C’est LoQUo Paris maintenant!

LoQUo Paris has been launched and it’s in Beta mode!

This one’s going to be funny to watch since Paris has a very strong economy with 2.15 million people just in the city or 10.5 million people if you consider the region called Île de France (the suburban area around Paris).

Good luck Paris!

October 28, 2004 | | 1 Comment 

(Almost) Live Blogging from the Usability Seminar in Lisbon

I’ve attended the first Usability Seminar in Lisbon last wednesday. When I arrived there spectations were high since the program was very good. The 3-hour conference conference and it keep up with expectactions. Only one caveat. Some people were looking for a more design-oriented seminar but if they read the program they would have seen that this seminar was more Web-oriented.

I wanted to do Live blogging from the seminar but the Wi-Fi was not working properly.
So I took some offline notes that I’ll post here.

Live Blogging Notes on the Seminar
Weather Conditions: Room is full. Only 2 notebooks opened. No Wi-Fi.
Read more

October 25, 2004 | Tags: | Leave a Comment 

VectorE Session: “Venture Screening and the Business Plan”

Monday and Tuesday I’ll be listening to Ramani Narayan from the Michigan State University talking about Developing and understanding techniques for planning, creating and managing innovative technology-based ventures.

I’m attending some sessions of this year’s VectorE. I was one of the invited entrepreneurs to make a presentation in this year’s introduction session. In the end the course’s CEO told me I could attend any session I would like to. Since some of the lecturers are different from last year’s and seem quite interesting, I’m definitely going to spend a few hours participating at VectorE.

October 25, 2004 | Tags: | Leave a Comment 

The Recipe for a low cost airline

In managment terms, operating a low cost airline it’s an exercise of reducing operational costs to a minimum value. Checklist:

  • 1. Sell through the Internet or Phone.
  • 2. Do not make print tickets.
  • 3. Do not offer meals, drinks or newspapers.
  • 4. Fly to secundary airports
  • 5. Operate a single type of airplane.
  • 6. Reduce cabin crew to the minimum.
  • 7. Fly with the maximum passengers in minimum space.

Other mass-market businesses can also benefit from this approach. That’s what Stelios is doing at Easy.

October 25, 2004 | Tags: , | Leave a Comment 

low cost Flights from Portugal

Portugal has always been in the periphery. Promotions, special deals, special editions, free-shipping, etc. were always very far away from the Portuguese market. low Cost flights were no exception. Until now. Since this month 4 airlines started (or will start) operating low cost flights to Europe.

  • Air Berlin: 29 euros from Lisbon and Porto to 30 destinations (via Palma de Maiorca).
  • German Wings: 49 euros from Lisbon to Cologne-Bona and Stuttgart
  • Virgin-Express: 49 euros from Lisbon to Brussels
  • Ryanair: 19,9 euros from Porto to London (Stansted)

(all prices with taxes included)

In fact you could already get this prices since last year but only for departures from Faro. Three months ago I used SkyScanner to go from Faro to London for only 100 euros. I even booked one-way and return tickets in different companies.

October 25, 2004 | Tags: | Leave a Comment 

An Entrepreneur’s Curriculum

As an entrepreneur I’m always looking for new business opportunities. I like to go from an idea through a Business Plan and into a complete business. The start-up stage is a big challenge (usually 3 years) where a company has to be hugely innovative to creatively solve all problems. Initial issues involve raising Venture Capital or Business Angel Capital, preparing Sales & Marketing Strategies, doing Human Resources and general management. That’s why having a multi-skilled knowledge can be so important in these initial stages.

As an entrepreneur I’m fortunate to have that kind of multi-skilled knowledge. I’m an Internet Consultant with strong entrepreneurial skills and work experience in Web Content Management Systems using open-source technologies. If you have a business idea and want to know If I can contribute please download my full CV or continue reading this post to take a look at a resumed version.

Read more

October 24, 2004 | Tags: | Leave a Comment 

Steve Jobs Interview on Innovation

Another good interview from Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs

Not only do I use a Powerbook everyday but now I know the strategic ideas behind the making of such a wonderful product.

October 14, 2004 | Tags: | Leave a Comment 

Yahoo!’s New Homepage

Yahoo! is testing a new frontpage. First reaction. Seems more clean and simple thus easier to read. Take a small description tour to find out more about the new design features.

Yahoo!'s New Homepage

October 13, 2004 | Tags: | Leave a Comment 

4-Wheel Segway

Slashdot is reporting on the new 4-Wheel Segway concept.
4-wheel Segway
Pure Industrial Design. Neat.

October 13, 2004 | Tags: | Leave a Comment 

eBay in the UK

A few weeks ago The Observer ran an article about eBay’s business in the UK. The impact has been huge. On an average day someone buys a mobile telephone per minute, a model train every three minutes and a laptop every two minute. Many celebreties claim to use eBay and even Cherie Blair (UK Prime-miniter’s wife) uses the website giving the business an always welcome popular mysthic.

eBay’s business model is as simple as it can be. It charges for each transaction. The biggest challenge has been to maintain it’s quality of service along side reduced fraud.

The growing rate is still one of the biggest in the industry and it’s website technology if finally keeping up with it. As for the fraud eBay is constantly improving it’s rating system and it has it’s fraud compensation program that lets users receive compensation if they have had problems. Adittionaly each time eBay wants to enter a new market it usually buys a local successful company (as it did with mobile.de) thus also buying time-expensive trust instead of building it.

eBay has attained a much valued first-mover advantage and in these Internet teen-years it is still chasing all those million users not currently using it to make business. Interface user-friendliness and more brand-awareness (see TV ads) will for sure help them obtain that goal.

update: I just read Envisioning a Post-eBay Future. An interesting point-of-view.

October 10, 2004 | Tags: | 1 Comment 

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