OurielOhayon

Dan Ciporin will work with me on investing in new internet startup

Today was announced my nomination a bit everywhere in the VC / High Tech press (and now this is truely official). Most importantly Dan Ciporin was appointed Chairman of the Internet Lab of LightSpeed Venture Partners and Gemini Israel funds (Jeff Clavier “the radar” spotted it before anyone)

Who is Dan Ciporin? He was the CEO of Shopping.com that was sold to Ebay for more than 600m USD (i wrote about it then) and is now someone i am working closely with on this new project (a fantastic guy by the way!). I will also work with some other great guys (Danny Cohen and Tali Aben, as well as Jake Seid and Ravi Mhatre from LightSpeed)

I was appointed General Manager and i officially started May1st and of course i announced it to you right when it happened after i left ICQ

The internet lab is a joint venture dedicated to fund young internet israeli startups.

Israel is a great playground for high tech and entrepreneurship. It has a proven track record in building successful international companies. Security (CheckPoint), entrerprise software (Amdocs), mobile (Comverse), Semiconductors and Telco infrastructure have been historically well explored.

Curiously enough Internet remains untouched although there are undeniable success like ICQ and Shopping.com. But (call it web2.0 or not) entrepreneurs are starting to focus is attention on internet services more than in the past as they understand this is a great field for business.

There is a new wave of entrepreneurs that are understanding well this industry and that are building new models and new services.

LightSpeed Gemini Internet Lab (LgiLab) wants to support those initiatives and be a proactive investor in that domain.

We are impressed with the initial deal flow and met already with many very interesting projects. I will be updating you on our progression on this blog.

We still have to prove that Israel can be as successful in Internet as in other domains.

• Can we build the next Skype or MySpace?
• Can we build international consumer brands with relevant business models? 
• Can we beyond web2.0 find companies that substantially will create value to users and shareholders?

Those are very important questions that we will try to solve over the next 2 years and for which we will have to invest a lot of energy. This is a great challenge too! But i think we can take it.

I feel so excited about it, and i am so glad i have jumped to that train, working with some of the smartest brains in the internet industry as well as getting the chance to meet some of the best entrepreneurs in Israel.

We were so busy from the beginning we did not have the time to build a proper website. But in the meantime you can check our temporary webpage and from time to time check out my blog.

Here the two articles in the Israeli Press (hebrew for now) and soon more to be added to that post. Here is the press release in English and below the print article in the Globes (equivalent of Financial times in Israel)

tags technorati : dan ciporin vc venture capital lightspeed venture partners lgilab gemini israel funds internet israel investment

Is TechCrunch just the largest Blog in France?

I woke up this morning and could not believe my eyes. We just came over 2600 feed subscribers to TechCrunch.fr

If i compare to my friend Loic’s stats which is the most popular blogger with 2400 feed subscribers, then the calculation is easy (although Loic has another feed in english and a previous feed that is not counted here)

But hey, it makes us probably just one of the TOP 5 largest blog in France in just 4 months. Out of 4 million blogs in France it is not too bad.

I think this is a great news and gives me the energy to continue even more.

 

JAZZCAST: (LITTLE) GIANT STEPS tribute to john coltrane

When i first looked at the music tab of Giant Steps, i said to myself i could never play that tune. That was 5 years ago. Then i started to work it out. And i came with some kind of experimentation. It might sound weird. but there it is.

To  listen press "play" below

Giant Steps is a compostion by the all times genius John Coltrane. The peculiarity of that fantastic and highly sophisticated tune is that on each time you swith to a different chord which make improvisation VERY difficult. Especially if you try to play it fast especially on the piano as this was designed for saxophone. Which i was not able and turned the tune into some kind of freely played ballad. That s why i called it LITTLE STEPS

Of course the reference is the tune played by John Coltrane himself you can listen on my radioblog.

By the way here is a fantastic website dedicated to mr Coltrane

TAG YOUR OUTLOOK

No need to explain. Here is TAGLOCITY an easy tool to add/auto-add tags to all your outlook items and find them later easily. Microsoft category/folder thing is just not working well enough.

I guess they will end up adding that feature. but in the meantime there you go.

If this is Chinese for us (i do not say Hebrew for my Israeli colleagues) then see the demo here

tags technorati : outlook category organization

JAZZCAST: TRIBUTE TO AMELIE (POULAIN)

Who has not seen the movie "Amelie Poulain". If you did not rush for it and if you did you will certainly remember the main theme composed by Yann Tiersen i have just recorded on a personnal improvised version. It is a nice little and simple waltz.

At the end you might recognize the original tune and if you don't you can still listen to it from my radioblog for free.

To listen press play below

PS: to my knowledge i don t know any other version of this tune than the original one (and mine now..)

Babylon.com does not offer online payment

I am using a lot Babylon as it is a powerful tool to translate and convert.

I decided to buy a license. Went to the website. Entered my Credit Card details. and then i see THAT

As you can read they ask you to complete the transaction by FAX or by PHONE

I searched for full online payment. Nothing.

Come on guys…Your audience is used to e-commerce now. Put an SSL transaction mechanism and that’s it.

This is definetly a BIG ISSUE if you want to move forward and make some serious money.

Logo creation made simple and cheap

I recently had to deal with logo creation. this is probably the most difficult task a marketer has to face and also a very expensive one most of the time.

Assuming you know what you want and that you have a top notch brief you will have to find the golden hands/brain that will bring it life. And the process is tough and long.

Now if you don’t want to go through all that and get something professional in a few days with only a 100 USD (yes ONE ZERO ZERO!) you should try 2 services: LogoYes and LogoWorks.

 

Those are kind of Logo factories with 2 different approach

• LogoYes lets you build your own logo by taking you step by step and suggesting at each level of creation templates/models. Results are immediate.

Here s an exemple of logo i created for myblog in less than 1 min.

• LogoWorks will receive your brief and will deliver submissions made by real designers in just 3 business days. They also offer website creation. Prices are a little more expensive (300 USD) but really worth. Results here can be EXCEPTIONNAL

But nothing replaces the traditionnal approach: working directly with a designer. Inspiration is something you cannot buy and that needs human contact. Logo creation is a process, a ping pong work that requires a lot of energy and analysis. And what you thought initially was good for your logo will evolve as the process of creation goes on.

That’s why those brilliant solutions are not made for demanding customers. But fantastic for urgent request. 

tags technorati : logo logo creation

MynuMo: one of the most brilliant 2.0 idea i saw recently

Take user generated content translated to mobile and you get MynuMo

Create, share, sell ringtones, wall papers,….

If i had to launch a company i would probably look into that direction. I think it will get good traction and business model is just right.

Entrepreneurs: if you search for a good idea to replicate/improve, here is one.

through mobilecrunch

New Flickr interface rocks

Really new nice interface at Flickr. They really needed. Specially a good search function, new Organizr and new navigation. More on their blog. I am happy to have upgraded Pro.

 

BlueSecurity Part 3 - The SpamWar is Over

BlueSecurity is shutting down its service. more here and there

War on Spam is not a easy one. Specially for startups.

Part 2 – here

Part 1 – here