Silicon Drinkabout’s aim is to hold a comfortable, informal night at different bars to meet with other entrepreneurs in a relaxed environment after a hard day of work. Trendsonline plans to have it as an opening event for later startup events held on Fridays. They are striving to make the community even more open to newcomers. The opportunity for startups to apply as hosts to the Drinkabouts is also possible, which helps not only entrepreneurs, but also anyone to be a part of the startup community.

It has already been active in Copenhagen for about a year with three inspiring community builders and entrepreneurs behind it: Neil Murray; behind both The Nordic Web and VIP VoIP; Michael Reibel Boesen, who probably is the most active event organiser in the region, and Simon Stubbe from Billy Tracker and Project Canvas. Trendsonline.dk will be organizing many exciting events: Friday bar nights, housewarmings and birthdays. Using the facebook group Silicon Drinkabout CPH, individuals are invited to the various events, all towards improving the startup scene in Copenhagen. In addition, extensions in cities such as New York, Toronto, Sao Paulo and Sofia are being looked forward to.

So join them – events (almost) every friday. Keep up to date through the Facebook group. Silicon Drinkabout is the perfect opportunity for anyone new to the field of entrepreneurship who wants to get to know others learn useful tips and tricks.

The post Trendsonline.dk Takes Over Silicon Drinkabout CPH appeared first on Øresund Startups.

5 million unique visitors in Q4 have propelled Retelly forward. They are now putting much energy in developing the service. New features have been introduced on the updated platform and the future of the site has been unveiled. The page has been updated with a new layout, better functionality and personal video clips for all Retelly editors. It is worth noting that this is just the first round in a wide range of new features which will be launched on Retelly later on this year.

“5 million unique visitors in Q4 showed us that Retelly has the potential that we all together thought from the beginning. So now we are beginning to invest heavily in developing platform. From being a video site Retelly will now evolve to be a platform and personal video magazine.” Jacob Quist Boll, co-founder at Retelly.

The new features can be viewed in the video above.

The post Retelly is Growing – over 5 million unique visitors appeared first on Øresund Startups.

Silicon Vikings Silicon Valley expert Mette-Lise Vraa will be the primary speaker holding numerous talks to guide the attendants through making the decision of approaching Silicon Valley.

Topics for this event:

1. Our regions startup ecosystem vs. Silicon Valley startup ecosystem
2. What are they actually good at in Silicon Valley?
3. What are we actually good at here?
4. How can you combine (2) and (3) to get the best?
5. 5 entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley give their best advice

Date: Thursday, May 22, 2014
Time: 18:00 – 21:00 CEST
Place: Startupbootcamp, Copenhagen (8 Landemærket)
Register: at Eventbrite (Registration Ends: May 22, 2014 5:00 PM)

The post Event series: Is Silicon Valley right for your startup? appeared first on Øresund Startups.

Madsen was kind enough to have an interview with me.

For what reasons do you prefer working with the more visionary, developmental side to the business as “Chief Storyteller” compared with the more bureaucratic side?
 

“Well to me it was very much another world if you work with the bureaucratic side, you have to be able to make really fast and quick decisions and if you are bootstrapping for a long time it gets harder and harder. It takes another type of creative energy to work with the more bureaucratic side as well but to be on the ball and always focusing. After all I am only human and I can only do one of two things. After we sat there and had a good talk about it and I thought about it, I realized it actually made more sense for me to work on the visionary and creative side so we came to the conclusion that we did. We’re excited about it and that I can now focus on the product and focus on getting us to the next level in terms of what I do and what I want to do.”

Holding a M.Sc. in Economics and Business Administration from Copenhagen Business School, Madsen graduated in the top tier. Madsen has worked with the Danish Ministry of Business affairs and Economics and has been the CFO in Actimizer.

What moves have you planned to take next in your new roll?

“First of all, we launched a product we were excited about that we were experimenting on and there’s going to be a lot more focus about that on our external social media platforms. We’ll also do a lot more general speaking engagement and look forward to being way more on the ball in terms of what our mission is and what we are trying to achieve five years down the line and what choices we have to make now. I want to try to make that reality of five years into three years. I think that’s a really important decision.”

Do you have any ideas what kind of effects the change in leadership will have on the users?

“I don’t think the end users will experience it that much, I think that we have a pretty good product right now and we will continue to do so and hopefully it will be even more interesting of course, but I think it’s more in terms of the business that there’s going to be a lot of changes. I think there’s going to be a lot more professionalism and a lot more execution and focus on actually building a proper company so to speak, whereas before it wasn’t really 100%.”

In a post published on Echo.it’s own blog, Madsen details the motives of the change. After having bootstrapped for many years and gradually building up their consumer base over five continents, Madsen felt it was appropriate to pass on the “paperwork” so to say to one of their investors; Könnecker. Könnecker has an impressive record of helping firms grow and has forward-thinking dreams for the future. The change was a mutual and positive decision.

In what ways do you believe Lutz Könnecker will lead the firm in contrast to your leadership?

“Lutz has a lot more experience that I don’t have and I think he’s going to be bringing that to us as well. He’s also very focused on the cash flow and all of these things that you need to be focused on. Unlike me, he analyzes things before and he only acts when it makes a lot of sense and in that position you have to wait a little bit. I think now that definitely we will begin to see a lot of changes but only for the better!”

So how does it work?

Echo.it is an enterprising social network with a purpose. Its purpose is to reestablish and strengthen the bond of communication and productivity between the employees of a business. It helps translate company goals, values and strategies into action. In addition, it creates better data-points for implementing and executing corporate strategies. Through the service Echo.it provides, employees and management belong to a private company platform where they are able to share their actions.

Employees can first share their real time actions with their colleagues. A post called an “echo” is published detailing the employee’s moves and can also be tagged with the matching relevant sector of the business. Other colleagues can quickly find echos to read by searching with the tags. Colleagues are able to like and comment on each other’s echos, furthering the level of efficient communication. The power of inspiration is a central theme within the online service; effectiveness is improved by colleagues continuously inspiring each other. Furthermore, employees are motivated to an even larger extent through the use of rewards; badges accumulated with the fulfillment of various tasks. The management also has the power to individually reward employees with personalized awards. Besides providing a social platform for the employees of a company, Echo.it automatically aggregates their social activity into statistical data. The use of charts and such is perfect for analytical data gathering by the management. From the statistical insights and the postings of echos, the management is fully aware of the efficiency of their employees. As well as that, they are kept up to date on the implementation of their strategic goals. They are able to narrow down their potential weaknesses in order to work on eliminating them and promote desired behaviour.

We hope that the change of leadership will bring nothing but positive developments to Echo.it!

The post Stefan Madsen on Echo.it’s new CEO and his role as Chief Storyteller appeared first on Øresund Startups.

Social Innovation Lab

The first portion of it (May 12th to May 14th) is dedicated to the Social Innovation Lab. A rousing three day workshop consisting of social business activities, experimentation, training and the future of social entrepreneurship. Participants will have the chance to engage, interact, learn and be inspired by the role social business will play in the future of society.

The first day is dedicated to Social Business; improving your understanding and listening to inspiring social entrepreneurs. Participants will also be presented with the opportunity to take part of an exciting European Union project concerned with relevant social issues. Afterwards, a dinner and a movie night will be held. During day two, the participants will learn about the basic tools for Social Business start-ups, examine new provocative trends and even be able to influence existing businesses. To conclude, they will relax with a barbecue and live music. The final day will be filled with interactive workshops where the participants are able to put their new knowledge into action. They will work on real life cases of current social challenges and compete in a video pitch competition. It will end with a dinner and a dance on the Black Pearl dance floor.

Date: 12th-14th May, 2014

Location: LU Open, Scheelevägen 15 A, Alfa 2, Lund

Cost for 3 days: 250 SEK (incl. lunch and dinner)

Cost for 1 day: 100 SEK (incl. lunch and dinner)
More information & registration: www.sbwsweden.se

European Social Business Forum 2014

The last day of the Social Business Week in Lund is the European Social Business Forum 2014. It is dedicated to exploring the economic and social problems created both locally and internationally as well as address sustainable development. Some features include true stories of social entrepreneurs, presentations from engaging speakers and an effort to collectively build the Lund Declaration of Social Innovation. There are two options for participation:

1. Breakfast and speech 08:00-09:30
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate – 250 SEK (free for students)
2. The whole day 08.00-17:45
1 500 SEK (free for students)

Date: 15th May 2014
Place: Medicon Village in Lund

More information & registration:  www.sbwsweden.se

The post Social Business Week in Lund May 12th-14th 2014 appeared first on Øresund Startups.

“Dealforfriends is a friend-to-friend marketing platform for targeted, performance-based customer acquisition and retention campaigns. It is a new way to generate sales, likes on Facebook, collect e-mail addresses and deliver great engagement for your brand through viral spread and recommendations.”

How does it work?

Dealforfriends provides both e-tailers as well as customers with promotional codes; to be distributed before or directly after purchases. After a purchase is transacted on a company’s website, the customer is prompted with the option to share a promotional code to three of their Facebook friends. A post is published from that person’s account with the discount and the three friends tagged in it. If the code is utilised by their friends, they will also receive a unique code to use on their next purchase.

However, to be able to use the discount, the friends who receive it must like the company’s Facebook page and then “claim” it. Other friends who were not tagged but saw the post may click on it and view the public campaign but will not be offered any discount. On some occasions, they will be presented with the “Like and Get” opportunity i.e, receiving a discount upon liking the company’s Facebook page.

The service is not free-of-charge and will cost e-tailers per every discount which is claimed. Users of Dealforfriends only pay the discount which is given to the consumers; Dealforfriends themselves take a small commission of this.

What is the future?

Dealforfriends will soon begin their first campaign and will be launched on a larger scale in the middle of May. As of right now, the service is only in use by a handful of selected e-tailers: ZooZoo.com, Lensway, Lina’s Grocery, Disney Store, Lighting Design as well as selected customers from Jetshop.

E-tailers taking advantage of Dealforfriends can look forward to seeing the following for their businesses: new customers and new relevant followers on Facebook. Additionally, they could accumulate a collection of new e-mail addresses to be used optionally for following-up or even other marketing like the one presented by a company from Mississauga, Ontario.

Being able to help e-tailers regain control over their campaigns, the length and magnitude of the the discounts and especially expand their customer base will surely help spread Dealforfriends virally.

The post New Way to Share Discount Codes: Dealforfriends.com appeared first on Øresund Startups.

Helsingborg based startup Bilprospekt is gaining recognition. Developed by Viktor Silfverström, Andrée Heino, Jakob Werner and Niklas Silfverström, Bilprospekt aims to digitise car sales. The developers recognise the way s in which the current car sale industry is rather outdated; in terms of sale methods as well as communication with the customers.

The project began as the website ‘bilupphandling.se’, which allowed customers to receive offers for a great selection of new and used cars based on their requirements. It was consequently developed into Bilprospekt by expanding to include an analysis tool for the sellers to ensure a completely digital car transaction. It is directed towards retailers which sell to both private customers and businesses. The service allows them to find suitable buyers as well as analyse the car market. The idea is also to provide sellers with statistics about how sales do in particular regions, how specific competitors behave and who their customers are.

For the customers, Bilprospekt creates statistics and compares retailers and brands.

“We need a tool that understands the car consumers’ market. We can make statistics and compare between different retailers and brands. The retailers which use the procurement tool can be connected to leads and the analysis tool, and also get some of the offers from Bilupphandling.se . In this way, we combine the vendors who want to sell cars to people who really want to buy those cars.” says Niklas Silfverström, according to ComputerSweden.

Cheaper Prices To Be Found By Clients

The incentive for customers is being able to see a larger overview of the automotive market. Prices of cars can differ significantly in different towns and regions in Sweden. The ability to compare prices all over the country to find the cheapest (or best suited) car is lucrative to consumers.

“From a retailer’s perspective, a typical use of the service can be to go check in on the first of every month and maybe send an offer to the customers. Or maybe do a mailing to those who were customers 36 months ago, maybe it’s time for them to get something new. In addition, it is possible to follow up and see what happened with the customers after the transaction.” says Niklas Silfverström.

Today, Bilprospekt is only available in Sweden. They currently have around 80 retailers, three of which are general agents. The users are charged per month for the service. They are part of the THINK lean startup incubator and just recently left the co-working space Mindpark for their first own offices.

The post Startup Spotlight: Digital Car Selling in Sweden appeared first on Øresund Startups.

While Google represents an endless, “know-it-all” encyclopaedia for most, some still manage to find areas with room for improvement. The Danish research project search engine FindZebra specialises in finding rare diseases simply from patient symptom descriptions. Developed by Professor Ole Winther (Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, Technical University of Denmark) along with his students, FindZebra takes a slightly different approach than Google when searching. As explained by Ole Winther at a conference on Big Data held by ATV (Akademiet for de Tekniske Videnskaber), Google optimises the results they display based on the average search. This proves to be an efficient method if the average searcher is looking for, for example, a famous actor or movie, however significantly inefficient when a rare disease is sought after. To prove that the Danish search engine triumphs over Google, researchers have devised a fair test between the two. Since FindZebra has a list of only ten open sources, researchers created specialised searches in Google limiting it to the same ten websites. It was shown that when both search engines looked for rare diseases from query strings consisting of symptoms, FindZebra made the correct diagnosis twice as often among the first 20 results! In addition, the inaccuracy often encountered when searching with Google was pointed out,

“We know that Google is not so fond of long query strings. If they have to look up in a table for each search term, it’s going slowly, and they lose users. An approximate result is good enough for most people. They’ve made a compromise between speed and accuracy. We do not need to,” said Ole Winther, according to Version2.dk

Pharmaceuticals Expand Their Marketing Domains

 FindZebra’s developers highlighted their goal during the same conference: to encourage as many doctors as possible to use their engine. They envision doctors turning to FindZebra when they are faced with a difficult case which they are unsure about how to diagnose, which they hope would greatly improve medical accuracy. Another potentially profit maximizing aspect of their endeavor is marketing partnering with services like OOH advertising.

Many pharmaceutical companies are already using common tag-based advertising, and FindZebra would incorporate this into their search engine by displaying companies’ ads when searches are made for specific words. This reason makes the startup lucrative for pharmaceutical companies which produce medicine for diseases which may affect as few as one in 100,000, according to Ole Winther.

The post Startup spotlight: Danish FindZebra Has Marketing Potential For Drug Companies appeared first on Øresund Startups.

It’s been crazy fast. We are very proud to have done this in such a short time. This product is not so ‘techy’. It raises a whole other interest than some other gadgets, says Kristian Tärnhed, product coordinator for the new gadget, according to Sydsvenskan.

The Sony SmartBand is being launched globally in March. The bracelet will initially be sold in nine different colors, however collaboration with outside manufacturers opens many doors for a changing and adaptable appearance. The price of the mobile device “core” is set around €99.

The Core

It is built out of durable silicone and equipped with a motion sensor that can be connected to a mobile device. Created in Lund was the small detachable control panel known as the “core”. Inserted in the Smartband, it is closest to the wearer’s skin and therefore protected by the silicone on the outside. Being removable, it can be integrated into future gadgets from Sony (and other collaborators). The SmartBand not only works with Lifelog but a number of applications connected to the bracelet, on different Android mobiles. It is speculated that the development of Android applications for the SmartBand will pick up quickly, with input from third parties as well. Some ideas for features include applications to measure stress which can be eased with products like delta 8 flower, sugar levels or the heartbeat.

“We are wide open to all new applications. It’s hard to tell where this might go. The software is constantly updating. But now we in Lund are finally back in the mainstream, and leading the development of the world when it comes to smart accessories.” says Stefan K Persson, Vice President; Head of Companion Products, Sony Mobile Communications.

Bluetooth and NFC-compatible, the waterproof Smartband is 24/7 wearable device. Information from the sensor regarding the user’s movements, whereabouts and sleep patterns among others are transmitted to the cell phone to an Android app known as Lifelog.

Lifelogging

This is about a ‘lifelog’ – a kind of digital diary where you can stream music, pictures and communication to your various activities. We also have a wireless camera in the pipeline that can be attached to the bracelet, says Kuni Suzuki.

Lifelog tracks virtually all of the user’s daily habits from the time they wake up to the end of their day. It records their physical, social and entertainment activity. The functions are incorporated into the SmartBand in various ways; when a text or call is received on the cellphone, the SmartBand vibrates; when an alarm is set on the cellphone, the SmartBand vibrates and/or rings, and so forth. It can be used as a media control for music and videos on the cellphone. A major feature of the SmartBand is its role in fitness; while working out the bracelet can successfully calculate the calories you’ve burnt, count the steps you’ve jumped and punches you’ve swung (among others). In addition, Lifelog allows users to set goals and monitor progress right from their mobile device. Pictures taken on the cellphone are recognised by the bracelet, and the location, time and company the user had are automatically attached to them.  All these features and many more culminate on the Lifelog, where they are displayed as a timeline of the user’s day.

The market for fitted and wearable  digital technology has gradually started to gather momentum. Most major manufacturers are in the process of developing their own variants and all are hoping to be the first with a breakthrough. Positive forecasts speak of a quadrupling of sales to about 140 billion in 2017. Bengt-Arne Molin, Head of Sony Mobile in Lund, Sweden with 1,800 employees and 400 contracted consultants is optimistic about the future .

The post Sony’s SmartBand and Future of Lifelogging Developed in Lund appeared first on Øresund Startups.

“Via Clarity and various incubators, I’ve advised over 1,000+ startups regarding growth hacking, product marketing and fundraising. I’m also ridiculously passionate about helping others succeed in business.” – Dan Martell

The service assists clients in growing their business by learning new skills and conducting market research, among others. This helpful service proudly boasts highly successful entrepreneurs such as Mark Cuban, Eric Ries and Cameron Herold as their verified experts, along with over 30,000 others. Clients may browse among the community of experts until they find their preference. Testimonials from CEOs of successful firms praise their services.

“A $100 Clarity call stopped me from buying $30,000 in software that I didn’t need.” says CEO of Wrightwood Furniture

Certainly an admirable service to be appreciated! Dan will be sharing interesting stories from his life at the talk, as well as providing insights from his experiences for businesses.
Date: March 12, 2014
Time: 18:00 – 22:00
Place: Rocket Labs, Copenhagen

The post VIP VoIP #4 with Dan Martell appeared first on Øresund Startups.