Author: Chris Cameron

Entrepreneurship in Europe has a problem. A lot of their talent is “crossing the pond” to increase their chances of finding early-stage funding. A lot of venture firms in Europe tend to play the safer hands that they are dealt, investing in proven companies rather than new startups looking for seed funding. Though organizations like Seedcamp are doing what they can to reverse this trend, incubators in the U.S. like TechStars are still seeing an increase of international applications, many likely from Europe.

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In a recent blog post, TechStars Boston director Shawn Broderick shared statistics about the demographics of the companies which applied in both 2009 and 2010. The data showed an increase in the number of companies either wholly or partially international in nature – up from 14% in 2009 to 24% in 2010.

“My a priori expectations were that the number of [Massachusetts]-based companies had increased 2009 to 2010, but clearly I was incorrect,” writes Broderick. “I did not expect the big change in international applicants.”

Massachusetts-based applications held steady, dipping slightly to 31% from 32% the previous year, while exclusively U.S.-based applications as a whole dropped from 89% in 2009 to 80% in 2010. While these aren’t drastic changes, they do imply a significant trend and echo the state of early-stage startups outside of the U.S. ecosystem.

Y Combinator founder Paul Graham would likely say that these numbers need to be higher. Graham was one of the first proponents of the so-called “Startup Visa” program which would provide a special visa for international entrepreneurs to bring their ideas to the States.

“The biggest constraint on the number of new startups that get created in the US is not tax policy or employment law or even Sarbanes-Oxley,” Graham wrote last April. “It’s that we won’t let the people who want to start them into the country.”

A program like the Startup Visa would give even more incentive to international startups that are already tempted by the Silicon Valley culture and the numerous opportunities presented by American incubators. Startups are one of the few industries successfully creating jobs in America during a difficult period of economic struggle.

Just today, Yelp announced it would be expanding its company to the Phoenix area and hiring 200 employees, increasing its workforce by nearly 60%. The stats from TechStars are another indication that international entrepreneurs are increasingly looking to America to get their companies off the ground – companies which could play a significant role in creating American jobs.

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The talk of the venture capital and entrepreneurial towns these days is the Open Angel Forum which after its second event in Boulder, Colorado is now announcing two more events in New York and San Francisco. Brainchild of Jason Calacanis, the Open Angel Forum (OAF) is an opportunity for startups to get face-time with active big-time venture capitalists and angel investors – all for the low, low price of free.

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As we mentioned back in January following the debut event in Los Angeles, the OAF was formed out of frustration over events and investors which charge startups to present their companies – the so called “pay to pitch” debate. In a true example of making the best of a bad situation, the OAF has created a place where the both the best startups with the most potential can meet the top VCs and angels who are looking to invest.

At last week’s Boulder event, six startups from over 100 applicants were chosen to meet with twenty hand-picked VCs, and all seemed to walk away from the event satisfied and thrilled by the event. In fact, all six companies – FaceFile, Grogger, TeamSnap, Odojo, Decasun and Kijubi – have all since blogged about their experiences.

“This fairness to us and others presenting plus the rule to only allow active investors makes OAF the best event we’ve attended since we started two years ago,” writes Beckie Mostello of FaceFile. “The couple of hours we just spent with the OAF Forum tonight in Boulder, Colorado was the most valuable investment-oriented experience we have yet to be involved in,” echoes Dave DuPont of TeamSnap.

The Open Angel Forum will keep its current momentum at full-speed-ahead as it rolls into San Francisco in March with a little help from local hosts Kevin Rose and Chris Sacca. The following month, Calacanis and Co. will travel to the east-coast for OAF New York, hosted by Brian Alvey and Charlie O’Donnell.

Mark Solon, an investor with Highway 12 Ventures and one of the selected VCs at last week’s event in Boulder, believes the OAF is a further example of the changing landscape in the venture capital industry. As Solon notes on Highway 12’s blog, Calacanis and OAF Boulder hosts Brad Feld and David Cohen represent a “groundswell of young investors” that are dedicating their lives to improving the entrepreneurial community across the country.

“These guys didn’t go through a ton of effort recruiting 30 qualified investors from near and far, getting sponsors for the evening, securing a meeting place, and going through about 100 applicants for personal gain,” writes Solon. “They did it because it was the right thing to do; to set an example for angel organizations everywhere that it’s about the entrepreneur.”

In an interview with Colorado Tech TV (embedded below), Calacanis expressed his satisfaction with the reception of the OAF, as well as his thoughts on the event’s impact on the evolving venture funding ecosystem.

“We’re not trying to replace other events like Open Coffee or the Tech Meetup — those are great events for networking,” said Calacanis. “[But] there is definitely a market need for a legitimate angel forum. The other forums out there were not really filled with angel investors, […] and people were paying to pitch to a room of a hundred people with maybe two or three possible investors.”

For those considering applying for the San Francisco and New York events, Boulder participant Mike Stemple of Odojo says that submitting a video application is not only a good way to stand out from the crowd, but it also helps you rehearse your pitch in a short form before the event. While he considers himself and his company extremely lucky to have been able to attend the OAF event, he encourages other startups to not count themselves out before applying.

“I believe for any given event ANYONE with a well thought out idea that solves a real world problem, can articulate it, has gotten beyond the idea stage and has actually built a company around the idea, could make it to present,” writes Stemple on his blog.

The Open Angel Forum is now accepting applications for New York and San Francisco, so don’t hesitate to get your application in early because there is bound to be hundreds. What cities would you like to see the Open Angel Forum come to next? Let us know in the comments!

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We are all told to never judge a book by its cover, but let’s face it, when we find ourselves at an ugly website, we automatically make assumptions about the quality of the services that site provides. A topic we have begun to cover more often, and one that we strongly believe in, is the importance of design for startups. In the last several weeks we’ve provided tips and best practices for sign-up buttons and registration processes, as well as an inside look into at Boxee’s user experience overhaul.

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According to Silicon Valley angel investor Dave McClure, design needs to be one of the top priorities for Internet startups, not an afterthought. These days, as McClure explains in a recent BusinessWeek.com article, the technical expertise it takes to engineer a basic back-end framework is at a much more accessible level than it was in years past, which means payroll dollars can be better spent on masterful designers.

“It’s actually pretty easy to write a Web-friendly app or Web site these days,” writes McClure. “But it’s still incredibly difficult to create visually appealing interfaces and, beyond that, to design them in ways that are compelling and engaging, drive calls to action, and are measurably adept at getting more customers to use your products.”

While coding languages can be learned through study and practice, having an eye for design is more of an innate talent. This isn’t to say that there aren’t people out there who are code masters and were probably born to practice their craft, or that solid engineering isn’t critical to the success of a startup, but design is a more artistic and creative talent that you either have or you don’t.

More importantly, the design of your product is what your users will interact with directly on a day-to-day basis. Opinions will be formed, rightly or wrongly, within seconds of laying eyes on your site and before they even have a chance to put your code to use. So before you go hiring a crack team of code monkeys, make sure to reserve some roster slots for design all-stars.

Photo by Flickr user zaphodsotherhead.

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While successful technology entrepreneurs like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs founded their respective companies after dropping out of college, research universities have still succeeded in fostering their own innovative technologies. Currently, however, when a professor or student develops a particularly extraordinary idea or product, the process of spinning-off the intellectual property into its own company is usually a slow and expensive process. David B. Lerner, an entrepreneur, angel investor and director of Columbia University’s Venture Lab/Spin-Off program, recently proposed that universities work to reverse this trend and better facilitate startup spin-offs.

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Some schools, like the ones we recently profiled in our list of the best entrepreneurial college programs, are doing a great job of facilitating entrepreneurship on the educational level. But as Lerner points out in his blog post Why and How Universities Should Embrace Startup Culture, most schools could benefit from revamping their spin-off practices.

“If universities wish to continue to be in the business of spinning-out game-changing companies such as Google, Netscape, Genentech, Lycos, Sun Microsystems and Cisco, they must be willing to steadily embrace the startup culture through these dedicated programs,” writes Lerner on his blog.

This “startup culture” Lerner references contrasts the “transactional/legal culture” which most universities are currently stuck in, making the spin-off process painful and unattractive. Lerner points to a post by fellow entrepreneur and investor Chris Dixon who writes that the Silicon Valley startup scene has become increasingly based on trust and community as opposed to the legalities and formalities universities are mired in.

Changing the culture of university tech innovation is just one of the suggestions Lerner proposes. He adds that schools should follow in the footsteps of Columbia University and create a venture lab headed by an experienced entrepreneur and investor. Along with simplifying and streamlining the spin-off process, Lerner suggests universities place a vested interest in the success of the IP that it creates.

“As an equity partner in various startups, the University must treat its portfolio as partners, not simply as licensees,” writes Lerner. “This implies working with its partners to facilitate success and to back-end its compensation and up-side as much as possible.”

Essentially, colleges across the nation could become their very own startup incubators. These schools should be doing everything in their power to help researchers in scientific labs uncovering new technologies or entrepreneurial go-getters in business schools to get their ideas off the ground. If their spin-off processes remain too arduous, the talented and brilliant innovators will continue to find resources outside of the university for seed funding and assistance.

As author Thomas Friedman recently wrote, the national economy would benefit from a ground surge of innovation and entrepreneurship, and universities could certainly benefit from helping lead that charge.

Photo by Flickr user Pink Sherbet Photography.

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Social media maven and “average Joe” wine connoisseur Gary Vaynerchuk is the author of “Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion“, a step-by-step how-to guide for taking advantage of the Internet and social networking to create a powerful and influential personal brand. While any web savvy entrepreneur knows the importance of social media, this book is great for those looking for a crash course and an insider’s view into what it takes to create a thriving business from a personal passion.

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Vaynerchuk turned his father’s discount liquor store into Wine Library, a multi-million dollar online wine store, thanks in no small part to the popular Wine Library TV video podcast, just one of the various social media tools he outlines in his book. Fans of Vaynerchuk’s podcast will feel his enthusiastic and energetically friendly personality they know and love emanating from the pages of this no-frills, straightforward, slap-in-the-face social media wake-up call.

“Everyone knows the Internet represents one of the biggest cultural shifts since the printing press,” Vaynerchuk says. “But I think society has been slow to recognize that it represents the biggest shift in history in how we do business.”

From discovering your true passion, to setting up a WordPress blog, or from creating a Facebook Fan Page and to engaging with your audience on Twitter, Vaynerchuk covers all of his bases for social media. Most importantly, Vaynerchuk keeps it honest, managing to dispense his advice without coming across like a used car salesman or a cheap, “you can do it!” self-help author.

“Crush It!” is an intriguing inside look at Vaynerchuk’s practices and a quick entertaining read at just 160 dense pages. The audio version comes in at just over 3 hours and 40 minutes and is narrated by the author with his usual “pumped up” enthusiasm. The audiobook may be a better choice not just because Vaynerchuk reads it himself, but in the true nature of openness and transparency, he veers off his script dozens of times to add insightful asides and updates to the written text. It wouldn’t be surprising if Vaynerchuk read the book straight through in one take.

Photo by Flickr user Adam Tinworth.

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In any relationship, business or personal, first impressions are critical to getting off on the right foot. For startups, if a user gets a bad first impression of your website, that same sentiment will carry through to their opinion of your service. A few weeks ago we told you about some pointers to make sure your site’s registration process isn’t scaring away users. A recent post on web development blog Six Revisions focuses in on this issue by providing some techniques and best practices for creating and designing the perfect registration button.

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Besides being aesthetically pleasing, the design of the registration button can benefit from the following three suggestions, according to Six Revisions’ Dibakar Jana. First, the registration button needs to be above the fold and preferably in close proximity to a description of the main features of the site or product. There’s nothing worse than visiting a site you find intriguing only to waste precious time searching high and low for a poorly placed “register here” button. Don’t get caught up by placing too much information on your site’s landing page. Sometimes less is more.

Secondly, an appealing registration button can go beyond being near the main features of the site by actually including those features in the button itself. By this, Jana means that buttons which say “Try now with a $2.00 credit” or “Buy Your Tickets Today” (examples Jana provides from InstantLoop and Vegas Uncork’d) speak louder than a simple “Sign Up” or “Register Here” button. You’re trying to convince visitors to your site that your product is unique, so try for some originality in your registration copy.

Finally, aside from telling visitors what all the great features of your site are, show them why they should sign up. Do registered users stand to benefit from your site’s services more than casual browsers? Baramail beckons users to “Sign up now for a free account” while others like Myzeo offer “one year of FREE Coaching” in their sign up buttons. The more a user knows about what they’re getting into, and why registering for your site is a good idea, the more likely the are to follow through.

Take Tumblr‘s registration process as a shining example of originality and excellent copy and design. A visit to the site’s homepage reveals their motto, “The easiest way to blog,” set in a large font size directly above an equally oversized registration form. The form, which sits beneath a cleverly placed “See 24 reasons why you’ll love Tumblr” link, asks for just an email address, a password and a personal Tumblr URL choice – all displayed in an absurdly yet amusingly large font size. Finally, the site invites registrants to “Sign up and start posting!”

Whichever route you chose, just be original. Avoid using boring and simple “Join” buttons, or worse, a registration form which ends with the cold and thoughtless “Submit” button. People don’t want to feel like they are “submitting” their information to you, help them feel welcomed in a warmer, more personal way. If you need inspiration, be sure to check out Jana’s post on Six Revisions for dozens of examples, then pass your friendly suggestions along to your web designer. Remember, you only get one chance to make a first impression.

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Here at ReadWriteWeb, we’ve discussed the use of third party APIs when building an integrated online product, highlighting the disadvantages such a decision could entail. One topic on the flip side of that is the question of whether providing an open public API versus a closed private one is in your product’s best interest. Massively viral services like Twitter have rapidly expanded their capabilities and brand awareness by releasing an open API for third party developers to build on, but for companies in fledgeling industries, like mobile augmented reality, the API decision isn’t as clear.

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Along with Mobilizy’s Wikitude World Browser, Amsterdam-based company Layar was one of the first mobile AR browsers to market and has since become one of the strongest players in the space. Layar allows users to view geo-tagged points-of-interest (POI) in a 3D “heads-up” display using their mobile phone’s camera. We’ve covered Layar’s evolution since its debut last June and eventual launch on Android devices two months later. Since then Layar has released an iPhone version of their application, but due to random crashes the company has temporarily pulled it from the App Store until they can work out the bugs.

Layar has quickly become of the most popular mobile AR browsing applications across the globe thanks to its impressive set of features, but the company’s choice to provide an open API may have been the decision which fueled them to success. Companies that wish to jump on the augmented reality bandwagon have several choices for getting their content on Layar quickly and easily. Layar provides documentation on its website for how to use and interpret their API, but those looking for an easier method of geo-data input can use any of a number of third party tools. Thanks in no small part to tools like buildAR, Muzar and Winvolve, Layar’s database of geo-data has rapidly expanded to include over 300 content layers including anything from restaurants to Twitter results, to even the locations of nearby heart defibrillators.

On the opposite end the spectrum, the accrossair browser, a similar mobile AR browser available on the iPhone, has decided to keep its API private and helps with the input of geo-data themselves for companies that wish to participate on their platform. Instead of allowing anyone to upload location data onto their platform, acrossair has reached out to corporations like McDonalds and FedEx to provide them with their own POIs in their browser. The one disadvantage this places on their product is a significantly lower number of POI sets that a user can access. With just over a dozen different options, acrossair has a fraction of the curated POI sets that Layar does. Founder Chetan Damani says that while their closed API certainly limits the amount of data on their browser, it enhances the overall stability of the browser – a factor which may play heavily for the company as they expand beyond the iPhone to Android and Symbian devices.

“We are keeping [the API] closed right now because we will be in a period of evolution and multiple iteration,” Damani told ReadWriteWeb. “We want to move to Android, and we want to make sure that the APIs are the right APIs and that they won’t limit our development. We only get one opportunity to get this right.”

Damani and acrossair are playing it safe until they are able to expand their presence to more platforms before opening their API – a step Damani says they do plan on taking. When acrossair moves their browser to Android, Symbian and possibly even Windows Mobile devices, having a closed API will make the transition much smoother. Opening the API after they set up shop on each mobile OS will be a lot easier without loads of independently developed geo-data on their system.

So is it better to limit one’s API early on for the sake of stability while simultaneously hampering the possible reach of one’s product? The acrossair browser seems to be taking that chance, while Layar, on the other hand, is welcoming third party developers with open arms. However, acrossair has one thing going for them that Layar currently doesn’t – a working iPhone application.

How much of a role Layar’s open API played in the demise of their iPhone application is unknown, but all that could be moot when Layar relaunches on the iPhone “by the end of February”. However, if augmented reality is the supposed “future of web browsing” as some believe it to be, having closed browsing platforms is not a viable long-term solution.

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Last week we brought you our curated and organic List of Legal Resources For Startups and Entrepreneurs which includes blogs, online legal tools, articles and tips from venture capitalists. Just recently, Jill Hubbard Bowman’s brand new blog IP Law For Startups, an excellent new source for startups, was added to the list of blogs.

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Bowman’s knowledge of intellectual property law and startups comes from her 8 years of experience at both Silicon Valley-based firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and IP firm Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione in Chicago. She resides now in Austin, Texas, one of the nation’s top booming startup cities, where she currently owns her own law practice.

While other blogs focus on general legal tips, Bowman’s new blog will be a deep dive into the nitty gritty of intellectual property law – a subject Bowman says is one of the most dangerous for startups.

“If your most valuable assets are based on intellectual capital – like most software and technology companies -mapping the IP law landscape is critical for your success,” writes Bowman on her blog.

Jason Mendelson, Foundry Group co-founder and a former college classmate of Bowman’s, says that Bowman promises to spill the beans on some of the worst IP disasters, as well as “expose how some big firms are ripping off their clients.” Keep an eye out for some interesting posts and for now, read Bowman’s debut post on Ten Great Reasons to Learn about IP Law, or for a crash course, download her free 28-page Ebook of frequently asked IP law questions.

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New office, same job. After just 10 months as president and CEO of Activision Blizzard’s Guitar Hero division, former Yahoo COO Dan Rosensweig is packing up shop and relocating to online textbook rental startup Chegg where he will hold the same title. Chegg claims to have saved students over $140 million on textbooks by offering their “Netflix style” rent by mail service.

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Chegg has quickly grown to become one of the leading online textbook rental company, along with competitor BookRenter.com. According to an article in the New York Times, the company claims to have rented over 2 million books on 6,400 college campuses, and just last November, the company closed over $100 million in debt and series D funding.

In an interview with the Times yesterday, Rosensweig said Chegg has an excellent business model and that the company “did as much business in January 2010 as in all of 2009.” Chegg expressed their excitement to see Rosensweig join the the team yesterday on their blog.

“We’ve been growing at an exceptional rate, so we needed a world class leader that has the business experience and passion for the consumer to take us to the next phase,” the company writes. “Dan is definitely that person.”

Disclosure: ReadWriteWeb is a syndication partner of the New York Times.

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With large daily newspapers filing for bankruptcy left and right, it is no secret that the journalism industry is going through a severe period of change. Old business models focused on advertising and classifieds have been eroded by more target online ads and by the rise of sites like Craigslist. This era of journalism renaissance has ushered in several non-profit startup news organizations, like ProPublica, an investigative journalism organization, and Spot.us, a site which fosters “community funded reporting”.

One site, however, the Center for Independent Media (CIM), a non-profit online journalism network, has taken a different approach to the non-profit journalism model, one which has helped them raise $11.5 million in just four years.

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Founded in 2006, The CIM has created a network of six sites in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico and Washington D.C. Their seventh site, The Florida Independent, is set to launch soon thanks to a recent grant of $352,000 from the Knight Foundation.

The network’s CEO David S. Bennahum says that diversifying into several branches creates fundraising flexibility. With more sites comes more discussions, and more opportunities to raise money. Bennahum explained this strategy in a recent interview with Laura McGann of Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab, a former employee of his.

“From a financial standpoint, we’re able to do things at a lower cost than other nonprofits, so foundation support we receive goes further, more of it goes to journalism, less of it goes to overhead as a percentage. This is a clear distinction between ourselves and all the other nonprofits, the fixed costs with operating a news organization are distributed across the network… In 2008, we spent tens of thousands of dollars at the time on a redesign, but it was distributed across six sites,” said Bennahum.

Bennahum believes there are two roles for non-profit news organizations – as wholesalers and as retailers. ProPublica, he says, is a wholesaler, creating stories which they can turn around and sell to larger papers. CIM, on the other hand, is a retailer, speaking “directly to the customer,” he says. This distinction has helped CIM to grow their audience, something Bennahum believes non-profits need to improve on.

“I think too many non-profit news organizations are insufficiently focused on whether anyone is reading their sites,” says Bennahum. “I think it’s a problem if you have raised money and ultimately at the end of the month, 15,000 people came to your site.”

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Known as the “Silicon Valley of India,” Bangalore, the capital of the Indian state of Kamataka, is known globally as a center of information technology, housing international giants in the hardware and software industries. The city’s first major step towards its IT reputation began in the late 1970s with the formation the Electronics City cluster, a 332 acre industrial park home to some of the biggest names in IT.

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Among these are international companies like 3M, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard and Siemens, as well as Indian corporations like Infosys Technologies Limited, and Wipro. Infosys, a business software solutions and outsourcing provider featured heavily in Thomas Friedman’s book The World Is Flat, is one of India’s largest IT companies with over 100,000 employees and $4 billion in revenue in 2009.

Other business clusters have since taken root in Bangalore, including the Whitefield cluster, which formed from the construction of the International Technology Park Bengaluru in 1994. The six building, 2 million square foot region houses offices for Accenture, Symbian, Dell, IBM, Intel and Oracle among others. Other clusters such as the Inner Ring Road cluster, and the Bellandur Outer Ring Road cluster include companies like Microsoft, Yahoo, McAfee, Target, Lenovo, Cisco, Nokia and Honeywell.

Bangalore, like Silicon Valley, saw a rapid increase in startups around the turn of the century with the dot-com boom, spawning companies like Live Documents, Minglebox and Vaakya Technologies. Recently, however, startups in the region have fallen victim to hesitation from cautious investors. Deepti Chaudhary of the Indian business news site Livemint says that startups across India are struggling despite help from the nearly 40 Indian incubators.

“It’s an act of both desperation and instinct,” writes Chaudhary. “The country’s most prominent incubators are raising early-stage funds so their fledgling firms have the money they need to grow… VC firms, for reasons ranging from poor mentoring to a lack of quality entrepreneurs emerging from the system, seem to have lost faith in incubated companies.”

Chaudhary points out that Ojas Venture Partners, an Indian early-stage venture capital firm backed by one of Infosys’ co-founders, has failed to invest in a incubator-bred startup since 2008. Another large VC firm, IDG Ventures, last invested in an incubated startup in 2007. Other India-centric and Bangalore-based VC firms include Artiman Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Helion Venture Partners and Nexus Venture Partners.

Another obstacle in the way of entrepreneurs across India is the dichotomy presented by cities like Bangalore and the smaller villages nearby. Those in the larger cities like Bangalore and Mumbai have a greater opportunity to find venture funding due to the numerous investors, organizations and events. Entrepreneurs in smaller villages, where the Internet access is less readily available, are additionally hampered by a lack of access to business resources.

It is also more difficult for entrepreneurs from smaller regions to focus on large market solutions, the kinds of solutions venture firms look to invest in. However, according to the news agency Press Trust of India (PTI), Infosys’ Narayana Murthy recently encouraged startups to focus on smaller niche markets. PTI explains that “new start-ups have to demonstrate that the ideas which they are bringing to the table are not ideas which the big companies are working on.”

Despite these struggles, Bangalore has become a hub for information technology, research and development and an excellent incubator for Indian startups. With the help of events like Startup City, Barcamp Bangalore and Startup Saturday Bangalore, the city’s potential for innovation and entrepreneurship is quickly expanding.

Much like London, Bangalore will continue to grow as more 2nd and 3rd generation entrepreneurs begin providing their own funding to the area’s startups. The area’s universities will provide the technical expertise and entrepreneurship needed for these companies, and the wide variety of businesses located in the city will be eager to snatch up the best of them.

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One lesson the devastating earthquake in Haiti has taught us is that natural disasters can cause billions of dollars in damage anywhere in the world almost instantaneously. If an earthquake of that magnitude were to hit a tech-centric city like San Francisco, millions of computer files would likely be lost in the destruction.

Natural disasters, house fires and hard drive failures are exactly the futile situations for which backup services like Carbonite exist. Carbonite has been providing consumer level backup since its foudning 2006, and now the company is offering competitively priced solutions for small businesses.

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Carbonite’s consumer level backup plans cost $54.95 per year, per computer, but small businesses often have hundreds of computers they need to backup. Their new service, Carbonite Pro has an automatically tiered system with the lowest tier at just $10 a month for 20 GB of storage on an unlimited number of computers or servers.

If a business exceeds their plan, they are automatically bumped up to the next highest plan, and if they use less than their allotted space, they are bumped down to the lower pricing. The service offers a system overview of storage to avoid unexpectedly breaking into the more expensive tiers.

Carbonite has introduced this program to offer and alternative to their competitor, MozyPro which offers similar pricing plans and features. MozyPro bills businesses at $0.50 per GB, the same pricing Carbonite’s tiers begin at, but they also charge a monthly license fee for each computer or server their software is installed on. However, MozyPro will work on Windows and Macintosh machines, while Carbonite will only work with Windows.

For small businesses, backing up data is an important step for setting up shop, and Carbonite looks to be a competitive solution for Windows users that want to backup multiple machines. If your startup lives and breathes on Macintosh boxes, MozyPro or Leopard’s Time Machine may be a better backup choice.

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With the Super Bowl less than a week away, I am reminded of 2002 and the New England Patriots, which defeated the St. Louis Rams and won the NFL title that year despite being labeled a clear underdog. During the player introductions, each Rams starter soaked up the limelight one after another. The Patriots however chose to enter the stadium as a team, waiving their rights to player-by-player introductions. The Patriots went on to shock the world by upsetting the talented Rams team, and ever since, Super Bowl teams have followed in their footsteps by entering the field as a team.

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But what does football have to do with startups? According to Zynga’s Mark Pincus, football of a different sort helps enables him to identify which people will be successful in business and management. Recounting a story from his days of playing soccer in school, Pincus says teamwork, not talent, helped his school reach the state quarterfinals – a lesson he has carried with him to the boardroom.

“The one thing I learned from that was that I actually could tell what someone would be like in business, based on how they played on the soccer field,” Pincus said in an interview with Adam Bryant of the New York Times. “So even today when I play in Sunday-morning soccer games, I can literally spot the people who’d probably be good managers and good people to hire.”

With smaller companies, it’s easier to communicate with each employee and make sure they’re all on task and contributing to the game plan, says Pincus. But when companies expand to hundreds of employees, this becomes impossible for one CEO to manage – so why not make more CEOs? That’s exactly what Pincus did.

“I said, ‘By the end of the week, everybody needs to write what you’re C.E.O. of, and it needs to be something really meaningful’,” says Pincus. “And that way, everyone knows who’s C.E.O. of what and they know whom to ask instead of me. And it was really effective. People liked it. And there was nowhere to hide.”

Pincus says this management style has allowed Zynga to achieve more without his direct involvement in every decision. By placing more trust in his employees and empowering them to take control of their piece of the puzzle, Pincus has been able to focus on doing his job – being a CEO.

Disclosure: ReadWriteWeb is a syndication partner of the New York Times.

Photo credit: dearbarbie and Crunchies2009.

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Former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates made headlines a few weeks ago when he decided to join Twitter, amassing hundreds of thousands of followers within just a few hours of signing up for the service. Just last week, Gates made an appearance on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show to discuss the release of his second annual letter describing the progress the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has made. Needless to say, Gates has had a busy 2010 so far.

Gates’ foundation is focused on improving the conditions in developing countries by providing funding for supplies and research and by raising global awareness. Now Gates is beginning to focus on another way to improve the general condition of the world: green tech.

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In an interview with CNET’s Ina Fried last week, Gates announced he has invested in Vinod Khosla’s fund, which raised over $1 billion for green-tech innovation last year.

“There’s one breakthrough that is called for, and that’s the ability to generate electricity with lower cost than we get it today, but no CO2 emission,” said Gates. “I invested in Vinod Khosla’s fund because he is backing some great entrepreneurs. I get some exposure to them as part of that.”

Gates, who compiles his thoughts on various issues at his newly launched site, Gates Notes, says that innovation is “called for in a big way” to help achieve carbonless energy efficiency.

“Conservation and behavior change alone will not get us to the dramatically lower levels of CO2 emissions needed to make a real difference,” writes Gates on his website. “We also need to focus on developing innovative technologies that produce energy without generating any CO2 emissions at all.”

Gates says the world is “distracted from what counts on this issue in a big way,” and that short-sighted goals are less important than looking further ahead. He believes the key goal to achieve is an 80% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050, a goal he says will only be reached through innovation.

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Quitting is one the easiest things there is to do. When we face a challenge that appears insurmountable, we would sooner give up and try something else rather than push through the pain of that challenge. But the truth is, trying something else is only going to lead towards another challenge, and becoming a serial quitter is most definitely not the right path to head down.

Seth Godin, author of the bestselling books Purple Cow and the more recent Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?, is also the author of 2007’s The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick). According to Godin, while quitting is often a poor snap decision made under stress, under the right circumstances it is a smart choice for turning around a dead-end situation.

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“The Dip,” as Godin defines it, is the valley between initial luck and long-term success. When learning any skill, the very beginning is fun and exciting as we quickly grasp new information and abilities. But at some point shortly after, the long, slow and difficult climb toward mastery makes us want to give up. This same analogy applies to numerous markets and situations, including sports, sales, job hunting and entrepreneurialism.

Godin is a proponent of quitting the short term tasks that aren’t benefitting a long-term strategy of success. In his book he quotes Jack Welch of GE who, upon becoming CEO, quit any industry the company couldn’t be #1 or #2 in because it was a waste of time and resources. Godin explains that quitting is not the same at failing, and suggests that if one wants to be the best in the world, some strategic quitting is in order.

“We fail when we give up too soon,” writes Godin. “We fail when we get distracted by tasks that we don’t have the guts to quit.”

We all know that any venture worth undertaking is bound to be wrought with difficulties, so Godin urges us to embrace The Dip and push through it. The only thing that separates the winners and losers in life is that the winners chose to push through The Dip when the going got tough. He also provides ways to identify when The Dip you think you’re in is actually just a cul-de-sac, or dead-end. The only thing that’s easier than quitting when times are hard is sticking with the dead-end easy tasks. While dips are something to be overcome, cul-de-sacs and cliffs are to be avoided.

Godin’s The Dip is an excellent read for any entrepreneur-to-be looking to plan ahead for the challenges that lay ahead. Godin points out that just as venture capitalists make sure a startup has a solid plan before taking the risk of investment, that entrepreneurs need to know at what point they will quit.

It’s much easier to decide that now before the pain and struggle of The Dip sets in.

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Anyone who has been using Facebook for a few years knows that even minor changes to an interface design can cause a wide variety of reactions from a loyal user base. When the popular social network has made design tweaks in the past, there is always some portion of their users that are upset, if not enraged, by the changes made. A couple of weeks ago, we told you how your registration process could be driving potential users away, and a large part of that has to do with the design.

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These days, the look and feel of a website or product is just as important as the features that it provides. One product with one of the hottest new interfaces available is the new Boxee Beta software which allows for streamlined local and Web media viewing. Whitney Hess is the user experience (UX) designer behind the framework of the Boxee interface, and recently on her blog Pleasure and Pain she described the systematic process she went through to design it.

When Boxee hired Hess to overhaul their UX, she began by interviewing eleven people, some of which were current users of the software, and others who weren’t. She asked them a variety of questions about their use of multimedia, including “Have you ever played music at a party you were hosting?” and “Have you ever displayed your photos on your TV?” among several others. Hess then held usability tests with five participants and gauged how they navigated around the software when asked to complete a series of tasks.

From this process, Hess was able to uncover what current users needed to make their experience better while at the same time discovering what potential users would find attractive. Her work led to the inclusion of several UX features and her wireframe submissions certainly influenced the final UI’s look and feel. The screenshot below demonstrates how the final design compared to her wireframe shown above.

“Overall, we wanted to provide users with greater ability to discover content across sources, easier ways to sort and filter lists, and quick access to their favorite programming,” writes Hess on her blog.

Boxee’s set-top product, aptly named the Boxee Box, was one of the most popular new products at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month. One of its most distinguishing characteristics is its beautiful interface design, which was raved about by reviewers on blogs and in the press. The design owes its positive reception to the framework it sits on, a product of Hess’s systematic approach to the redesign.

“As more and more living rooms borrow content from the Internet, they’re going to have to borrow the web’s focus on user experience as well,” Andrew Kippen, Boxee’s VP of marketing, told ReadWriteWeb. “Websites rise and fall based not only on the content but also on the experience they provide, soon connected TVs, BluRay players, and Set Top Boxes will do the same.”

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Been living under a rock these days? There’s this hip new tablet device from Apple called the iPad. Most are in agreement that the new toy is pretty slick, but they also agree on where the iPad fails – there’s no camera. iPod Touch fans were disappointed last year when Apple announced that the iPod Nano would be getting the much coveted camera, and now fans of a different sort are feeling the same dejected feelings.

Augmented reality is a technology that allows 2D and 3D objects to be placed onto a live video feed, creating unique user experiences. AR applications entered the mainstream with a few advertisements and installations for automobiles in 2008. Since then the technology has found its way onto our home computers with things like the GE Smart Grid campaign, and onto our cell phones with mobile AR browsers like Layar and Wikitude.

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Have you seen those videos of people holding their iPhones up in London or New York to find the nearest subway station? That’s augmented reality, and developers and followers of the technology (myself included) were hoping a camera on the iPad would open the door to a larger and more immersive AR experience. No such luck.

Augmented reality has already gained traction on the iPhone and Android platforms with dozens of AR apps available for download today. Mark Billinghurst, one of AR’s “founding fathers” and a leading AR researcher since 1994, reached out to me yesterday to express his feelings about the iPad – a device with which he says Apple has missed an opportunity.

“The form factor, CPU and graphics capability make it an ideal platform for a handheld AR experience,” said Billinghurst. “A camera on the back of the iPad would have enabled the development of vision based AR applications and created a whole new class of AR
applications on the App store.”

Billinghurst also points out that his company ARToolworks has already provided over 100 iPhone app developers with their ARToolKit SDK, a clear sign of the growing interest in mobile AR. However, one hurdle in the way of these developers is Apple’s reluctance to open the video API on the iPhone to real-time image processing – an impedance which AR proponents have gone as far to petition Apple to overturn.

Right now, applications can grab a few frames every couple of seconds to process, but the kind of accuracy needed for AR applications requires real-time frame-by-frame processing of the video feed. This would allow applications to track objects and motion seen through the camera’s lens, greatly increasing the chances for accurate placement of 2D and 3D objects as well as the interpretation of real-world items.

In the grand scheme of things, augmented reality represents a drop in the ocean of iPhone app development, and Apple would need more than some petitions and disappointed developers to add a camera or change their API. However, hope may be on the horizon, as MacRumors.com reported this morning on the discovery of the option to take photos in the iPad simulator.

While disappointed, AR fans are still optimistic about the iPad’s future. Claire Boonstra and Maarten Lens-FitzGerald, co-founders of Layar, one of the most popular mobile AR applications to date, expressed their sentiments on Twitter Wednesday when they heard the news about the iPad. Boonstra noted that we may have to wait for version 2.0 to see Layar on the iPad, while Lens-FitzGerald added that they have plenty of mobile phones to work on for the time being.

Thomas Carpenter at Games Alfresco, the leading augmented reality news blog, may have said it best when he noted Wednesday that Steve Jobs didn’t make the iPad for AR fans – he made it to give Amazon’s Jeff Bezos nightmares.

Either way, for those of us eager to have our realities augmented, perhaps we will be pleasantly surprised next year when AR developers like Boonstra and Lens-FitzGerald are the ones on stage with Jobs showing off the next iteration of the iPad.

The best thing AR fans can do for now is create and promote amazing AR applications that will captivate the masses and launch AR further into the public eye. We can only hope that Steve Jobs is watching.

Be sure to keep your eye out in the next few weeks, as ReadWriteWeb will be presenting our next premium report focusing this time on the use of augmented reality in marketing.

Photo by Flickr user vlauria.

See also: ReadWriteWeb’s complete coverage and analysis of the iPad on our iPad topic page.

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The media feeding frenzy around the newly released Apple iPad has finally reached critical mass as the device was unveiled to the masses today in San Francisco. Some people love it for features like the $499 entry-level price tag, while others are disappointed to learn the device lacks a camera.

One of the biggest announcements Apple made today was the updated versions of the iWork productivity applications, which will run on the iPad with full multi touch integration. Keynote, Pages and Numbers will all be available on the iPad when it goes on sale in a few months – and all at just $9.99 per app.

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Startups and entrepreneurs will benefit immensely from the ability to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations on-the-go, allowing them to take their product pitches with them wherever they go. When they meet people at events, they can whip out their iPad and flip through their Keynote presentation right then and there.

Imagine never having to give a bland elevator pitch ever again. If an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist find themselves in the proverbial elevator ride, a VC will be pretty impressed by the startup that can pitch and demo their business in a matter of seconds while on-the-go.

The Twittersphere is already exploding with iPad related tweets, completely taking over the trending topics, save for Haiti. Forward looking tweeters, like Jonathan Markwell and David Gawlowski are already seeing the possible benefits of the iPad for startups.

What other benefits could startups take advantage of from Apple’s iPad? Let us know what you think in the comments below!

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With the highly anticipated Apple event finally underway in San Francisco, tech fans around the globe are already speculating how Apple’s new iPad might change the state of computing. Another group of people listening intently to the happenings at the Yerba Buena Center are iPhone application developers, who are curious to see when they may be able to begin developing apps for the iPad.

As we’ve seen, the iPad is a blend of the iPhone OS and OS X, and it opens up opportunities for new business models for developers, so we thought we would point out a story of a man who rejuvenated his business by taking advantage of new iPhone and iPod Touch business models.

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Noel Llopis, an indie game developer and author of the blog Games from Within, recently wrote about the ups and downs of the App Store, which he witnessed first-hand with his application, Flower Garden. The app allows users to plant seeds, water them and watch their virtual flowers grow over time.

After some initial success after the apps launch, Flower Garden became what Llopis calls “a strange in-between app” where it was more successful than 99% of apps, but it still wasn’t a chart topper. Llopis tried to bolster his less-than-thrilling sales by adding more features, like Facebook integration, and by releasing a lite version of the application.

“Fortunately I was right and the effect on sales was very noticeable, pretty much doubling sales,” Llopis writes on his blog. “But it never really took off in any significant way, and sales slowly declined over time.”

Llopis was nearly ready to move on and forget about Flower Garden. But when Apple released In-App-Purchases last summer, he found his second, if not third wind. The graph below from Llopis’ blog shows the effect in-app-purchases had on Llopis’ application, represented in yellow and green versus the stagnant blue of the regular application.

“Flower Garden Free was never a big player,” Llopis writes. “But, as soon as the in-app Flower Shop was released, downloads started climbing, and on Christmas day they went through the roof (relatively speaking).”

So with the new iPad released today, iPhone app developers may have found a new platform for their mobile app business models. If you have an iPhone app whose sales have been steadily declining, look to the iPad or the existing options on the iPhone for new ways to raise sales.

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A settlement for nearly 2,000 years, London is today the most populous greater metropolitan area in Europe with over 13 million residents. Home to popular tourist locations such as Big Ben, The London Eye and Buckingham Palace, London’s skyline is unmistakable. While London often serves as the representative bridge from Europe to the United States, it also is the seat of Europe’s rapidly expanding entrepreneurial landscape.

The London startup scene saw its first major consumer internet success in 1998 with LastMinute, a travel site similar to Expdedia which eventually traded publicly on the London Stock Exchange beginning in 2000. U.K. companies like LastMinute were largely able to avoid the doom and gloom of the dot-com bubble burst at the turn of the century due to the nature of the venture funding scene.

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The key difference between the startup communities in London and Silicon Valley is that the latter has VCs more willing to take risks with their investments and give money to early-stage companies. The opposite is true in London, meaning that during the dot-com era, there were fewer startups and fewer risky investments.

The more daring VCs of Silicon Valley choose to ride the roller-coaster of risk vs. reward and often find success that way, while London VCs choose to take safer bets, investing money in established companies with traction. The major U.K. firms, such as Index Ventures, Accel Partners, and Balderton Capital, used this to avoid the pitfalls of events like the dot-com bust, but they sacrifice the possibility of higher returns because of it.

It is this attitude that has created a difficult venture funding scenario for early-stage startups looking for seed money in London. Azeem Azhar, founder of Viewsflow, a platform for identifying valuable business information online, says that three obstacles stand between startups and success in London.

The first problem is the difficulties in securing capital due to apprehensive VCs and a lack of 2nd and 3rd generation entrepreneurs. The second problem Azhar notes is one of talent.

“Silicon Valley’s talent depth is astonishing, and when you get smart people in the same room they make better ideas,” Azhar told ReadWriteWeb. “The numbers are comparatively smaller in London, and there are better industries for engineers to go into, like banking.”

The third problem Azhar sees is that the markets in Europe are significantly smaller than U.S. markets. According to Azhar, a typical European early-stage company will sell for less than $50 million while VCs are looking to make $100 million or more. This complements the first problem, allowing already cautious VCs to become more fastidious than before.

However, things have begun to turn around for the London startup scene. In the past, entrepreneurs would leave the U.K. and cross the pond to the U.S. to find the money to get off the ground. More recently, however, organizations like Seedcamp and The Accelerator Group, as well as new funds like Atomico Ventures and PROfounders Capital have begun to provide young startups with funding and resources.

Mark Littlewood of The Business Leaders Network, a U.K.-based membership organization that helps connect CEOs and founders with investors and possible customers, says that the VC firms in London are letting their influence slip away.

“The most significant trend recently has been the decline in influence (in start up terms at least) of the venture community,” Littlewood told ReadWriteWeb. “VC firms have either been struggling to raise funds whilst at the same time have focused on investing later in more mature businesses.”

What is driving this new force of organizations and funds for early-stage startups? It’s the second generation of entrepreneurs from previous successful London startups. The most successful project to come out of London (and perhaps all of Europe) is Skype, which was founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis and later acquired by eBay for nearly $2 billion in cash.

Zennstrom is now the co-founder of Atomico Ventures which focuses on providing seed funding and guidance for U.K. startups. The fund is an effort to invigorate the venture capital industry in the London area so that it may be more like the U.S. – a dichotomy Zennstrom knows well.

“I think we went to over 20 VCs here in Europe, and no one wanted to touch the company,” Zennstrom recalled about Skype during a keynote at LeWeb in 2009. “Always the Silicon Valley option seemed very very attractive because its such a powerful ecosystem with VCs that are brave that are willing to take risks.”

But Zennstrom, along with countless other entrepreneurs, stayed in Europe and managed to create a successful company. Major successes to emerge from London include Last.fm, an internet radio service acquired by CBS in 2007, Bebo, the largest social network in the U.K. which was acquired by AOL in 2008, and Playfish, a social gaming platform acquired by EA in 2009. Other London startups include MOO, TweetDeck, Playfire, LOVEFiLM, Huddle, WAYN and Seatwave.

With the cycle of returning 2nd generation entrepreneurs like Zennstrom, the startup scene in London is beginning to grow and be more inclusive. Saul Klein, a partner at Index Ventures and former Skype employee, has played a large role in mobilizing the startup community by founding both Seedcamp and the Open Coffee Club.

Stephanie Robesky, an entrepreneur in residence with Atomico Ventures, says that thanks to the new funds and organizations in London, things are looking up for the future.

“There are great opportunities for people to start businesses in London with not just financial support, but operational support as well,” Robesky told ReadWriteWeb. “I think that it is going to continue developing and maturing. The Valley has years on London and Europe, but the Europeans are ambitious.”

Other London-based startup events and organizations include DrinkTank London, NESTA, Springboard and Glasshouse London.

Photos by Flickr users Trodel and Ian Muttoo.

Special thanks to Azeem Azhar, Mark Littlewood and Stephanie Robesky for information and a crash course in London.

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