Disqus - Latest Comments for BerislavLopac

Re: Just Try It Out

Dasher — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:03:57 -0000

If your product need a partner website to be implemented, then you probably have a partner you implemented it with. You can show that to inverstors. If not, how do you know if you solve the users' problem?

Re: Do You Really Even Need VC?

BerislavLopac — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:48:38 -0000

That's exactly the case -- one (government boosted) attempt at founding a local VC fund has failed twice so far (hopefully it will have more luck the third time), and another practically abandoned venture investment whatsoever... We're now trying to build a better connection with funds abroad, but pitching to them also takes money, so we have the proverbial chicken and egg game again.

Re: Just Try It Out

RichardForster — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:58:56 -0000

interestingly so am I ! so I know the difficulties you are facing. Our site is actually built apart from the usual public pages but even if we gave access to a VC, whilst we can demonstrate functionality it is not fully working until the partner implements their side. Which is one of the reasons why we need funding because the sales cycle is longer trying to get partners on board.

Actually Fred I suppose it is a little like Return Path trying to get Internet Providers and email technology providers on board.

Re: Just Try It Out

Kevin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:20:32 -0000

No, I don't. But you make a good point.

Re: Just Try It Out

BerislavLopac — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:15:11 -0000

Kevin, do you work for DailyBooth? You just single-handedly created a ton of traffic for them...

Re: Just Try It Out

BerislavLopac — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:13:39 -0000

What about the products/services which are difficult to use/try casually? For example I am working on a service which a) has to be implemented by a partner Website and b) solves a very specific problem for its users (i.e. if you have that problem it's worth a ton to you; if you don't you just won't look at it twice).

Re: Do You Really Even Need VC?

msuster — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 01:05:00 -0000

Sorry to hear that. Are there no VCs or seed investors in Croatia or the surrounding areas? Might need to look to Germany, France or the UK which have more developed VC markets. Or Switzerland. Good luck!

Re: Google Overpaid YouTube by $1 Billion…Was it Worth It?

BerislavLopac — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:45:32 -0000

Actually, I don't think Google's main intent was on acquiring users, but on making sure that they have a say in future litigation.

Re: Do You Really Even Need VC?

BerislavLopac — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 05:59:30 -0000

I've ran into problems with your very first item on the list. You say "Raise a very small round of capital – usually from the three F’s (friends, family & fools): $100-200k" -- but where I live (Croatia) this is the point where most startups fail. First of all, $100k is anything but "very small"; a startup can live on this money for a couple years with no revenue at all. But more importantly, FFF's with money are practically nonexistant here: although about 80% of population owns a house or an apartment, the cash available for investment is in very short supply. When we add a general lack of knowledge and distrust of entrepreneurs, we can simply forget about any seed stage funding whatsoever, and the only startups with any hope are those which can build a product on sweat equity only.

Re: Danish Woman’s One Night Stand Video Is a Government Hoax

BerislavLopac — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 05:58:53 -0000

Hm, a Scandinavian approach to www.whycroatia.org... :D

Re: seedcamp: Top Teams for Seedcamp Week 2009 Announced

BerislavLopac — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:47:16 -0000

And what has happened to Viidea, from Mini Seedcamp Ljubljana? I thought they were invited to Seedcamp Week directly...

Re: Twitter’s platform shortcomings

BerislavLopac — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 07:38:33 -0000

The first issue up there is easily solved with www.sparrw.com

Re: seedcamp: 20 hopeful teams get ready to embrace Mini Seedcamp Ljubljana

BerislavLopac — Mon, 04 May 2009 08:48:29 -0000

Didn't know that Zagreb is a country in its own right. ;)

Re: Google Starts Venture Capital Fund

BerislavLopac — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:32:13 -0000

Such corporate funds rarely have a fixed cap of available money -- I've seen similar setups in Cisco and Intel.

Re: http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2009/01/thoughts-on-re.html

BerislavLopac — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 15:48:55 -0000

and Australia if you can call that Asia

No you can't...

Re: Ideas are Just a Multiplier of Execution

BerislavLopac — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:40:47 -0000

[OT] BTW, David -- I've sent you a LinkedIn inquiry through out mutual contact; could you please check it out? Thanks! [OT]

Re: Ideas are Just a Multiplier of Execution

BerislavLopac — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 10:39:51 -0000

Honestly, I think you have overvalued the ideas -- I'd put "no execution" at $0 and go from that. On the other hand, a brilliant idea with a brilliant execution is immeasurable.

Re: seedcamp: Mini-Seedcamps 2009

BerislavLopac — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:04:57 -0000

We have an interesting geographical distribution here. You have covered Western Europe (Paris-London), Central Europe (Berlin-Warsaw), Eastern Europe (Kiev) and Scandinavia, with a special addition in the form of Tel Aviv (which is not really Europe, but I can understand why it's listed here). However, there is a glaring omission of Southern Europe -- not only Spain and Italy, but especially the countries of Southeast Europe: you've yourself witnessed the amount of innovation going on in Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia and Romania.

Why don't we squeeze a mini-Seedcamp in Zagreb among those listed?

Re: Expect to see start-ups and VCs hit standoff over valuations

BerislavLopac — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 07:33:51 -0000

"For the start-ups with no angel or VC backing, forget about raising money."

The conventional wisdom might say that, but I really don't see why is that so, and especially why should that happen in current situation. The cash won't go away -- it's only that those who have it won't be able to put it to work through traditional ways -- loans and stocks -- and will have to find new ways to increase their wealth. And what better way than to put it into a venture which will bear its fruit in a 3-5 years, when the current crisis should be ending? If anything, early stage investments should only increase in the coming years...

Re: seedcamp: Startup events in Europe in October

BerislavLopac — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:15:18 -0000

There's a few others worth mentioning

TMT.Ventures'08 Zagreb is not purely a startup event, but we'll see a lot of startups from Croatia and the region presenting for the 7minutes contest.

Slovenian Innovation Forum is not strictly about Web, but is certainly about startups.

BizBuzz 2008 is the central event for Web startups in Serbia.

See you on FOWA, Reshma!

Re: I Guess I'm Doing Something Wrong

BerislavLopac — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 08:42:47 -0000

$30k per year which is very hard to make a living on no matter where you live

I guess you forgot to add "in the US" at the end. In some places it could make for a very lavish lifestyle.

Re: The "No Voice" Internet

BerislavLopac — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 15:56:09 -0000

Funny thing is that for most forms of communication you list you don't need broadband at all. Whatever works on your Blackberry was actually introduced back in the dialup era, as it consists mostly of simple text.

Re: seedcamp: Zeitgeist redux: finalist edition

BerislavLopac — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 10:45:13 -0000

Seems that travel is all the hip this year, and advertising is still the business model of choice...

Re: seedcamp: Seedcamp 2008 applications are now closed

morland — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 10:59:06 -0000

Yes, it's a cumulative total - the day-by-day would just be the deltas in the steps up each time.

We're analyzing the applications stats and will post something when we have it ironed out.

Re: seedcamp: Seedcamp 2008 applications are now closed

BerislavLopac — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:18:37 -0000

Is that a cumulative total? If so, can we get a day-by-day graph? And the total number of applications? Hope I'm not asking for too much... ;)