The nimble "Buzz" is getting louder

The Netherlands based Nimbuzz is the latest among internet communications startup companies that have started gaining a lot attraction. Nimbuzz is in addition to supporting already popular IM/chat services such as Skype, Windows Live, Yahoo, Google GTalk... also like Rebtel focusing on cheap and easy to user international mobile phone calls. Nimbuzz has their gateway locations around the world in places such as New York, Amsterdam and Hongkong supporting around 35 countries. What I find in particular interesting is that Nimbuzz is the first company actually addressing the vast majority of already available mobile phones that can download and run a Java application. This is a first step in a phased opportunity to finally move towards mobile VoIP thereby once and for all killing the old telecom operator approach to voice calling and in particular billing. More about to follow in a separate article.

Today, the drawback is related to cheaper or too old mobile phones supporting Java J2ME apps using MIDP v1 and operator preloaded phones you cannot easily change.

Since Nimbuzz is working on Java application that is using VoIP, it will be interesting to see what is in store for us users coming from competitors.

The Zen of Creativity in the high-tech world

When you get stuck not knowing what to do, it's funny that all the high-tech tools in the world do not beat up the old fashioned way of a notepad, a pen and a cup of coffee outdoors in the sunshine...

Telecom Benelux 2008 Business Event Sep 16-18

The Swedish Trade Council is arranging an interest business opportunity for companies interested in getting to know hot products and services from telecom and communications software companies. The event will be held in association with Ericsson and key Telecom Operators in Belgium and the Netherlands. If you are going to be available in the Hague, Rijen and Brussels area at this time, I would recommend you check this event out. See agenda details at:
http://www.swedishtrade.se/tbo2008/?objectID=9169

The companies presenting will be;



Appello is a small company that has been around for 5 years, based in Gothenburg with very interested knowledge going across GPS information, navigation, mapping and end user devices in particular mobile ones used in autos. The company has also launched white label solutions for service providers. Appello is in Gothenburg, Sweden.


Arkivator is not a new startup company, started already in 1940 but is a high-tech focused complete solutions supplier of development through manufacturing including test and assembly. Arkivator has a focus on wireless peer to peer radiolinksystems. Arkivator is in Falkoping, Sweden.

Aurora Innovation is with its TeleQ contact call center system, offering a smarter solution with callback times given instead of just having people waiting. Aurora is also offering the CallControl mobile solution, se older post on this blogsite. Aurora is a startup company in Uppsala, Sweden.

Dub Tools is a small startup focusing on mobile media content delivery services. Dub Tools is in Stockholm, Sweden.








Emerson Network Power is an established company. The power energy systems area in Sweden provides smart energy solutions for communications service providers. They are in Stockholm, Sweden.





Intertex is an established company in Sundbyberg (just outside Stockholm), Sweden focusing on next generation broadband access products such as SIP and IMS compliant feature rich ADSL modems and personal gateway products.

IS Tools is an established company in Stockholm providing complete ECM solutions.

Mobile Arts is a Stockholm based company providing SMSC as well as very interesting voice SMS service solutions.




PacketFront is a Stockholm based company providing complete solutions for FTTH services.




Procera Networks is a Silicon Valley headquartered company with R&D head office in Varberg, Sweden providing state of the art high-end DPI (Deep Packet Inspection) products for the demands on multi-media IP networks.

SmartTrust is a Stockholm, Sweden based company known for many years for their intelligent SIM card and mobile device management products and solutions.








TeamQuest is a Gothenburg, Sweden based company specializing in capacity management software in the IT services optimization area very useful for any telecom operator facing mixed and dynamic traffic demands from their users.

TelecomCity is a business services organization in Karlskrona, Sweden. TelecomCity is going to showcase mobile business services solutions.



Transmode is optical network solutions company in Stockholm, Sweden with products based on WDM technologies.

Webconnect Europe is a Stockholm, Sweden based company known for radio analyzing tools used in particular in 3G networks.



Webforum Europe is a Solna, Sweden based company focusing on easy to use ECM tools and services as hosted services including collaboration.

Twingly - Blog search and linkback service

Twingly is a cool startup company providing a great combination of searching for blogs and linkback service for blog post comments of other sites' posts. Twingly is also working on a "visual blog search" tool called Blogoscope.

To use the linkback service, you just do the following;

1. Write a post in your blog and link to the article on another site.

2. Ping your blog at Twingly http://www.twingly.com/ping

3. Done.

The link to your post will be shown under the article you wrote about. Note: This requires the website or blog you are commenting on to have the needed Widget and Javascript in the html page template. Vice-versa is of course needed if you want to provide the same service to your own linkbacks. See http://blog.twingly.com for further details.

A 75 year old tip - Make a deal before you do the deal

Here's an interesting story from an old Swedish magazine from 1933 about Kronblom and his adventures. For those of you that do not read Swedish, Kronblom gets out of bed, goes to the grocery dealer in town, negotiates best price for the skin of a fox, closes the deal and then leaves with the comment, "Now I just have to go out and shoot a fox". A true entrepreneur!

Have a great Sunday, /Thomas

PS. Click on image to read the story

Quick animation of how BloggKoll.com is working

Here's a follow up on BloggKoll. Animation for non-techies.

BloggKoll - Like Twellow for blogs with a FriendFeed twist

I have started using Bloggkoll just out of simplicity in addition to using RSS readers. With Bloggkoll, you can find, categorize and subscribe to the blogs you frequently read without having to look for RSS feeds or addresses. It is a pretty convenient web service for most people who don't want to having to think, "How do I read and subscribe to my favorite blogs?". I have to say congratulations to a friend of mine, Mattias Swenson and the team for launching this service.

Callcontrol - a new handy mobile personal call control service

Here's a first post from posts about "StartMeUp - Sweden". Aurora Innovation is a new Swedish company introducing their Callcontrol service in addition to TeleQ, the contact center management service used a lot by healthcare service providers.

Calcontrol is a handy little service allowing you to better control how you want to answer incoming calls to your mobile phone. Instead of just answering or letting it go to voicemail, you can choose from a menu how the call should be answered and if you decide to give the calling party a message such as I will call you back in 1 hour, you can get reminded through SMS, 5 min before you need to call.

The service works on Windows Mobile, Symbian and as a SIM-card service.

Contact me for help in contacting Swedish startups.

Zipi your contacts in Outlook

The networking database services company, ZoomInfo has lanuched a new service Zipi for MS Outlook users. Keep your Outlook contacts up to date.

ZoomInfo has (when I checked) 45M records. This new service is like using Jigsaw to find contacts and Plaxo to keep your outlook data in a good shape but with the massive network database from ZoomInfo. Check it out. I think it is a very useful service even though I don't use Outlook for emailings, I still use Outlook as an offline contacts database. My custom MS Access based contacts database is faster and better when extracing data but Outlook is very convenient for a lot of business and websites out there.

Start Me Up Sweden - The Shape of Swedish Startups

Now when summer is here and the second half of 2008 is starting, this is a good time to take the pulse on new startups and what they are upto. A new series of blogposts will appear shortly. Please feel free to contact me for further details or help contacting Swedish startups.

See, http://www.lidforss.com for contact information.

Mobile Mail for Everyone, One click mobile international calling

From the last Mobile Monday (MoMo) Sweden event before summer, Ken Imamura from MoMo introduced MoMail's Lars Aase, VP Marketing presented their free mobile phone email solution. MoMail provides a solution where you can check your email from Google, Yahoo or work and get your copy to your mobile phone as well as on your MoMail web. MoMail is a very smart and compact service allowing you to use it on most phones regardless of screensize and memory. MoMail also remembers where your email came from so when you reply to your Google email, your gmail address will show up.

Rebtel's CEO, Hjalmar Winbladh presented Rebtel's service for making mobile international calls using local phone numbers. You can add your friends phone number, get a local number and call your friend. You pay a small fee per minut and as an option if your friend is within one of the 48 countries supported and your friend also get a local phone number, you don't pay Rebtel anything for the call. Rebtel's service is similar to the UK based, Hype but is easier to use with its two call method choices and it does not "piggy-back" on Skype.

The CEO of Squace, Aage Reerslev presented the personalization and easy to navigate the web solution based on a "square like" screen layout where you can tag and bookmark and store and share with your friends how you use the web from your mobile phone. Squace is also working on how to simplify the use of Rebtel services by using the Squace frontend.

I also met with people from YaYa Productions, Adimo (mobile services and solutions) and Mobile Sorcery (mobile software solutions).

Next MoMo event is a 2-day event planned for early fall.

Squace Launch - The MyStuff way for Mobile Phones

Mobile Monday (MoMo Sweden http://www.mobilemonday.se/) is arranging a meeting a the mobile start up company Squace this Monday June 16 at 5pm. If you are not aware of this but you will be in town, use this opportunity to come and see Squace in action and listen to the CEO Aage Reerslev. Squace is a cool new service that lets you design your stuff as a mobile site, tag info, network with others.

As a part of MoMo meeting, you will also get an opportunity to listen to Rebtel 's CEO, Hjalmar Winbladhand their interesting mobile international calling by replacing (depending on your country location) the international phone number with a local number.

I also want to point out, please feel free to contact me for a discussion about your company needs. Contact me, see http://www.lidforss.com/ for details.

PS. Also, remember to register for this MoMo event, space is limited!

Start Me Up or Not? Notes from a Garage Technology Ventures event

A lot of people are asking me about start up company information. I found while doing computer maintenance my old notes from a Garage Technology Ventures event in Mountain View, California, USA.

After having quickly read through the notes, I think (what do you think?) most of the information is still valid. So here's a summary;

Guy Kawasaki presenting;

Get Started

1. Make meaning

a. Increase quality of life

b. Prevent end of something good

c. Provide quality product & service

2. Make mantra

a. Everybody writes a mission statement - don't go there, make a simple statement with a meaning

b. Starbucks - "Rewarding Moments"

c. Nike - "Authentic, athletic experiences"

3. Get going

a. Start making product or service

b. Think big, 10x better, create the next curve

c. Find soul mates as working buddies

d. Think love/hate design

e. Design differently (I want it)

f. Previous employee does not see it; Start your own company

g. What the hell, let's build it

h. There must be a better way

4. Define a Business Model

a. Who has your money in their pockets?

i. Who is your customer?

ii. What do they want?

iii. How much will they pay?

b. Keep it simple

c. Copy somebody's already working business model

d. Ask women about your business model

5. Weave a MAT (Milestones, Assumptions, Tasks)

a. Milestones

i. MS1 - Proof of concept

ii. MS2 - Complete design spec

iii. MS3 - Finish prototype

iv. MS4 - Raise capital

v. MS5 - Ship prototype

vi. MS6 - Ship final

vii. MS7 - Break even

b. Assumptions (list and test real assumptions)

i. Test product

ii. Test market

iii. Test gross margin

iv. Test sales calls

v. Test sales cycle

vi. Test conversion rate

vii. Test payment cycle

viii. Test payments

ix. Test receivables

x. Test pricing

c. Tasks

i. List tasks for milestones

Bill Reichert presenting;

Raising VC funding

Key VC interests;

· Rapid sustainable growth

· Size & scale

· Disproportional profitability

1. Start smart

a. Corporation and stock issues, buyback agreement for founders stock

b. Employee considerations

c. IPR value, NDA

d. Seed investments including loans

e. Corporate governance practices

2. Tell a good story

a. Team

b. Problem & opportunity

c. Technology & solution

d. Sustainable advantages

e. Business model

f. Partnerships & leverage

3. Make the numbers add up - Demo solid grasp for your business

a. Long term financial projection (vision)

b. Near term operating plan (tactical)

c. Capital requirements

d. Capital structure over multiple rounds

e. Levers of profitability & key metrics

4. Find the right investors

a. Generate momentum

b. Target your venture contacts

c. Nurture syndicates (lead and others)

d. Manage selling process

5. Build your credibility

a. Customers

b. Strategic partners

c. Investors (seed)

d. Advisory and board members

e. Gurus and experts

f. Milestones

g. No lies

Bootstrapping

Four basic models
· Garage

· University (research grant, technology or government grant)

· Services to product

· Core customer & Partner (make sure you keep licensing rights to sell to other non-competitors)

Sustainable models
· Low capital requirements

· Low cost of customer acquisitions

· Rapid cash flow/Cash up front

· Recurring revenue

Nine alternatives to find bootstrapping sources
1) Day job (contract or employment)

2) Credit cards & mortgages

3) The 3Fs (friends, fools and family)

4) Founding angel (seed)

5) Government grants

6) Incubator

7) License rights (exclusive rights for 1 market)

8) Core Customer

9) Version 1.0 - Real customers buying your product

Bootstrap Economies - It's about payback, not ROI, therefore model payback on each expense
1) Product features

2) Marketing & Promotion

3) Sales expenses

4) Overhead

Bootstrap Product Development - Get to your product fast
1) Work nights & weekends

2) Use PhD students, dissertation projects

3) Tap offshore resources

4) Productize a consulting project as NRE (Non-Recurring Engineering) income

5) License a finished product

6) Import a finished product

Bootstrap Selling - Design in repeat sales
1) Rifleshot selling

2) Community (viral marketing)

3) Channel sales

4) OEM partnership/private label

5) Internet

6) Consulting

Bootstrap Marketing - Leverage the leader's marketing
1) Press releases

2) Events, seminars, webinars

3) Directories

4) Analysts

5) Affiliate marketing programs

6) Adwords

Bootstrap Recruiting - Focus on raw talent

1) Networking

2) University

3) Competitors

4) Contract recruiters

5) Not Monster

6) Nurture "talent in working"

Bootstrap Operations - Leverage ecosystem
1) Core: Product development, Sales, Customer support

2) Not Core: Coding, marketing, overhead, manufacturing

When do you stop Bootstrapping?

1) The VCs start to call

2) Product & market becomes hot

3) You can validate revenue projections

4) You can validate payback models

5) You can operate indefinitely at break even

6) You are profitable

7) Never

More on networking sites, Kaneva, Twinity, Spoke, Jigsaw,..

The social networking services are morphing with the virtual worlds from gaming. Two good examples are;

Kaneva a US based company in Atlanta where you can design your own world and mix it with facts and real people you network with. Try it out here. A German based counterpart exaple is Twinity which is in private beta right now by the Berlin based company, Metaversum.
I have only tried Kaneva so far, unfortunately, their business model seems to be based right away on paying for building up our virtual world.

AlwasOn Network is among other things a networking service. AO is mainly known in Silicon Valley for their extensive coverage of start-up companies, inventions, new technologies, Venture Capital coverage (including arranging briefings, conferences and seminars). Bigger events are often done jointly or sponsored by KPMG. Take a look at my profile and try out the services and good access to information and personal contacts you get from AO.

Spoke has transformed itself from being just another networking site into a serious business database resource of 40M+ business contacts. You can easily search (though site response is slow sometimes) for all levels of business people. After renewed use of Spoke recently, they can be viewed as a premium version of Jigsaw (more about Jigsaw later in this post). This service though comes at a premium price, $50/month for an invidual user. Well worth the price if you are a serious corporate marketing user.

SiliconIndia is a relatively new networking and information site in India that is still in beta and allows free access to all members. Good portal to access the booming Indian/Asian continent. Worth keeping an eye on.

WirelessFactors is a niche networking site mainly addressing wireless professionals. The site is still small though but with useful info for wireless.

Jigsaw is a more open (free option in addition to premium services) business contact service than Spoke. Jigsaw works like a tradingpost for business cards. Good contact database, though limited to about half a dozen countries, you can e.g. only access or trade contacts in UK for the EU countries. Jigsaw also gives you free access to Anagram, (register at Jigsaw and dowload from Jigsaw) a useful software tool for easy drag and drop of contact information into Jigsaw.

Staffingforce is an interesting networking site entirely focused on recruiting networks. Read before you do something about this site, George Vasu's blog, there you will get all you need to know before registering. See, http://vasutown.blogspot.com/ A very interesting approach to business building and social networking.

This is the networking update for now.

Happy reading,/Thomas

Review and opinions about business and social networking sites

Social networking services has become the latest hot thing to have and participate within the last couple of years.

Here's a list of sites and services I have used the last 2-4 years with mixed results.

LinkedIn

The first site I started using was LinkedIn. LinkedIn started as a networking site where you could only become a member by being invited by somebody already a member. LinkedIn started growing quickly in 2004, becoming one thing on the net you had to be a member of. LinkedIn has evolved, adding more web 2.0 type services, become open and has more than 17M users.

LinkedIn is based on the concept of how many degrees away you are from a person. People you are connected with are your 1st degree of contacts. You can get introduced to others through your network or become a premium subscriber and (depending on your subscription level) get access directly to people not in your network. LinkedIn also allows you to create groups and join groups others create. LinkedIn has a job search and listing service for those of you looking for a new job. Many listings are also unique.

LinkedIn has some restrictions by default, no blind mass introductions using find colleagues or mass introductions resulting in a high percentage of refusals. You are also allowed max 3000 invitations to be sent out. After that you have to ask for more, 300-500 at a time.

Check it out if you are not a user, http://www.lidforss.com/in/tlidforss (my public profile) and send me an invitation.

Facebook

This was a service started by university students to keep in touch with friends. Facebook is a lot more of a social networking site than LinkedIn. Facebook also publishes an application developer API allowing 3rd party applications to work as plug-ins on Facebook. This has resulted in scores of applications available for almost any service. This is both good and bad, you have to be careful about not accepting too many applications, if you do, you will get bombarded with messages and notification requests. The good thing, YOU CAN LEAVE and REMOVE your appllicatios. The same goes for groups. Facebook is a good site when you want to experiment and try new services. Facebook has a restriction for max 5000 users.

Facebook has nowadays more than 60M users.

Connect with me and send a friend request to tlidforss at yahoo.com and check out my profile;

http://www.facebook.com/people/Thomas_Lidforss/511158599

Ecademy

Ecademy is a boutique style UK based site that has worked as an "exclusive club". Ecademy is the oldest networking site, celebrating its 10th year of operation now. Ecademy has a lot of quality contacts, with clubs, local (geograpically speaking) clubs, news, blogs, marketplace. Ecademy is very interntional, the only restriction being English language only on the site. For people who are used to US based sites, I can recommend Ecademy as an excellent English speaking alternative. Try it out, you have nothing to loose, view my profile to see what kind of infomation Ecademy provides;

Ecademy has 300K+ users.

http://www.ecademy.com/account.php?id=60379&xref=60379

Plaxo (Pulse)

Plaxo is for most people known as the MS Outlook contact and address book synchrinization service. Plaxo started a very web 2.0 developed service more than one year ago, allowing networking, with RSS feeds, groups and sharing of info. Plaxo Pulse has a very simple and easy to use interface. Unfortunately, Plaxo only allows 1000 connections, then you get a stupid message, you have more than 1000 connections, please delete some so you can connect!!!

So, my question is how do I know which connection to delete just so I can accept a new one? Right now I have probably about 100+ connection request I cannot even reply to. Another restriction is also, max 10k contacts in your address book, after that synchronization stops and Plaxo effectively quits working, so I have not used it a lot lately, even though I still like their services.

Plaxo has 10M+ users.

Spock

Spock is a relatively new site. Spock has based their services on the concept of "tags". You build up a list of tags for yourself and people you connect with. Your connections can also add tags on your profile. Spock has a fast and easy to use userinterface. Try it out; see Spock profile info:

www.spock.com/Thomas-Lidforss-Ik2sF1EW

Spoke

Spoke is a US site that very much looks like the European Viadeo and Xing. I have not used Spoke that much but they have more than 30M users.

See http://center.spoke.com/profiles/ThomasLidforss to view profile data information.

Ryze

Ryze is another US site that has been around the last 5 years. I have not used it very much but if you would like to view type of information in a profile, see

http://www.ryze.com/go/mpnow1

MySpace

Myspace is the world no. 1 site for social networking. Unfortunately you can eaily get too much junk request and info. Very social site though. I use mainly because of relatives of mine.

Myspace has more than 230M users.

See, http://www.myspace.com/tlidforss for profile data sample.

Xing

Xing started using the name OpenBC and changed to Xing. Xing is a German company but with a very interntional approach allowing you to have and choose between different languages. I personally like Xing, very good search functions, matching functions for your haves and wants in your profile. Suggestions on people and business opportunities you should look up based on your profile. Xing is also as a premium user cheaper than most sites, about 6 Euro/month.

See, http://www.xing.com/go/invite/3233530.693c4a for profile data sample.

Viadeo

Viadeo is a French based company to some extent like Xing. Very international with multiple languages and profile languages.

See, http://www.viadeo.com/en/profile/thomas.lidforss for profile data sample.

Doostang

Doostang is a career and job oriented US site where you have to get invited to become a user. See http://www.doostang.com/ for a look.

Naymz

Naymz is a relatively new site building up your network based on a "trust" concept. Once you reach trust level 9, you get power features search wise and Google submissios. One good thing, Naymz sponsor links on Google and cross references your blog, homesite and linkedin profile page which improves your visibility on Google.

See, http://thomas.lidforss.name/ or search directory using

www.naymz.com/directory/thomas+lidforss

GoBigNetwork

GoBigNetwork - This is a network focusing on networking among business people interested in growing their businesses, start one or work for one, little activity though, don't really know
if a lot of people are using this site see, www.gobignetwork.com/profiles/Thomas-Lidforss.aspx

CollectiveX

CollectiveX - semi-active user, this is a site where all sites are open for open networkers. CollectiveX allows you to create or join groups.See, http://www.collectivex.com/

TheMetaNetwork

TheMetaNetwork - this is a site organized by Christian Mayaud in the New York area. Christian is number 2 in the world on LinkedIn, got mad at LinkedIn restrictions and started his own networking site; http://www.themetanetwork.com/

You can register, join the LinkedIn group LIONS and update your "The Lions' Lair" status. You will be listed on the LION's excelfile list over members and your willingness to be more or
less a fully open networker. This is one of the most used services from TheMetaNetwork site.

Ning

Ning - This is the site where you can so far for free create your own networking site, open or closed depending on what you want to do including creating groups for your networking site. I
am an active user in a couple of ning sites just to experiement and see if I would like to create my own site with this service. See one example,

http://pmbcom.ning.com/profile/ThomasLidforss

Konnects

Konnects is a new site with an intersting concept for matching leads based on your profile, creating and managing groups and communities.

See, http://www.konnects.com/profile/mpnow1

ZoomInfo

ZoomInfo is a reverse personal and business networking site. ZoomInfo builds your profile based on public internet site information, you can claim your profile by updating or correcting the information Zoominfo has put together.

See, www.zoominfo.com/people/Lidforss_Thomas_200383525.aspx

Biztribe

Biztribe is like a European version of Ryze with networking and job information. I have not used it very much so I have for the time being no further comments.

Jobster

Jobster is a career oriented website like Doostang but open. You get pretty good matches (based on skills matching and skills keywords you choose)for your profile plus you can network with others.

See, http://www.jobster.com/people/tlidforss

Friendster

Friendster is a mix of Myspace and Facebook, have not played with it much and I am no longer a user.

I will add a new post and come back with comments about SiliconIndia, WirelessFactors, PartnerUp and HireAbility and Vasutown (both for people who actively network for recruiter job purposes).

regards,

/Thomas

Meet Jay Conrad Levinson at the May Marketing Event in the Nice, France area

Dear Blogreader,

I am delighted to announce tickets for: "The Most Prestigious Marketing Event of 2008" with Jay Conrad Levinson" on the French Riviera are on sale!

Click here to view all the details and secure your participation at this exceptional event; as one of my blogreaders, you are entitled to a 10% discount, just enter "xgmcp996" when orderiing!

Jay Conrad Levinson's speaking presentation, "The Miracle and Innovation of Guerrilla Marketing", will run for two hours; you will have a chance to interact with Jay during the weekend and ask him questions that matter the most to your business

-- Jay will share laser-focused and inexpensive marketing tactics to really help you recession-proof your business. During Jay's time on stage, he will clarify marketing, excite and inspire the audience with stories and tactics of guerrilla marketing, and create an aura of excitement at the opportunity to breathe life into his techniques immediately

-- at no cost or just a tiny cost.Jay will explain the key differences between guerrilla marketing and traditional marketing, the 100 weapons of guerrilla marketing, prove that marketing is now a science, and delve into the personalities of successful guerrilla marketers. He'll reveal the key secrets of guerrilla marketing, the truth about on-line marketing, and the steps you can take immediately to earn serious profits with a guerrilla marketing attack.

You will get the following Bonuses with your registration:

* Bonus #1: "The Way of the Guerrilla" -- a $599 value

* Bonus #2: Complete Guerrilla Marketing Toolkit with audios -- a $199 value

* Bonus #3: One month free membership in the Guerrilla Marketing Association -- a $49 value

That's $847 in Guerrilla Marketing resources absolutely free!

The event has been scheduled for May 24 & 25, 2008 but please do not make any travel arrangements until you have received an email confirming the event; you will receive an email from the event organizer at least 30 days before the event to ensure you get the best rate when you book your trip to Nice International Airport, France.

In case of any questions related to the organization of this event, feel free to contact Christophe Poizat, the event organizer at: chris at christophepoizat.com or call him direct on +33 977 903 249 (GMT+1) -- you can also contact Amy Levinson, VP of Guerrilla Marketing International at olympiagal at aol.com

I look forward to seeing you at "The Most Prestigious Marketing Event of 2008" with Jay Conrad Levinson, the Father of Guerrilla Marketing, on the French Riviera!

Sincerely,

Thomas

tlidforss at yahoo.com
http://www.lidforss.com

PS: Click here to view all the details and secure your participation at this exceptional event; "as a blogreader, you are entitled to a 10% discount, just enter "xgmcp996" when ordering!

PPS: Testimonials for Jay Conrad Levinson

“Jay is one of the foremost business marketing experts in the world. No one knows how to use the weapons of the trade better than industry expert Jay Levinson." -- Entrepreneur magazine

“Your speech at Entrepreneur’s Day was great! What a good way to kick-off this conference with such a strong emphasis on marketing. Guerrilla marketing is just what these entrepreneurs need to understand. Your style and delivery was excellent and I heard many young entrepreneurs talk about the impact it made.” -- John R. Thorne, Chairman, Carnegie Mellon

“The right person at the right time at the right place – that was you as guest speaker at the U.S. Small Business Administration/Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce Small Business Luncheon. Everyone who attended was thrilled with your presentation. I understand that the L.A. Chamber is still taking orders for your books and tapes.” -- Patty DeDominic, Chief Executive Officer

"Jay Conrad Levinson had coffee with me in 1983 and it changed my life forever. Jay has forgotten more about effective marketing techniques than most of us will ever know. He's the man." -- Seth Godin, best-selling author of Permission Marketing and Unleashing the Ideavirus.

"Your program yesterday was absolutely terrific. It is incredible how much excellent material you packed into that hour and a half session. No one could have left that session without feeling they really got their money’s worth!" -- Kandace Laass, Director, Quality Learning Services, U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Sweden Networking Group "Meet and Greet" Mixer

Meet me at the first "meet and greet" mixer organized by the LinkedIn group, Sweden Networking Group on April 10, 18.00-20.30 (6-8.30 pm) at Spegelmatsalen, Berns Salonger (one floor up from the main bar). The address is; Berns Salonger, Berzeli Park, SE-103 25 Stockholm, Sweden

RSVP needed, contact Lisa Sculati for information about this LinkedIn group and activities around it.

See http://www.linkedin.com/in/lisasculati or lisa.sculati at yahoo.com

Contact me, Thomas Lidforss to setup an appointment +4673-701-3465

Location and Berns Salonger Information:

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Turbo 3G vs. Wireless Internet Anywhere in USA

It is interesting to see how aggressively various "Turbo 3G" modem for latop users are being promoted in Europe. Every wireless operating company is marketing their new 7.2MBits/s wireless internet anywhere service. Pricing is about $29/month, free modem if you agree to a 12 month service.

Compare this with (still poor coverage) and 1.5-2MBits/s service from US wireless service providers at a $50-$60/month price (if you already have cell phone service with the company in question). AT&T and T-Mobile have a potential advantage using the international 3G WCDMA standard by being able to "piggy-back" on the volume production and competition internationally.

Also worth noticing is that the Chinese company Huawei has captured a big market for "Turbo 3G" modems in Northern Europe.

On the Fixed Internet access side, you can get +24MBits/s internet access for $39/month. It is about time for internet services in USA to catch up with the rest of the world.

/Thomas

US-EU-ME/Asia Business Opportunities

With the event of booming economies in South Eastern Asia and the new EU countries in Eastern Europe, I have started on a journey to work out of Europe to promote a "Virtual Silicon Valley Worlds" business concept.

There are many "Silicon Valley like" areas in the world nowdays. The existence of internet technology support, using voice/video communications in addition to business and social networking, sharing of information, creating joint business projects is getting easier and easier.

Interested parties, please contact me at http://www.lidforss.com/

Ecademy is one example of a well established business organization within EU. Ecademy celebrates its 10th year of operations. I encourage you to join me on Ecademy. Click on picture/link below to find out more.

http://www.ecademy.com/?xref=60379

There are also a number of interesting business clubs operating on Ecademy. Two examples are Scandinavian Vikings Business and Social Club and Global Capital Access Club. You can join any club once you are a member of Ecademy. I also encourage you to consider signing up for PowerNetworker membership if you like what you see. It is well worth it.

Regards, Thomas

Update from a WiMAX event in Santa Clara Dec 11

WiMAX Broadband Converging Emerging Fixed and Mobile Revenue Opportunities

I attended a MIT/Standford Venture Lab (VLAB) & SVASE event at the Intel auditorium on Dec. 11.

Opening remarks held by Sriram Viswannathan, GM of WiMAX Program Office at Intel

Moderator: Berge Ayvazian, Chief Strategy Officer, Yankee Group

Panelists:

Rama Shukla, VP Mobility Group & Director, WiMAX Program Office, Intel

Rehan Jalil, President and CEO, WiChorus (Content and Network Services)

P.Kelley Dunne, CEO, Digital Bridge Communications (WiMAX rural service provider)

Sandesh Patnam, Partner and CFO, Bay Partners (Venture Capital)

Tom Gruba, Sr Director Marketing, Motorola, MOTOwi4, WiMAX

Intel gave an overview of their plans and release of the new 2008 laptop platform heavily promoting WiMAX in addition to WiFi (Centrino). 2nd half of 2008 is target for hardware release including PC/miniPC cards. All major laptop vendors have signed on for this new platform.

WiChorus discussed their opinions for the need to think about mobile broadband internet access gateways with possibility for deep packet inspection and optimization of content.

Digital Bridge, presented their success in cost efficient deployments in USA for WiMAX services and ease of installation and use for customers. Digital Bridge has used Alvarion equipment for their deployments.

Bay Partners presented their interest in monitoring this technology area.

Motorola outlined their commitment to WiMAX in addition to other possible competing technologies such as 3G LTE (Long Term Evolution) for WCDMA and CDMA2000. Tom also debunked the speculation around Clearwire and Sprint breakup of JV. Motorola has deployed WiMAX in more than a dozen countries around the world. Tom expressed his opinions about that business cases for each service provider will determine what technology that will be used. This can be anything from availability of spectrum for WiMAX (2.5 GHz or 3.5GHz) or lack of spectrum in which case a 3G LTE solution may be better.

In any case, the overall comments were all positive on WiMAX business opportunities and that WiFi/WiMAX services combined will be here for a long time in parallel with 3G wireless evolution.

Berge from the Yankee Group reminded everybody to check the WiMAX Forum activities for upcoming events and conferences.

regards,

/Thomas

For additional comments or info, contact me at http://www.lidforss.com/contactus.aspx

Meet me at Mobile Entrepreneur Day in Mountain View

Mobile Entrepreneur Day - November 14, 2007
"Leveling the Playing Field: Accelerating Growth Through Partnerships"
9am-2pm, Wed 11/14/07 at the Microsoft Conference center, Mountain View, CA.

See the following url for details and registration. This is a FREE event but you have to register.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=6950409401

Please feel free to contact me for an appointment to meet at this event or before/after the event.

best regards,
/Thomas
thomas at perperz.com or 415-710-8434

Wireless security test tools and portable software to OEMs

Our technology eliminates the need for you to develop and keep up to date with the latest security protocols and standards plus can in addition test and evaluate compliance and vulnerability of your products.

Xpressent Inc (http://www.xpressent.com/) provides wireless security test tools and portable software to OEMs. The products enable UMA dual mode phones, Mobile phones, Wireless embedded devices (M2M devices), Femtocells and Gateway companies to develop security compliant products.

XpressVPN is a complete toolkit that includes the protocols of IPSEC, IKE, and IKEv2. EAP based authentication is supported for IKEv2. EAP types currently supported include EAP-MD5, EAP-GTC, EAP-SIM and EAP-AKA.

XpressVPN is available in two packages: OEM and TestTool.

XpressVPN-OEM is an OEM toolkit for IPSEC/IKE/IKEv2 and is available as a SDK for Linux, Windows and Windows Mobile platforms. XpressVPN-OEM is designed for portability, extensibility, and performance. We have customers using the product or planning to use on most of the common platforms (Linux, Windows, Windows Mobile, VxWorks, etc.) and on a variety of hardware architectures (MIPS, ARM, x86, etc). Portable ANSI "C" source code for XpressVPN is available optionally.

XpressVPN-TestTool is a Linux-based IPSEC/IKEv2 test tool. This tool includes multi-client capability, allowing the simulation of thousands of IKEv2 clients from a single system. Multiclient traffic generation tools are included. It also includes an IKE packet interceptor and modifier utility that can be used to simulate error conditions based on user-defined rules for vulnerability and robustness testing.

XpressVPN has proven interoperability with all major vendors of VPN products. Xpressent has also successfully particiated in both of the IKEv2 interoperability workshops hosted by ICSA Labs. In fact, ICSA Labs uses XpressVPN as the reference platform for their IKEv2 certification program.Xpressent is up to date with the latest IETF and 3GPP security standards needed for your protection.

Please contact Saroop through email at saroop at xpressent.com or contact me at http://www.lidforss.com/contactus.aspx to discuss your needs further and I will introduce you to Xpressent. I am no longer with Xpressent but I can assist you setting up a meeting and introduce you to the company. We are located in Silicon Valley in California and are available to either meet locally or have a phone conference or WebEx to go through your requriements and XpressVPN product capabilities.


Best regards,
/Thomas

Crowd Sourcing - New model for building a business online

I attended an MITCNC (MIT Club of Northern California, see http://www.mitcnc.org/) event 10/9/2007 in Palo Alto, called "Crowd Sourcing". This event was moderated by Brian O' Malley, Senior Associate, Battery Ventures.

The presenters were;

Devin Poolman, COO, 8020 Publishing, http://www.8020publishing.com/
Scott Brave, CTO and Founder, Baynote, http://www.baynote.com/
Jim Fowler, CEO and Founder, Jigsaw, http://www.jigsaw.com/
Thor Muller, CEO and Founder, Satisfaction, http://www.getsatisfaction.com/

An interesting observation about these companies, they all build their business model on rapid expansion by sourcing information and conversations from the community, the "crowd" instead of trying to build the base themselves.

8020 Publishing is a hybrid media publisher who creates printed magazines by getting content from the community and conversations or voting about what should go into the magazine. Their first magazine is the JPG a picture gallery based magazine.

Baynote uses community and conversations to build search engine relevance for customers/enterprises. Instead of just getting a list of search results, you get a relevance factor sorted list of results with links to associated documents. Scott also presented interesting statistics about people's attention span. Traditional search engine hits, no 1, 100% of people pay attention to, this drops quickly down to 9.5% for hit number 10 meaning people give up there after.

Jigsaw is a business card exchange program where users can trade business cards or subscribe to the service and search/acquire business cards. Jim Fowler made comparisons to pay services such as Hoover where Hoover has to build the database. Jigsaw lets the user community build the database and provides "a carrot and a stick" model where users get challenged if they put in incorrect information in the database. Jigsaw has quickly gone from nothing to more than 6M business cards. Jigsaw as a service is used a lot by sales and recruiting people. Jim also pointed out the importance of personally contacting your early users to get traction in the community, this is very important to get enough traction to grow. I use the service myself and can highly recommend it. Join by clicking here.

Satisfaction is a community and conversations based system for customer service and how to quickly get a customer satisfied. Thor pointed out the importance of providing relevance based on instructions from the community and people who are already using a product instead of depending on each individual companies produced manuals or directions from their websites.

Please feel free to contact me for your thoughts and comments.

/Thomas

Need Polyphonic ringtones, Nokia ringtones, Java Games, Color Backgrounds

If you need or would like to play challenging new Java games on your mobile phone, check out
http://mobileforsuccess.polyphonic-ringtone-ringtones.com/

This site is providing Polyphonic ringtones, Nokia ringtones, Java Games, Color Backgrounds, Screensavers, TrueTones - GET THE BEST NOW including international logos in different languages.

Meet Me at the Mobile Entertainment Summit in San Francisco Oct 22

I am attending the MES event at Metreon in San Francisco, CA on Oct. 22. I would like to meet with you during this event, please drop me an email at thomas at SiliconValleyPartner.com or call me 415-710-8434.

See http://www.mes07.com/index.php for details about this event.

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eXpress Wireless Security Now - Xpressent

Do you need an easy integration of state of the art wireless security software for your mobile devices, terminal adapters, femtocells or security gateways?

Then look no further, Xpressent Inc is a hot company providing expert services and software products for your business. Xpressent also provides test tools to test and evaluate your equipment against protocol compliance, capacity and vulnerability. Xpressent is up to date with the latest IETF and 3GPP security standards needed for your protection.

Please contact me at http://www.lidforss.com/contactus.aspx to discuss your needs further and I will introduce you to Xpressent.

The GoingGreen 100 Winners Posted

Check out the GoingGreen 100 Winners from the Sep 6 event at KPMG in Mountain View. A lot of interesting companies. Here's the list of the 100 companies.

Automotive & Transportation
AC Propulsion
CleanAir Logix
Myers Motors
Mygistics
Phoenix Motorcars
PML
Tesla Motors
Think Global
ZENN Motor Company


Biofuel & Agriculture
Altra Biofuels
Amyris Biotechnologies
Chemrec
Cilion
ClearFuels Technology
E3 Biofuels
Gevo
Greenfuel Technologies
Imperium Renewables
LS9
Mascoma
Mendel Biotechnology
RangeFuels
Solazyme
Targeted Growth


Energy Management & Efficiency
Blade Network Technologies
H2Gen Innovations
Silver Spring Networks
SmartSynch
Verdiem

Energy Storage
A123 Systems
Bloom Energy
Cobasys
Deeya Energy
EEStor
GridPoint **OVERALL WINNER**
Jadoo Power
Lilliputian Systems
ZPower

Nanotech & Materials
Artificial Muscle
d.light design
EoPlex Technologies
FiberTech Polymers
Hycrete
Nanoexa
Nanostellar
Serious Materials
Space-X

Clean Energy (not solar or biofuel)
Airtricitiy
CoalTek
General Compression
Great Point Energy
Nordic Windpower
Orion Energy
Powerspan
Verdant Power


Solar
Ausra
Better Energy Systems
BrightSource Energy
Daystar Technologies
Energy Innovations
HelioVolt
Innovalight
Konarka Technologies
Miasolé
Nanosolar
Silicon Valley Solar
Solaicx
SolarCity
Solaria
Solexant
SolFocus
Stion
Stirling Energy Systems


Waste Management
Earthanol
EnerTech Environmental
Intechra
iReuse
LanzaTech
MBA Polymers
TechTurn
Ze-Gen


Water
AbTech Industries
Aqua Sciences
Aquarius Technologies
Atlantium Technologies
Bio-Pure Technology
Derceto
EnviroTower
GeoPure Water Technologies
IDE Technologies
Industrial Plug and Play
Microvi Biotech
MIOX Corporation
NanoH2O
Novazone
P2W Pollution To Water
PAX Water Technologies
Poseidon Resources
Seven Seas Water
Superall Products


best regards,
/Thomas

Contact me at http://www.lidforss.com/contactus.aspx

Need to close a sales deal?

If you need to learn how to close a deal and how to overcome objections, you should seriously consider one of the best deals around. Eric Lofholm is a sales super-star coach who is regularly holding his 2 day "How to Close Seminar" event.

Three events are coming up soon, September 29-30 in San Diego, California, October 13-14 in Sacramento, California and October 27-28 in Orange County, CA. The seminar is 9-5 both days.

Hurry up and register before the seats are gone.

Register here, The Close Seminar.

Going Green Top 100 Companies - Reception Event in Mountain View

The AlwaysOn Network together with KPMG will be hosting the Going Green Top 100 companies event on September 6, 6-8.30pm at the KPMG building in Mountain View, CA. Call 650.404.5000 for more details.

I will be attending this event and would like to meet with you if are you attending. Please contact me at 415-710-8434 to set up a meeting or talk further.

The Going Green conference will take place at The Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, UC at Davis. See http://alwayson.goingon.com/ecom/productview/7539 for conference details.

The new trend - Green Business opportunities

Have you noticed latetly all new businesses that have very exciting ideas and technologies and they all have the "theme" green in common?

I have personally recently been in touch with the leaders of two of them. One, OriginOil is an interesting energy production company in Southern California, transforming algae into oil. The company has recently filed a patent for their processes.

Right NOW, there is also an excellent opportunity for anybody to invest in the company. See http://www.originoil.com/ and please feel free to contact me for further details about Origin Oil at http://www.lidforss.com/ for more contact information.

The second company in Dallas has an interesting solution for green restaurants, saving a lot of energy and greenhouse gases, considering everything from the building materials used to cooking, heating and ventilating in addition to good healthy food. The founder of Cafe DelPiazza is looking for investments to branch out and further establish his restaurant concept.
Please feel free to contact me for further details about Cafe DelPiazza at http://www.lidforss.com/contactus.aspx for more contact information.

I will be attending the ISPCON Fall 2007 in San Jose Convention Center, Oct. 16-18, 2007.

Do you run a business and would like to get an improved business strategy to increase your sales results, get new partners, alliances or sales channels? Then I would like an opportunity to meet with you during these days or before/after this event. Please feel free to contact me at

+1-415-710-8434 or see http://www.lidforss.com/ for further information.

Registration information and more see, http://www.ispcon.com/

Business card exchange service for business leads

Do you need to find a business card of a decision maker or a senior manager within a company? Then you have to start using Jigsaw. I can highly recommend the service.

Click here to check it out; http://www.jigsaw.com/join/tlidforss

The New Diligence - Building Better Business for Small Businesses

Charles Bacon, the known expert on state of the art dilligence knowledge will publish an exciting book later this year. The New Diligence - Building Better Business for Small Businesses.

Please take a look at the pdf file for early bird saver special on the book and order now!

For additional information about SuperDiligence, please feel free to contact me at thomas-at-perperz-dot-com or call me at +1-415-710-8434