• 
• By Stephane LEE
• on Jun 10th, 2007

Feedback2.0 at The Next Web

Last week, I went to Amsterdam say hello to sister European start’ups. The guys organising The Next Web (understandably from Fleck) did a wonderful job of mixing start’ups, web celebs and investors in the kind of professional, but relaxed environnement that you expect from Amsterdam…

First, let’s cast a spotlight on some start-ups I liked :
- Fleck from Holland looks nice, must be some kind of competitor to Yoono
- Tractis from Spain has the best use of wikis, ie signing up contracts on the web
- Loudervoice from Ireland is a review aggregator
- Floorplanner from Holland lets you design your room floorplan
- Wixi from France is a universal media sharing platform (Flickr for videos, mp3s, pdfs, etc.)
- Zooof from Holland lets you draw ans share your family tree
- The Todeka Project from France should be a big thing (certified digital identity based on OpenID) when they launch
- MailEmotion from France is a nice, very easy to use video mail platform
- TipIt from Holland helps you give tips to free content producers
- Mobiluck from France presents a bluetooth application that helps you connect to people around you with your mobile
- Twones from Holland has a way to build a social network based on music preferences (lists)
- Mobiya from Belgium est une plateforme BtoB qui permet de publier des annonces par SMS, et d’y répondre
- Widsets from Holland, is a Nokia spin-off that manages widget applications for mobile phones
- Vinivi from France lets you give reviews on hotels
- Jooce from France is some kind of WebOS, media sharing platform, aimed at cybercafés users

Well, the Old World is not dead

Of course, I introduced Feedback2.0 to those guys, and they were receptive for sure...when they were not obsessed by VCs wandering around

Respectance is another start-up whose presentation left me with mixed feeling : they think that sharing memoiries is a good business; seems that the founders don’t know what is the loss of a loved one, or have a particular way to rebound. Showing shots of September 11th, Princess Diana, or still-born babies before asking for funding is not good marketing to me. I personnaly wouldn’t like to make a dime on others people distress, even if concess I it could be useful for mournings. Why not make it free then ?

I also have to mention what I noticed from keynotes :
- Saul Klein of Index Ventures (who invested on just sold Last.fm) gave us hints that Europe start ups could compete with US, and that everything as possible if you believed in it (shots from Bill Gates and Steve Jobs in their twenties). He mentionned Skype as a brilliant exit, Free/Iliad as one of the most exciting Europenas companies. “Up to the Right” was his word for companies who had great stock valuation history.
- Jeff Clavier told us that Silicon Valley was still a clear leader in start-up fostering, and that he wouldn’t invest in European start-ups unless they were operated by serial entrepreneurs with proven track record. HE also said that multi-faceted profiles was the next big thing.
- Tariq Krim from Netvibes gave us his vision of a widgetized future, the consequence being a destructuration of the web page as we know it…
- Dick Hardt from Sxip was an incredible presenter, giving a fascinating speech on digital identities
- Rod Beckström presented his book, “the Starfish and the Spider”, basically saying that decentralized networks were much more resilient than hierarchical organizations (cut arm in starfish and it comes back, cut head of spider and she’s dead)
- Kevin Rose from Digg appeared in a chat, giving scoops on Digg evolution to images, restaurant and product reviews

At last, a special dedicace to Deborah Schultz and Marc Canter, who were really the two people I’d like to connect more often.

Deborah has a clear vision about social networks : the basic part of the puzzle is us, as we are social animals. Don’t forget to be human, and connect to real people if you want to be successful, she said. She believes in people who “weave”, so that’s another view of the spider . No need to say I agree, and we had a good conversation on Feedback2.0. Her presentation is online, you should look at it ASAP.

Marc played the old grumpy man (with Jeff Clavier) in the Muppet ShowTuchinski theater where we were hosted. He did it on purpose, asking very acute questions to presenters, and didn’t refrain from saying his word, even against big names such as Microsoft (presenting Silverlight) or Adobe (presenting Appollo). Basically, he says that users are king, and winning companies should make users life easier, not trying to catch them up in spider webs , but let them free (APis, mashups, etc.). I also had the chance to meet Marc wife and his two cute girls, I’d love to have the same princesses at home, Marc !

The weather and venues in Amsterdam were great, and meeting strangers abroad is always a must.

I did also appreciate meeting the French community up there, Richard, Raphael, Mihai, Colette, Nassim, Raphael, Patrick and others. Had fun with you, guys !

Photos on Flickr here and here !

1. On Jul 13th, 2008 at 11:17 by Natalie Coleman

That sounds awesome! I most deffinitly agree that Amsterdamn has the most relaxed enviorment I know of, with a twist of degrading sense. Im glade to see some else knows about the next web! Keep us updated hunn.
With the upmost respect...Natalie Coleman