Into the night

July 23, 2005

Labour unions and politicians are known for negotiating into the night. If you don’t do a deal in the middle of the night or even early morning, it can’t be a...

Labour unions and politicians are known for negotiating into the night. If you don’t do a deal in the middle of the night or even early morning, it can’t be a deal you fought for: "you left money on the table". We closed a deal today at 1.30 am and it feels good after a rollercoaster of more than 4 weeks. Now there are two more weeks needed to get from signatures to a closing. Then I will unwrap what it’s about. Before that, time for some relaxing with the family: vacation!

Party time

July 21, 2005

Internet activity partijtje.nl was sold today to publisher Sanoma’s division Jonge Gezinnen. A joint press release will be issued at a later stage, today the contracts were signed. Partijtje.nl was founded...

Internet activity partijtje.nl was sold today to publisher Sanoma’s division Jonge Gezinnen. A joint press release will be issued at a later stage, today the contracts were signed. Partijtje.nl was founded 6 years ago as a portal to help out parents plan, organise and run all aspects of a child’s birthday party. If you have kids you know what a headache it can be, in particular if your time is limited. I happened to come up with thepartijtje.gif original idea, but my wife and her friend Marie Emma as Founders deserve all the credits for building it from scratch. The potential of the concept and the site can be further unleashed, the acquisition by Sanoma illustrates recognition of that potential. It was interesting to lead the negotiations, we had several interested parties. Today we are creating our own party to celebrate the finish of this venture!

Smart move

June 30, 2005

Got myself the Treo 650 today, a so-called smartphone: mobile phone and organiser in one. Why? Because my mobile phone contract was at its "end", KPN has a very compelling offer...

Treo650.gifGot myself the Treo 650 today, a so-called smartphone: mobile phone and organiser in one. Why? Because my mobile phone contract was at its "end", KPN has a very compelling offer subsidizing the purchase, I like these kind of gadgets and because I am in the process of establising a mobile venture so need to know what’s going on first hand. Hmm, enough justification for this toy I guess. The KPN package does not only contain the Treo, but also TomTom navigation software, a Bluetooth headset and a car cradle. What more does a man want? Well, a good price for my Sony Clie TH55 that I have put on Marktplaats for sale. Put the Clie up for sale last night, first offers arrived but are not attractive enough. Meanwhile I need to spend some time on getting my Calendar and Contacts data transferred to the Treo and synced with Outlook. Few hickups, other than that I hope it will turn out to be a smart move.

Elevator Pitch per Podcast

June 29, 2005

Getting venture capital for your company isn’t easy and it starts with getting the attention of a VC. Do you send him an email, an old fashion letter, a cold call,...

iPod.gifGetting venture capital for your company isn’t easy and it starts with getting the attention of a VC. Do you send him an email, an old fashion letter, a cold call, stalk around his office or better, an introduction through someone you know well? Venture capitalist Fred Wilson received his first Elevator Pitch Podcast: fitting nicely in today’s blogging, tagging and Podcasting buzz. For the techno entrepreneurs among us and early adopting VCs who know all about this stuff or better invest in it. Innovative clearly, but even more so another example of the continuous flood of new applications created by combining existing technologies. Apple has released a new version of iTunes that supports Podcasting, so get the elevator pitches out!

UPDATE: the new iTunes version 4.9 even seems ready for syncing with your mobile phone – if not the iPod enabled phones were still missing. 

The most difficult thing on the planet…

June 26, 2005

…sometimes seems to be hiring people, I mean the right people. Found an excellent article about how to identify a product manager that fits a start-up environment. I have had my...

…sometimes seems to be hiring people, I mean the right people. Found an excellent article about how to identify a product manager that fits a start-up environment. I have had my share of blunders in hiring people, will see that I post one or two of these stories in the near future.

Part-time (sort of)

June 25, 2005

Since a couple of months I have been working only part-time for ThreeFive Photonics, to be able to establish a new mobile venture. Yet, this week it became clear that I...

Since a couple of months I have been working only part-time for ThreeFive Photonics, to be able to establish a new mobile venture. Yet, this week it became clear that I will have to increase my involvement with ThreeFive unexpectedly, at least until September 1. More about that later, when the news is "fit to print".

SMEs vs. WTO

June 25, 2005

On Tuesday I hosted a press conference at press centre Nieuwspoort in the Hague. After extensive lobbying and networking for about 3 weeks, I was able to get the weak position...

On Tuesday I hosted a press conference at press centre Nieuwspoort in the Hague. After extensive lobbying and networking for about 3 weeks, I was able to get the weak position of European SMEs on the agenda in the Netherlands. As the Dutch representative of SUN&SUP, the "voice of the European start-up community", we are arguing that the European Union must act now to preserve rights for European SMEs in the new WTO agreement, equal to American SMEs. Nieuwspoort, the HagueOn the photo left, Prof. Henk de Haan, member of parliament for CDA, on the right Loek Hermans, chairman of MKB Nederland. A story in Dutch can be found here, English press release and all supporting documents here. While you are at the SUN&SUP website, please sign the on-line petition. All those who helped me getting access to the right people in the last couple of weeks, thanks again. Hopefully we’ll have the necessary impact!

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