I have recently paid lot more attention to identify the biggest threat to the growth of e-invoicing and document exchange solutions worldwide. And my conclusion sadly is, it is the paper that we love dearly and hate equally.

Tags: paper, workflow management, document exchange, e-invoicing, EIPP

In January 2007, 2,847 executives worldwide responded to a survey conducted by McKinsey on business usage of web 2.0 technologies. Key conclusions were:

• Identify web 2.0 technologies as strategic
• Plans to increase investment in web 2.0 technologies
• Less reliance is placed on well know web 2.0 trends such as blogs
• Greatest importance is placed on technologies that enable automation and networking such as web services.

According to the survey results, the most popular web 2.0 trends in order of popularity are (with brief explanation of various technologies):

• Webservices – allows disparate software systems to communicate with each other automatically
• Collective intelligence – taps the expertise of a group rather than an individual to make decisions (e.g. wikis and common databases)
• Peer-to-peer networking – sharing files (music, video, text) over Internet or within closed set of users
• Social networking - e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn
• RSS - allow users to subscribe to online distribution of news, blogs, etc
• Podcasts - regular audio and video recordings.
• Wikis – allows collaborative publishing (allowing many authors to contribute), e.g. Wikipedia
• Blogs – on line journals
• Mash-ups - aggregation of different services to create new services

According to the results, most companies are investing in above technologies to maintain market position, either to provide a competitive advantage or match the competition addressing customer demand. I for one agree with this conclusion. More than anything above technologies enable further engagement with customers, trading partners and the wider stakeholders by increasing the interactivity.

Tags: McKinsey, Web 2.0, blogs, wikis, podcasting, RSS, social networking, web 2.0 trends

The second event of "NW StartUp 2.0" was held on 15th March 2007 at KPMG Manchester, sponsored by KPMG. Many thanks to Steven Livingston of KPMG for providing a superb venue and food, and working with me to make the event successfull. The evening started as planned with a quick introduction by me and Steven.

First to take the stand was Anish Kapoor, CEO of Yuuguu. Anish spoke about Telecity (now TelecityRedbus) he co-founded with Mike Kelly, and other start ups he worked with before starting up Yuuguu with Philip Hemsted. He spoke about the value of having a spouse who understands the level of commitment required by an entrepreneur to get his/her business off the ground (both Robert and Rhys reiterated the same). He also had few points for would be entrepreneurs to consider (some of these are covered by Paul Graham in depth):

• Don’t start on your own – if you cannot convince other people to join you and believe in your venture, how can you convince your customers to buy from you.
• Validate your idea – talk to others as much as possible about your idea. Get other people around you as much as possible. This will allow you to quickly validate what features and functions potential customers are willing to pay for before you embark on an expensive product development. Early adapters are very important to any start-ups’ success.
• Keep the costs low as much as possible. Get free help as much as possible, e.g. free office space, early development assistance, etc.
• Simplify your message. Yuuguu has fined tuned their message to simply say "we are better than Webex". Anyone who has used or come across Webex (Cisco is in talks of acquiring Webex for $3.2bn) in the past understands this. This gives an opportunity to explain "How" without first having to explain the product in detail.

Then Ed French of local Venture Capital firm, Rising Star entertained the crowd with popularity of buzz words he pulled out from Google Trends. Rising Star recently invested in Yuuguu. Anish was well known within the VC community and especially within Rising Star. Reading between the lines, Rising Star invested in Yuuguu primarily because of the founders, and secondly because of their value proposition.

Rhys Jones is a serial entrepreneur. Rhys spoke about having a pipeline of companies. Rhys is one of the cleverest entrepreneurs I have met (so is Anish and Robert). What he thrives on is developing technology platforms and taking them to market. He has done this twice successfully in Accountis (on-going) and Secure Trading (exited). His new companies include Sanoodi and another.

Robert just about made it after battling with his satnav/google maps. Robert and I share the same office location, and is someone I come to learn a lot from recently, especially with respect to dealing with VCs. Wadaro is Roberts first startup currently seeking seed corn capital. According to Robert, except for one local VC, all others he has approached are interested in investing in Wadaro. The reasons are quite clear: Robert and Clifford (CTO) are well known in their industry, have worked with startups who were funded by VCs, and basically have a demonstrable track record (similar to Anish and of course Rhys). And they have hired a top-notch Chairman to speed up the process. I wish Robert all the best! Robert started his five minutes by saying what a wonderful workplace Daresbury Innovation Centre is (Paul, you have done a good job in brainwashing Rob).

There was plenty of quality food and networking opportunities before and after the sit-down session. The Q&A session covered intellectual property, non disclosure agreements, impact on family, competition (you are not alone), etc etc.

Some of the VCs attended include Malcolm Stewart from Liverpool Ventures and Ged Heffernan from Rolls Royce Ventures. Ged and I completed an Executive MBA course at Manchester Business School about the same time.

Among attendees were (not the full list):

• Daniel Rigby from Film Wasp
• Rob Skinner and Daniel Twigg from Chameleon PR
• Jeremy Ross from kosherpages
• Philip Oakley from IntoVision (there is a story to tell here – on another post)
• Clifford Anderson from Wadaro
• Seyi Akin-Olugbemi from CreateMyNet
• Alexander and Adrian Goldstone from Idinso
• Chris Conlan from BIMA
• Hugh Osburn from Adopt Training

24 out of 37 registrants attended the event. Next event is planned for May 05 and may include speakers from Europe and US. It would be great to get feedback from those who attended the event.

References:

• BIMA attend NW Startup 2.0

Tags: NW Startup 2.0, NWStartUp20, Yuuguu, Rising Stars, Enterprise Ventures, Sanoodi, Accountis, Wadaro, Film Wasp, Chameleon PR, Kosherpages, Into Vision, CreateMyNet, Idinso, BIMA, Adopt Training, TelecityRedbus, Anish Kapoor, Ed French, Robert Wakeling, Rhys Jones, Anish Kapoor, Steven Livingston

Just a quick note to say that the inaugural event of OpenCoffee Manchester will take place on the 27th March 2007 at Starbucks, Television House, 10, Mount St, Manchester, Manchester M2 5NT. It will be held from 07:30am to 09:30am. But I understand the coffee shop opens at 6:30am and closes around midnight. So, don’t feel under pressure to stop your conversation at 09:30am.

Whilst you do not need to register for the event, I am using upcoming.org as the key website for planning this regular weekly event. So, I appreciate if you take few minutes to register. Ed French from Rising Stars (VC) will be there in addition to Rhys Jones (Founder of Accountis and Sanoodi) and Anish Kapoor (co-Founder of Yuuguu and Telecity). All three spoke at last NW StartUp 2.0 event. I will attempt to persuade Robert Wakeling, the fourth speaker to attend as well. All are great guys. Where are all the women entrepreneurs?

Disclaimer: that’s not me

This is a self organising event (that means you do not need me – and I do not own the event – what a relief!). You are free to do whatever you want (within context). I might be persuaded to say few things if anyone is interested. Anish has attended some of the London OpenCoffee events, so do grab him if you are interested in finding out more about the London scene. You are welcome to bring your laptop and show your latest idea, or if you want to do a 1 min pitch, don’t be shy! If you want me to introduce you, please just ask. Make sure you get something out of the event, every time.

I will be there to further develop my existing relationships, build new relationships, help with introductions and enjoy a great cup of coffee.

According to Saul Klein, many OpenCoffee events have started to pop up all over the world since the inaugural event took place in early March 07. Here is a list taken from his blog:

Tags: OpenCoffee, OpenCoffeeManchester, OpenCoffee Manchester, NW StartUp 2.0, StartUps