). Lastly, the email update works just as Tripit's trip updater - you send the itinerary/confirmation received from your airline to Dopplr and they will update the trips accordingly to your account. This has been a major shortcoming in terms of adding new trips and will surely speed things up in the future.
Another question to ask is; Will Dopplr be looking forwards to integrating itself closer to Tripit and possibly looking for an early sell-off?
Few rumours from Parteco picnic
I attended the Parteco picnic today, organised by Katri Lietsala and Esa Sirkkunen, who ran the Participatory Economy and Beyond -research project. It was a good event with old media companies slowly turning to social media (which I have to say shouldn't be done only for social media's sake).
I also heard some good rumours regarding the Finnish startup scene. First of all, regarding Dopplr - Marko Ahtisaari, Lisa Sounio and Taneli Tikka have left, or are leaving the company to continue to new challenges. Taneli Tikka is currently very active with his new startup RunToShop, which is creating some buzz among Finnish startups. The moves at the moment are not official, but there is a lot of buzz around that.
Juha Huttunen of Tripsay was also nodding towards August with regards to their official launch. Therefore we'll have to wait a few more months before we will be able to see the service they are coming out with. I understand they are currently making final moves towards the launch.
Last, but not least - rumour or not - the Iron Sky movie, followup to the largest Finnish movie ever distributed - StarWreck, will be launched in 2010. Currently the script is being finetuned for the "investment round" that will be a few million euros and that will begin during the end of this year.
However, there was a lot of positive talk among the startups there regarding various issues and I also received a lot of great ideas regarding our next event.
Dopplr partners with Mr and Ms Smith
Dopplr, the Helsinki based travel service for frequent business travellers, has partnered with the boutique and luxury hotel guide service Mr and Mrs Smith. Dopplr has not released anything about this in their blog yet, but they have sent out an e-mail to their members.
Dear Antti,We've launched a new partnership to help you find and book excellent lodging during your travels.
We're working with the boutique hotel experts at Mr & Mrs Smith, and you'll now have direct access from your Dopplr itineraries to their unrivalled insider knowledge, global hotel collection and booking services.
If you're familiar with Mr & Mrs Smith, you know that they're known for deep research into high-quality lodging. They offer the best room rates on everything from quirky city stays and romantic boutique retreats to stylish country manors and luxury spa hotels. And they tried every place they recommend, to be sure it meets their standards.
For example, Mr & Mrs Smith recommend:
* Hotel J in Stockholm, for your next trip there
http://www.dopplr.com/place/se/stockholm/mrandmrssmith* Pershing Hall in Paris, for your next trip there
http://www.dopplr.com/place/fr/paris/mrandmrssmithThese are just some of the hotels Mr & Mrs Smith have looked at in depth. They have ideas for many tastes, and budgets.
What we like most about Mr & Mrs Smith's approach to travel should be familiar to you: it combines utility and style. Like us, they value the romance and beauty of travel -- and also like to find good deals along the way.
Please let us know what you think of this new feature. And please keep an eye on the Dopplr Blog (http://blog.dopplr.com) for updates.
Thanks,
The Dopplr Team.
This is a step towards the extra value of the service for the customers I was talking about in my previous post about Dopplr. The only doubt I have is how many business travellers reserve their own hotels? Then again, there are many kind of companies so surely this will create some revenue in the form of shared comissions.
Dopplr adds iCal support
Dan Gillmor of Dopplr has just announced their support for iCal. What you basically do is add a new calendar and upload its updates to the Dopplr -server.
Dopplr certainly has been updating their service more than Jaiku, but I'd still like to see more value innovation in terms of the users. What you can do always do is hand the development ideas over to your community in the style of IdeaStorm. I'm sure being such a simple idea, companies should use it a lot more.
Dopplr teams up with AMEE to calculate carbons
Dopplr, the social network or business travellers, has just announced at ETech a teamup with AMEE. AMEE stands for Avoiding Mass Extinctions Engine and they provide a neutral, open platform for measuring the “Carbon-Footprint” of anything. Dopplr states on their blog that they are still putting finishing touches on the feature, but will be releasing it soon to the public.
I'm not sure if this has anything to do with saving the world from excessive carbon emissions, but at least it should make frequent travellers think of the consequences of their travels. Nevertheless it's a move to the right direction.
Launching soon: global business angel community First Line Angel Group
First Line Angel Group FLAG.fi, a Finnish business angel community with a global reach, is launching on 25-26th of February 2008 at EU EASY Event in Milano, Italy. FLAG.fi is stated to be the the first and only global portal dedicated to investors, entrepreneurs, and business angels.
The founder Peter Bougdanos, a well-acclaimed business angel, hopes FLAG will be "a solution to the startup situation in Finland and all over Europe". The problem statement manifests that many entrepreneurs and opportunities go unnoticed and/or unfunded in Finland - and also in Europe in general - because of a lack of a true angel community, consensus, support, and meaningful interaction among professionals in the field. This is something that was also identified recently in Growth Forum 08 as reported by Tomi. In addition many investors get caught up in long exit cycles, ending up tying up their valuable resources of time, money, and expertise.
The vision of FLAG is to become the first true Angel Group in Finland which mirrors the activities of angel groups in the USA. It's mission is to make Finland, Finnish companies, Finnish business angels, and the Finnish venture capital industry a healthy, competitive, and interactive community. FLAG targets to create a currently missing dynamic forum with both a professional and social function for business angels to meet and discuss angel investments. Peter Bougdanos aims to promote Finnish startups and help them "get the commercialization and business concept traction that many fail to do". Recent members of FLAG include online business traveller tool Dopplr and free news service forum ampparit.com.
The service will be Finland centric, but it's claimed that already over 3000 pan-European interested members have been identified, and the majority of them have expressed keen interest to enroll. FLAG also looks to integrate Middle Eastern and Asian flare of active members. It is planned to be the melting pot for existing angel associations, stand-alone organizations, network clusters, and independent actors on local, regional, and international levels, operating both online and offline.
FLAG will offer a whole community universe for connecting investors, with a wide spectrum of tools and services, including facilitating selling of companies angel-to-angel, and providing company information and management bios. FLAG also believes in giving back to the community and 25 percent of profits will go to funding stipends for young students, lower income families' teens, and budding entrepreneurs to gain international experience, overseas exposure and professional and academics skills.
Greek American Bougdanos has helped to foster nearly 50 startups in Finland, since moving from NYC after surviving 9/11/2001. His background includes investments in companies like Google, Skype, and Finnish Helmi Technologies, Nordic Koivu, FogScreen, Concilio Networks, and Trackway, among many others. Peter is also a founding partner of FirstRound Startup Center, which has a unique smart money approach to incubating fast track early stage companies.
It is great to see something of this scale being initiated in Finland, and hopefully FLAG will be able to give rise to new business angels activity and many new fast growing firms. If you're interested in joining FLAG, be sure to check the web page.
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Edit: I have heard there are some two-fold opinions on how Mr. Bougdanos works, so it's advisable that you first discuss with people who have worked with him before jumping right in, to make sure there is a good match (as would be good with any new relationship in general).
Dopplr drops Beta
Reporting from LeWeb3 in Paris, Dopplr has announced today that they are open for public by dropping the beta.
More on their blog.
Taneli Tikka joins Dopplr
Taneli Tikka, former Managing Director of Dynamoid (IRC-Galleria), has joined the online travel service Dopplr. Tikka joins Dopplr as their new Chief Operating Officer. Dopplr is an online travel network, where you can share your travels with friends who are connected to you. The catch is that when travelling frequently, you often find only afterwards that some of your friends were simultaneously visiting the same city.
Lisa Sounio, the Managing Director of Dopplr writes in their blog, "with his experience in building and scaling social media businesses, Taneli is a great addition to our international team."
