In this video John Pozadzides, CEO at Woopra, explains that Woopra is finally coming out of beta and that will start charging the community for the full service.

I found this message really great. John P. demonstrated to care. He cared about the community that supported him and his team throughout the beta process, he cared about informing everyone on the destiny of current free accounts, he cared to explain why Woopra is making these changes.

He treated his community with respect, giving a great lesson to all CEOs on humility and bravery (as he’s taking a good risk charging so little). I’m sure that with such approach his community won’t let him down!

Very true, especially the “Learn to say no” area.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2a8TRSgzZY

In the constant struggle of leading the client to understand the value of our work, it’s comforting to see that we’re not alone :-)

If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ll certainly enjoy this take on VCs:

Then in all fairness you’ll have to admit that entrepreneurs have their flaws too, and here they are:

If only I had the time, I’d surely write something like this based on my real experience. I can guarantee it would be funny (at least for you).

I don’t agree completely with this video, as it’s not true that everybody can be an entrepreneur, but I do love infographics and found this video very well done.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6MhAwQ64c0

Via infoservi

With some days of delay I’m summarizing up what happened during the second day of Eye for Travel’s Travel Distribution Summit Europe 2009.

What caught my attention was indeed the “Get funded” contest and panel, who saw four startups (TravelWhere, Zoombu, Joobili and Tourdust) pitching their business to the audience and four angel investors: Dick Porter, Chairman, STA Travel, Hugo Burge, Founder, Howzat Media; John Kent, CEO, Youtravel.com and Steve Endacott, Owner, On Holiday Group.

I liked the enthusiasm and content of most pitches, in particular Zoombu impressed me for the passion its founders put into their pitch. Their idea is to easily book a travel with just one click. You’ll insert only starting address and destination, while Zoombu will manage all the hassle for you, proposing only three best ways for you to choose: cheapest, fastest and greenest.

This very ambitious project won, even if many doubt around technological difficulties arose among the business angles.

Later next week, I’ll publish a complete report from the conference!

Scott funded and manages his restaurants and shared his thoughts about management. Here’s the list:

1. Have fun. Loosen up.
2. Try something new. Often. Keep whatever works.
3. No penalty for a new idea failing. Trying is the thing.
4. Employees are more important than customers.
5. Stop asking Scott for approval. Just do it.
6. Managers get to see the financials.
7. Being a jerk to coworkers is grounds for termination.
8. Do whatever seems smart and fair to make customers happy.
9. Watch the competition closely and borrow their best ideas.

I have to say I agree with almost all these statements, my personal favorite is #7.

This year has been an extraordinary one. We started two companies,  a small consultancy firm (GingerCraft) and a startup operating in the retail world (Shreppy).

This was a year of hard work, great experiences, new friendships and huge learning. I experienced a great personal and professional growth.

Attending conferences and events all over Europe helped me to understand how other people are approaching the same challenges I face. I discovered an incredibly versatile and dynamic Europe. This has been, indeed, a year packed up with conferences that provided me priceless knowledge and great networking.

Following our startup was also a great challenge and learning opportunity, with ups and downs, We won and we lost, even if the final victory is still far to come, we surely have learned a lot in the process! I now know does and don’ts that an entrepreneur must follow to rise the odds his venture to succeed.

Hanging out with other entrepreneurs and professionals of our industry created also a nice atmosphere of sharing and brotherhood, another great part of my job I love.

This year’s bottom line has all been about learning and seeding. Submerging into a new environment, starting new activities and meeting so many people was an incredible growth opportunity. At the same time we started many projects, fighting against many constraints, that will (hopefully) grow in the coming months.

2009 will be the harvest year, when all these projects and activities will reach their goals and bring results to their founders.

As I said before, this was also a year of personal growth, as I learned many things. Truth to be told, I already knew some of them were true, but this year I had the opportunity to convince myself of their accuracy.

At this time of the year I’d like to underline just one of them. We should all be given a chance to pursuit happiness, especially when in our 20es we cannot miss the chance to build our future by ourselves. Life is too short to be lived by someone else! Sooner or later other constraints will emerge, new duties will narrow our way.

After all to follow our very own soul is better for everyone. It’s better for us, that we do what we like and we’ll live a future with no regrets, but it’s also better for everyone else, as we’re certainly going to do better what we like rather than what we dislike (or, worst, hate).

Follow your own instincts, trust your visions and be a dreamer. You can’t seriously be 20 years old without being a dreamer!

I still have a few years of dreams left, and I’m sure it will be an amazing ride!

2008 Badges

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