Written on April 8, 2008 – 1:55 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
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Every week we publish an interview with a start-up. We ask five questions, hoping the answers will give you inspiration and new views. Well, actually six questions, since we also ask the start-up to who he or she is passing the mic to.
This week we’re interviewing Marco Menato, CEO of Wauw! Wee. This start-up presented at The Next Web Conference , which got them a write-up on TechCrunch. One problem though: Wauw is a Dutch version of Wow and non-Dutch speakers don’t seem to get that. TechCrunch’s Erick Schonfeld called it Wuaw! consistently. Commenter Matt said what the guys from Wauw! Wee probably experienced: “Imagine the excitement over bieng in a TC post… then to see your brandName misspelled at every… single… instance…. ouch”.
Wauw! Wee makes it easy to upload pictures and text to your site and networks by using your mobile phone. Read here how they got the idea and how it went from there.
How did you come up with the idea of Wauw! Wee?
“24access Solutions had been in business for a few years when I arrived 6 months ago, and they had brought good product to market, including Mobile Media Center - a PC download that offered to shift several entertainment media from PC to mobile handset. When I was asked to take the role of CEO I was impressed by the technical know-how in the company but realized that the product was highly reliant for its success on mobile operators, their infrastructure and pricing policies. The idea for Wauw! Wee was really borne of observing several trends in PC/mobile convergence, appreciation of the company’s legacy know-how in mobile handsets, as well as pragmatically adapting to the networks’ current ability to support mobile streaming. (more…)
Written on April 8, 2008 – 8:29 am
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Dutch music service SellABand received 3,5 million euros to make growth possible. The round was led by Prime Technology Ventures, also a Dutch company.
Johan Vosmeijer, CEO Sellaband
On SellABand, any beginning band can upload their music to the website. People who like their tunes and foresee a successful future for them, can become a ‘believer’ by investing 10 dollars. As soon as the band counts 5000 believers - and thus gained 50.000 dollars - SellABand steps up and helps the talented folks to record an album with a studio and expert producer. They started their quest for promoting talent 1,5 year ago and already released cd’s for eighteen bands from eleven different countries.
Johan Vosmeijer, CEO Sellaband: “Music fans turn out be really interested in our concept. It’s not the record labels who decide which bands will get an album, thus the fans have the power. We’re really glad that we teamed up with Prime Technology Ventures. They have experience with helping growing Internet companies to become international market leaders. Partly thanks to this investment we can aim for world’s largest music market: the United States.
Sake Bosch from Prime Technology Ventures says that Prime Technology Ventures believes in SellABand’s concept”. “This investment makes sense, since the music industry is heavenly influenced by the Internet nowadays.”
This is a second milestone for SellABand in five months. Last December they partnered up with Amazon. Read the interview I had with Creative Director Pim Betist here.
Written on April 2, 2008 – 3:10 pm
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Yesterday, the upper house of the Dutch parliament voted against an online gambling trial of the country’s gambling monopolist Holland Casino - which is state-owned. 37 of the 75 members voted against the bill of minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin. It was a close call, since 35 members agreed with the minister. Ballin wanted to give Holland Casino permission to offer online gambling for three years, to see how it would develop. The plan was to reassess the gambling activities every year.
Dutch gamblers now often go to illegal gambling sites to fulfill their gambling needs. The minister wanted to lure this group of approximatively 40,000 people away from the dark side of the web to a state-controlled site. Makes sense in my opinion. I think it’s quite remarkable that in a country that is famous for its progressive and liberal laws, online gambling still stays unregulated.
Holland is not alone in its online gambling fear. Countries like Germany, France and Greece also remain reluctant to allow any kind of online gambling initiative. Reuters reports that their main concerns are addiction and a decrease in income from state betting monopolies. The European Union isn’t really fond of this attitude since it prevents competition. Therefore, the EU recently gave the Netherlands and Greece a final warning before court action over restrictions in their gaming markets.
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The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show of, the future of the Web. (
