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What I learned from the Brown University students visit.

You know when you travel to new places, meet the people and get a feel of their culture. You learn a lot. That’s the feeling I got the day Brown University students came for a visit.

Different kind of ideas

Being an IT incubator I'm used to people pitching ideas that require developing apps, websites and everything in between. I've also heard a few pitches of technological startups, However, the scale and direction of the students’ ideas were far beyond what I expected. They pitched economically viable ways to decrease CO2 emissions from factories, generate green energy, and create better medical equipment. Running a bit ahead of myself after the event I thought, “Some people want an app, others want to harness the power of the ocean”.

Learning to be an entrepreneur

The students are in their final year for their Masters and making a startup is part of their program. Awesome, right? Perhaps it’s not so surprising for students of a Ivy League university, but here in Latvia, creating a startup as part of a degree is something unthinkable. Unfortunately. Teaching young people entrepreneurial skills is among the top thing you can teach them today. Unless you’re training doctors :)

The startup culture is here

All this comes down to a bigger point, the startup culture. Working so closely with startups, hearing people pitch, and attending events shows that the startup culture is entering the Baltics. Here, in Latvia and indeed the Baltics, startups are still a relatively new thing. Garage48 started in 2010. TechChill Baltics launched in 2011. TechHub Riga opened in 2012. Startup Weekend came to Riga for the very first time this year! As the startup culture enters our lives more and more are embracing it! People want to build things that change the world and change themselves in the process. I think it's amazing.

A huge shout out to the Brown University students who visited us. We enjoyed your company, your pitches, and enthusiasm. Hope you get to make your startups happen and change the world for the better!

Check out our Facebook album of the visit.

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TechChill Baltics 2014 Conference, chill out to the best in tech on Feb 13 in Riga

TCBaltics is also a possibility for new IT and tech companies to enter the Pitch competition and draw attention of both investors and future supporters. Remembering the success of TechChill past pitchers – Infogram and BliuBliu – to note how valuable it is to be cooled off by a top-notch VC jury. The deadline for the application is February 3.

Get your ticket, for the full day conference, including lunch and coffee breaks, as well as access to the evening party.

Right before the TechChill Baltics event you also have a chance to warm up at these tech-related events:

Lean Camp: a workshop by ‘The Mom Test’ author Rob Fitzpatrick, who visits Riga to teach the lean and agile principles. Open to everybody.

Mini Seedcamp: a pitching competition and workshop where specifically created team of professionals will work with start-ups, giving tips for development and teaching participants to increase an amount of business contacts. The deadline for the Seed Camp is January 27. Apple here.

How to make it to the U.S?: a workshop that highlights the necessary skills and tools needed for those who think about conquering the US market. Success stories, examples and advice from experienced lecturers in cooperation with American Commercial Chamber in Latvia.

TechChill Baltics is the the coolest technology and startup conference in Baltics that will bring together the brightest minds in the industry. After very successful two first runs, we're back to give the best in tech!

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Startup Weekend Riga 2014

Today, for the very first time in Riga, Startup Weekend Riga 2014 will take place! Are we excited? You bet we are! eegloo is one of the sponsors of the event, so we're doubly excited :)

We kind of had a small hiccup with the Startup Weekend story and we can't currently display it. We're working on fixing the problem. In the meantime, please visit our Facebook album to see the photos from the event.

We will be on the scene coming Startup Weekend Riga for the whole 3 days, so tune in our live coverage via BuzzTale. If you're at the event, grab BuzzTale and join the story! 

Startup Weekend is a global grassroots movement of active and empowered entrepreneurs who are learning the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures.

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The new BuzzTale version is out – Try it now.

eegloo first alum, BuzzTale just got a big update on iOS and Android. The web part also got new features which go hand in hand with all the new additions. So, let’s jump into the brand new BuzzTale.

The core idea of BuzzTale remains the same, we just added some new features to better facilitate the needs of our early adopters.

Registration via email as well as Twitter and Facebook. It’s fun to trace back our way of thinking when it comes to BuzzTale user registration. First, it was only via Twitter, then we added Facebook. Now, registration and login is possible via email as well.

Avatar change. After registering via email you’ll want to add an avatar to your account. Now, you can. Go crazy! :)

Groups. This is the most prominent addition to BuzzTale that significantly changes the way of creating, following and joining stories. People can now start and join groups where they can run stories on specific topics. Our goal is to build communities around various topics where people can share and collaborate together. Stories in groups can be visible and joinable by all or only available to group members which can only be invited to join the group by email. It’s up to you.

Slide to view. A cool addition to how to view stories. Swiping story content will make viewing in the app much more fun. You’ll literally won’t want to stop.

With this update we wanted to give people more control over the visibility of their stories and a place where like-minded storytellers could come together to share and collaborate. We welcome all feedback from you guys as we want to make BuzzTale a service you can enjoy. Feel free to message BuzzTale on Twitter, Facebook or email [email protected] with your thoughts, comments and brutally honest feedback. 

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Building a startup ecosystem in Northern Europe

The startup movement is booming and Northern Europe is gaining a lot of traction. Finland is now one of the hottest startup places and let’s not forget the baltic states; Estonia, Lithuania and of course Latvia. The number of startups and startup events taking place here is growing year by year. However, despite the growing popularity of startups in the region, there’s no ecosystem to bring all of them together. This is where Wire.as comes in, our third alumnus, launched in closed beta in cooperation with ArcticStartup.

This is why we fell in love with the idea of Wire.as, as bringing startups together is a goal most noble. And who better to do this than ArcticStartup, who are driven by the idea and already know the playground.

Wire.as is not going to be like any other startup network. It's going to be better! We're going in guns blazing with full intention to uniting the north!

As I mentioned Wire.as is in closed beta but if you want an early look, mention the eegloo name in the pitch when requesting an invite. I’m sure we can get you in. :)

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Awesome Sochi 2014 Olympics Ad - Brings Tears to My Eyes

As Jake the God said, "Sucking at something is the first step of being sorta good at something". 

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eegloo pitching event #8 Winter Special.

Now that's what I call ending the year with a bang! Or 8th pitching event went great, we heard 7 pitches. We love seeing people taking invitiative and coming to pitch their idea, discussing them, and becoming part of the Latvian startup scene. Bravo!

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Humans are out, tablets are in.

This is how most science fiction movies start. First we replace people doing menial jobs with machines and then we have robots asking us for clothes, keys, and raining death and destruction on everyone. 

I’m all for automatization. If a machine can do the job of a person I see no reason why it shouldn’t. This is a step towards the world described by futurist Jacque Fresco. Basically, most  jobs are done by robots and people manage those robots, do science, art, invent new things, and enjoy life.

But such innovation will come at a price. Just like the industrial revolution saw many people lose their jobs when machines replaced people in factories, so will further automatization leave many people out on the streets. And this will happen, especially in a capitalist country with a firm belief in the free market. And Japan :) There’s no way around it. Applebee’s have stated that they aren’t planning on making any changes to their staffing levels, but if those tablets work as they are supposed to, how long do you figure those people will be employed? Not long…

As we move forward, towards the future, I can’t help but feel that our current system won’t be coming with us. As more and more people get replaced by machines what will those people do? The current system won’t be able to support them all and then one of two things will happen. Either, those people will be left behind or the system will have to change. I’m thinking the latter. Heh, look at me, making nation-changing predictions based on a restaurant chain’s decision to install tablets so people could order food… Okay, time to put down the tin foil hat and rejoin society. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

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Going to the Wildcard Conference!

We’re so excited to be supporting the developers community by sponsoring the Wildcard "Unconference 2013" which is taking place in Riga at the StartupLatvia place, tomorrow.

The whole day will be filled with networking and speaker talks. One of which will be from the eegloo CEO Jean Mauris. He'll be giving a very controversial talk about hacking developers' lives, appropriately titled "Hacking the Nutshell". 

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Google has launched Helpouts: a service where people can help others and make money

In early 2000's the internet bore witness of the birth of online advertising programs where content creators could display ads on their blogs and websites for a cut of the profit. But looking back over all those years there has been little innovation in this field. Until now.

Today, Google has announced the launch of Google Helpouts - the new service where people can help others and make money via live videos. “Our goal is simple: help people help each other. We want to enable everyone, no matter where they are or what time it is, to easily connect with someone who can help.” And this is what I liked about it. Google Helpouts lets people help each other. It’s live interaction that makes the service more personal than say watching a video on YouTube. Furthermore, Helpouts has the potential to become so much more than a help-me-do-this service. People could form friendships, communities based on their interests.

You might argue, “Why pay someone for telling you how to do something when I can find a video on Youtube.”. A good questions and I agree with you. I wouldn’t pay for help if I could find the answer on the web. But the beauty of this service is that you might ask them about things which aren’t published on the web. Like I said, it’s personalized help. The person helping you can adjust to your needs and abilities which a recorded video just can’t do.

Helpouts will be priced according to the providers and you can change a fixed price per Helpout or a per-minute rate. Google Wallet is integrated as the payment method. Furthermore, some Helpouts will be free and available to everyone.

While I’m certain Helpouts won’t turn into Chat Roulette spin off, mostly because your wallet will be connected to the account, there are, of course, issues Google will need to handle. Like moderating content. Not every person is qualified to help and listening to such people can cause more harm than good. Especially when your health is concerned. Quality control is an issue which will arise pretty quickly.

All in all, I like where Google wants to take this and I has the potential to become a great tool for people. Both for making money and helping people. But I take it with a pinch of salt. Hangouts depends heavily on people and you know how people can be...

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Modular Smartphones Go from Idea to Reality

Ever since I saw the PhoneBloks demo video I was hoping this idea gets enough support to move forward. Now, Motorola has announced that they’re launching their modular phone: Project Ara.

Modules give users greater control and the ability to customize their phones. Into pictures? Get a better camera module. Want more space? No problem, install a memory module. You get the idea.

Furthermore, Motorola said that it’s going for a third party developer ecosystem meaning users won’t get stuck with a limited amount of modules from one company. Not to mention it’ll drive innovation faster.

The PhoneBloks video illustrates the idea perfectly:

Sure, there will be quite a few challenges for the modular phone but having a phone that is thrown away less and gives more control to the user. Well, I think that is a big win for everybody.

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Honest Business Card Exchange

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Apple Fall Event 22.Oct 2013. Bring out the new iPad!

Tune in to the LIVE broacast of the Apple Fall Event! Courtesy of Uwe Hauck, author of LivingTheFuture.de via BuzzTale! (aka Latte)

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Latte becomes BuzzTale, gets new CEO and joins Startup Sauna

We've got big news! Since we launched our first alumnus, Latte in early July, we got a lot of traction and even made a pivot. After one successful pitch at the Startup Sauna Warmup event things started to move a lot faster...

Latte is now BuzzTale

We have decided to rebrand the project as BuzzTale, in order to better reflect the new direction of the company as a real-time branded storytelling solution. We see the biggest opportunity in helping brands and their agencies to create and curate real-time content at live events. We are busy working on the next version of the service which will be released in time for the Pioneers Festival in Vienna on October 30-31th.

We’re NOT closing Latte! Everything you’ve come to love about Latte will be in the BuzzTale product, and more. You can continue using Latte until the re-launch as BuzzTale and rest assured that all your stories will be available at www.gotlatte.com as usual and at www.buzztale.com when the new version is available.

BuzzTale selected for Startup Sauna program!

BuzzTale has been selected for the Startup Sauna accelerator program and now we are in Helsinki, Finland for 5 weeks of networking and coaching. We’re hoping to gain a lot of insights and contacts from this trip. Startup Sauna has a record of helping teams refine their pitch, raise money and succeed in growing their business.

Andris K. Berzins joins BuzzTale as CEO!

After helping judge the pitches at the Startup Sauna Warmup in Riga, Andris K. Berzins decided to join the team to launch BuzzTale globally. Andris is also co-founder & chairman of TechHub Riga, a serial entrepreneur, mentor to many startups in the region, and just a cool guy for the CEO role. We are delighted to welcome him on board, joining Anthony Dmitriyev as CTO and Jean Mauris as Head of Product.

With the new CEO, experience from Startup Sauna and the rebranding of Latte to BuzzTale we've feeling very confident in what we're building. I can tell you that We're feeling very good right now.

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Should your company be on Google+?

Social media marketing has become a must for pretty much every company and startup. There are a few social networks out there but which ones to use? Facebook? Definitely! Twitter? Of course! Google+?...

If you search for the answer, you’ll find some G+ stats that will say it’s one of the fastest growing and second biggest social network. The latest number I’ve found was 318.4 million active users. Looks impressive until you dig a little deeper.

First, the numbers provided are extremely skewed. Remember, G+ is a google product that is widely used within the Google family. Gmail, Youtube you get the idea. Furthermore, people usually have more than 1 google account, for spam, trolling etc.. This can account for G+ fast growing stats. When you use Gmail, YouTube you’re also using your G+ account which makes you an active user. So, there you have it, an active G+ user.

If you’re thinking that Google+ is going to be a waste of time I’m going to stop you right here. Yes, as a social network G+ is not quite there, yet. The place looks more like a desert than a lush forest. However, it does have a few benefits which you can use. Remember, G+ is a Google product. First and foremost Google Search. Publishing to G+ has a SEO advantage. When you post to G+, your website content gets a SEO boost and will rank a bit higher and stay there a bit longer. Use it to your advantage.

If your company depends or heavily benefits from SEO I would advise you to create a page on Google Plus. Don’t expect a sea of followers and +1’s as G+ is not yet a widely used social network. It might change in the future since the people’s discontent with Facebook is growing. This forward thinking could pay off.

[eegloolab]

eegloo 7th pitching event

[eegloolab]

The secret formula of getting rich online

No, no, no. It’s not going to be one of those posts where I ask you to sign up for something. It’s about understanding the internet and coming up with ways to make millions and even billions. And we all want to make billions, don’t we?

Ev Williams (photo via wired), the founder of Twitter, spoke at the XOXO conference in Portland and said he has figured out the internet. The core idea of his talk was simple – solve basic human problems and you will profit. Inventing the next big thing leads to problems because people come to the internet not to do new things, but to do the things we’ve always done.

“Here’s the formula if you want to build a billion-dollar internet company,” he said. “Take a human desire, preferably one that has been around for a really long time…Identify that desire and use modern technology to take out steps.” Uber is a good example. “How old is the desire of getting from here to there?” he said. “How hard was it really to do? They took out some steps in that process…They formed a connection between you and the driver.”.

When you think about it, Ev is correct. Twitter is an overly simplified messaging service, today’s blogging platforms do pretty much everything for you except generate content. I’m sure you’re noticing how things get simpler and simpler. Solving basic human problems faster and more convenient than others is what we, the internet, want. We don’t want to wait and we don’t want to think, we want to get what we want. FAST. Remember the time when we had to enter the email and password TWICE to register an account anywhere? I rest my case. :)

By now you’re probably thinking about knocking off a few steps from a service we all use and become the next billion-dollar company... Yeah, me too :) But an idea is worthless unless it’s implemented. Some people hold on to their ideas for years, thinking they are worth gold (which they rarely are) and never acting on implementing them out of fear someone will steal them, implement them better or for some other reason. It doesn’t really matter why. What I’m trying to say is, if you have an idea that could help people or solve problems, don’t just lock it away. Look for people who can help build it with you. Assemble a team and start working on it!

One place where you can go with your idea are startup incubators. One such incubator is eegloo. We’re a startup incubator, that invests its development team into helping people launch their startups. You can apply right here: http://eegloo.net/apply