Entries from seikatsu tagged with 'europe'
Lihtne ettepanek: riigiametnik, ära lenda äriklassis!
Meil on masu ja riigieelarve ei tule jätkuvalt kokku. Selle taustal, kuidas jutt on kolinud nüüd juba maksude tõstmisele, justnagu poleks kulude poolelt enam midagi võtta, tuli mul möödunud nädalal üks mõte. Sisenesin Brüsselis Tallinna lennukisse ja avastasin, et äri- ja turistiklassi eraldav kardin on sikutatud poole lennuki peale. Eespool kardinat istus palju (6 tooli korda ca 12 rida = 72) toredaid Eesti soost riigiametnikke, elukohaga nii Brüsselis kui Tallinnas. Mul oli seal ka teretuttavaid, nagu igal eestlasel kipub olema,...
OpenForum Europe
I spoke at OpenForum Europe conference last Friday, on the topic of open internet (aka net neutrality) and Skype's negative experiences of the lack of it, like Deutche Telekom's recent agressive blocking of our iPhone application. The event featured an enlighting list of speakers and I truly enjoyed most of the day. However, instead of full-scale notetaking as I've sometimes done before, I decided to give live tweeting a try (as @seikatsu). From one end the 140 characters don't leave...
On Skype and European Innovation at Stanford
I had an honor to speak at Stanford University on March 9th, as part of their European Entrepreneurship & Innovation Thought Leaders seminar series (see web site and Facebook group). I truly enjoyed the experience, meeting students, faculty and guests and joining a dinner in a smaller circle later for fascinating follow-up conversations around entrepreneurship. (Photo courtesy of Steve Jürvetson, click on it for his notes from the audience) Here are the slides I used: The Story of Skype (Stanford...
Soov Vabariigi aastapäevaks
Andres Maimik mõtleb ja sõnastab, seekord Areenis "Seinte vahel" filmi arvustades: Mind häirib tõsiselt, et rahvuslased on monopoliseerinud patrioodi mõiste. Eesti õpetaja, kes annab sisserännanutele eesti keelt ja kultuuri ning teeb seda sisyphosliku kannatlikkuse ning empaatiaga, omab mitu korda rohkem isamaa-armastust kui ennast eesti patrioodiks nimetav mehepoeg, kes päevade kaupa lõmpsutab internetis lõugu teemal, kuidas on tema inimõiguseks teise nahapigmendiga rahvaste kohta välja öelda seda, mida ta neist arvab. Eesti Vabariigi 91. aastapäeval soovin, et selle riigi patrioodid käiksid ringi...
A few more seats at ArcticEvening
As Jüri announced last week, ArcticStartup.com's ArcticEvening event is coming to Tallinn next Wednesday, Jan 28th, at Von Krahl. In cooperation with OpenCoffee Tallinn and Connect Estonia. As the initially planned 100 seats filled up really quickly, the organizers increased it to 150. And at the time I'm writing this, there are some 28 still left. So sign up now, if you missed from the first batch. I will be there sitting in a panel with Allan and Taneli...
China Is Larger Than Germany
"Well, duh", you might say, but actually until recently it was not. GDP-wise that is. Based on 2007 numbers, the top economies in the world were: the US of A, $13.8 trillion Japan, $4.38 trillion China, $3.38 trillion Germany, $3.32 trillion Media coverage around this change has a lot of interesting facts, worth reading Bloomberg and Washington Post for example: China's economy is 70 times bigger than when leader Deng Xiaoping ditched hard-line Communist policies in favor of free- market...
Green Cars and Economic Stimuli
Heard on the morning news that the German $66B economic stimulus package passed today also includes a measure to encourage people replace their cars. It is sort of understandable as a short term measure, as their economy is quite reliant on the infamous German car makers who, of course, are looking at a bleak 2009. Still if you think of, say, a few million germans rushing to buy new cars and dump their (probably well-running) existing ones -- doesn't sound...
A little rant on values and innovation
Found a video of my five minute speech in a panel at Restart 2008 conference in November. To disrupt the overall tone of the day a bit -- focusing on tangible, measurable and often plain numeric aspects of a successful (liberal) macroeconomic environment -- I decided on spot that I will instead talk about the softer side of life, namely the role values and tolerance in particular play for creating an environment where innovation strives in Estonia (or anywhere). The...
Seedcamp 2008 was fun
Spent a day at London Seedcamp Week's Product and Marketing Day again. Hit quite a jackpot on the mentoring group selection lottery and got to spend time with four out of the total seven winners of this year: Kyko - online multiplayer gaming by the creators of Babuki, with a neat angle of tapping into existing social/IM networks to build their userbase. Stupeflix - French startup generating time-synced video clips out of static images and music. Animoto competitor with...
President's Speech on Innovation
Last week's Baltic Dynamics 2008 conference was opened by an address by the President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves, speaking on Innovation. As the full text did not make it to the president.ee website's speeches section yet, I pinged his office and they kindly provided me a full copy in a few hours. Transparent government in action, love it. As I think this is one of the best condensed summaries of the major issues -- such as investments, education,...
Seedcamp 2008 - apply fast!
Just a quick reminder that this year's Seedcamp is getting close and the application deadline is already this Sunday, August the 10th. As a reminder: Seedcamp is where Europe's top young founders can come together in one place. From securing funding to developing the right network, young entrepreneurs in Europe face challenges in building globally competitive technology businesses. Through the provision of seed capital and a world class network of mentors, we want to provide a catalyst for Europe's next...
ChinAfrica
I very rarely have found myself spending several hours on a single magazine article, but Richard Behar's report on China in Africa from June issue of FastCompany is very much worth you invest that time too. This illustration probably recaps the "what" part of the story: In a word, the chair you sit on and the computer you're using to read this post more likely than not come from China, no surprise there. What we probably have noticed less as...
Video Call with Her Majesty
Just finished a video call with Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. She was visiting Skype Tallinn office as part of her state visit to Estonia. I was babysitting at home. One of these physical location misses when Skype really becomes handy. Also, Etta joined the ranks of the babies worldwide who have had their first video call while less than 10 days old....
Possibility of Innovation In a (not The) Valley
Thomas L. Friedman wrote in the Herald Tribune a few years ago a column that acknowledged, and probably injected a lot of self confidence to innovators outside of the usual suspect American hightech hubs. Written from an angle of criticism towards the American high school system, I found his text much more useful read upside down - thinking about how the more remote areas previously known for their cheap labour and mass quantity low tech production are winning share on...
A Lot Of People Doing Wrong Things in Estonia
An interesting graph from a presentation by Ott Pärna, CEO of Estonian Development Fund (see also my post from their recent event, in Estonian). Estonian & German industries being compared here by employment (left) and value added per manufacturing area. One common characteristic we share is that there are a lot of areas where a large share of people is adding a tiny part of the value for country's economy. However, it is quite concerning how tilted towards the...
Correction: Estonian entry to Seedcamp
Happy to say that I was just a bit hasty with my posting a few days ago. Apparently the blogged country list was not exhaustive - just learned that RealEyes has sent in an application. Good luck with making it to the Top 20....
Lonely Estonian at Seedcamp
As the Seedcamp key dates are rolling by and the September week in London is getting closer for the lucky 20, Saul has been posting some intermediary updates. My little personal sad news is that among the 260 applications sent in there was no a single one from Estonia. Hope it was not because the spreading the word effort was modest (thanks, guys, for helping on that!) rather because every startup (idea) around here already has enough competence, experience and...
Invitation: spend a week in London to get your startup kickstarted
Saul & the team have softlaunched Seedcamp and the applications for the first event in London in September is now open. Why? Europe has so far under-delivered in terms of globally successful technology startups. From securing funding to developing the right network, young entrepreneurs in Europe face challenges in building globally competitive technology businesses. Through the provision of seed capital and a world class network of mentors, we want to provide a catalyst for Europe's next generation of entrepreneurs....
There is hope for European startups
Saul published his slides from the NextWeb conference. We had a good lunch with him a few months ago on the philosophical topic of supporting the seeding European ventures (and OpenCoffee as one of the tools for that). I would have loved to hear him on stage of course, but still the deck provides some pointers for further thought or at least some reassurance against the skeptics out there thinking that there is no chance for tech success outside the...
British Police in Tallinn
When I read from the papers that 15 policemen specializing on football hooliganism were invited to help Estonian police over the days of the Estonia-England game, I imagined them to be some suits in an office, "consulting" the local officials. Actually there were the good old black helmets walking in the Old Town Tallinn, stopping by the English supporter groups at open air pubs and chatting with them. Probably they have a bit more experience on how to communicate...
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