Taking a rest

I’m taking time off to think, sleep, travel, smell, see, hear and dream.
It’s already been 6 months since last time so I’ll be London for the holidays.

Estou de férias

July 28, 2006 | Tags: | 7 Comments 

My new (work) tractor!

This is my new desktop at work. It’s an Intel Core Duo Mac Mini.

Mac Mini

I have been working on my 15-inch Powerbook for over 2 years now and it’s been a wonderful experience. I cannot speak too much of the productivity I can achieve using it. Let’s how this one compares.

It’s a shame the new Mac comes just before I go on vacations. Anyway, it will be here waiting for me in the end of August.

July 25, 2006 | Tags: , , | 1 Comment 

37signals gets into Venture Capital

It was inevitable that even the we-don’t-need-VC company would get into Venture Capital. The VC is Jeff Bezos and Jason is claiming that they’re getting much more than just money.

37signals logo

This looks like a very smart move. Having access to the CEO of one of the most successful web businesses of the Web - Amazon - is enough reason to have a connection with a VC company.

Now, it will be even more interesting to follow 37signals and learn from how they are going to manage this new type of relashionship.

July 20, 2006 | Tags: , , , , | Leave a Comment 

LaFraise.com sold to SpreadShirt

Loic introduced me to the LaFraise concept about 2 years ago. It’s been a very interesting small business to follow and now it’s been sold to Spreadshirt. Congratulations to Patrice for his earlier retirement.

strawberry

Basically, LaFraise is a t-shirt store that lets users submit t-shirts and earn money if other users vote and buy their t-shirts. But LaFraise is a great business and a well executed idea with a great community.

In the last 3 years, Patrice has bootstrapped this business. First by running it from his living-room and outsourcing some of his operations. He’s not a tech guy so, fo example, I remember him looking for e-commerce software options with support-contract to run his store.

Community
One of the things that helped LaFraise get much of the attention was the fact that Patrice was blogging about it. On the left column of the website there was a small Boss’s blog link that was an inovation at the time. Through this blog Patrice engaged in a conversation with its users. He got many suggestions, critical views and ideas but above all he engaged in a conversation that allowed the business to grow based on his users input.

He frequently used the blog to point to special designs or other things that he liked giving it a human side that people really liked.

Occasionally he published the results of his experience (like this A Guide for Startup E-commerce Entrepreneurs) allowing others to learn from him but also giving him an authority voice in his niche.

LaFraise is a great example of a great idea that used the power of the community to build itself into to a great small business.

July 20, 2006 | Tags: | 3 Comments 

Be a real business and avoid the Web 2.0 hype

Although Web2.0-hype can be a good thing (everyone know’s what everyone’s talking about), I think that it has been overused and, worst, new services are being built/marketed solely based on this hype. So, I couldn’t agree more with this guy’s list of 11 points on how one can avoid to follow the Web 2.0 hype.

1. Have a revenue model, right now.
2. Be a complete business, not just a feature.
3. Affect real people, not just bloggers.
4. Get a real, memorable name.
5. If applicable, get unaffiliated with Web 2.0, because it is hype and will have a very negative backlash in a little while.
6. Find some friends who don’t drink the kool-aid and get their honest feedback. 7. If you are revolutionary, make sure that a revolution is coming.
8. If you are evolutionary, then there needs to be a big enough market to address with a “we’re a little better than them” vision.
9. Fit your business into an existing food chain.
10. Do not expect to be Google and, just as importantly, do not expect them to buy you.
11. Ignore the hype and have fun.

For me, the most important item is number 1 - Have a revenue model, right now. . Most businesses are built to make money so it’s quite logic that it should Not be something you’ll figure out when you get some traffic and, of course, the business should not be 100% based on AdSense or being an Amazon Affiliate.

Clearly, if you aren’t thinking about it, then what you have is a hobby not a business. How true.

July 19, 2006 | Tags: , , | 6 Comments 

More information on SHiFT

SHiFT website is online. SHiFT - Social and Human Ideas for Technology will take on the 28th and 29th of September in Lisbon and it will be one of the first conferences of it’s kind.

SHiFT - Social and Human Ideas for Technology

What is SHiFT (from the website):

SHiFT is a gathering, a happening, a reunion of people.
SHiFT will be workshops, presentations, demos, meetings and conversations.
SHiFT will be about new user centered services, new social movements and technologies than can improve our daily lives.

Lot’s of information is now avaliable: the speakers, the list of participants (add yourself if you’re coming) and the location of the event.

If you want to follow what’s going on keep an eye on the blog.

Registration won’t be open until the 10th of July. But be ready. An early registration (before July 30th) will get you the best price.

See you there!

July 6, 2006 | | 1 Comment 

wineCrossing

Yesterday was the Wine Day in Portugal. I commemorated with a few friends (and bottles). And we had a very nice conversation around the idea of discovering new wines from different countries. We were all enthusiastic about the idea and so we decided to launch a new project: wineCrossing

wineCrossing logo

So what is wineCrossing?
wineCrossing is a wine swapping project. On a specific date and within a theme, you get to send someone a bottle of wine and receive another one from someone else.

The most important thing is that you should send a wine from a different country than that of origin of the person you’re are going to send the bottle to.

wineCrossing is just starting and I’m all ears to all suggestions, ideas and comments.

July 3, 2006 | Tags: , | 8 Comments