#leweb11

[qlecoutre-blog]

Nous ne prétendons pas changer le monde, nous voulons être là où le monde change.

Axel Dauchez - CEO Deezer

[swedishstartupsessions-blog]

LeWeb Special - Scandinavian governments should represent their startups

This year, representation of young Scandinavian startups at LeWeb were poor. But support from the home front was even poorer. 

While it's great to see Swedish startup stars like Spotify (video) and Soundcloud (video) on the main stage, and Rovio from Finland last year, Scandinavian governments should think about the future and help their startups.

It's the startups that are created now that are going to bring the jobs and prosperity in the future. While Ireland, Belgium and Switzerland are showcasing their startups and innovation, the Scandinavian governments are not yet supporting their startups at international web conferences. 

 or download the MP3!

During the last couple of years we have seen several European countries pool their national resources and bring a startup delegation to LeWeb. Last year it was Ireland who brought some ten - twelve startups with a large booth next to the participants in the startup competition.

This year, Belgium had seven startups and their own booth, while Switzerland brought a large team and great, visible t-shirts (and a lot of good chocolate). 

In the video I and Henriette Weber interview Carmelo Zaccone, organizer of the Belgian representation at LeWeb. The Belgians managed to far exceed their goals of bringing attention to Belgian innovation and startups. 

Google's VP superstar Marissa Mayer stopped by the Belgian booth and talked for 15 minutes with the Belgian startups with CNN in tow. At the VIP dinner at the Elysée Palace, Carmelo Zaccone not only spent time with Google's chair Eric Schmidt, but also with French President  Nicolas Sarkozy. These are important connections that should be valued and added to the general exposure of Belgium as a startup country and innovation hub.

We hope that to next year's LeWeb, the Scandinavian governments step up and promote their young startups, but also that more startups apply to the startup competition that gains companies a huge chance of exposure, funding, contacts and networking.

[alexanderljung]

LeWeb11 @ Les Docks Paris by LeWEB11 on Flickr.

Le Webbing it

[nanth-blog]

La startup italienne Beintoo a reçu le premier prix de la startup competition de LeWeb’11. L’équipe italienne propose des  applications mobiles ludiques et sociales. Plus précisément, le site propose aux internautes de télécharger des modules ludiques sur leur mobile puis de convertir leurs points obtenus en réductions, dont ils pourront profiter en shopping.

Vous en pensez quoi?

[swedishstartupsessions-blog]

LeWeb Special - trends and takeaways

The web is dead. Long live LeWeb!

This is a short summary of this year's LeWeb trends and takeaways with me and Henriette Weber. 

 or download the MP3!

Our main take aways is

The web is dead, or at least on the decline. The internet is coming into force as perhaps with the exception of the power grid, the most important utility in the world today. Usage moves off the web and onto applications - most of them mobile, backend moves off private servers and into networked clouds. 

Launches - almost everybody how stepped up to the LeWeb stages launched something. Most of it was smaller announcements and collaboration. Our darling was the brilliant contact app Evernote Hello (Listen to Evernote CEO Phil Libin talk about it with us).

The surprising outcome of the startup competition - public buzz favorite Babelverse didn't win but instead Beintoo which with already 4 million USD  in funding and 20 million users honestly felt quite far removed from being a fresh enough startup to be allowed to compete, even though it is very impressive numbers considering they launched in January 2011.

LeWeb isn't an ordinary conference where you go to listen to sessions, but to network and do business.

And what nobody talked about - apart from Ben Parr - the current Euro crisis and the looming recession, and the consequences of that.

[swedishstartupsessions-blog]

LeWeb Special - flash interview with Phil Libin, Evernote

An on-the-fly interview with Evernote CEO Phil Libin on how to differentiate a product in a generic and crowded space. 

 or download the MP3!

Evernote is currently one of the big and most beloved online brands. Users swear by them and competitors have a hard time competing against the virality of the power of shared thoughts and notebooks. 

After several days of trying to get CEO Phil Libin alone, I and co-host Henriette Weber - who manned the camera for this interview - finally managed to get a few minutes with Phil in the Evernote booth before he had to leave.

At the core, Evernote is a note-taking app in a crowded space. I asked Phil how his team have managed to differentiate Evernote, but also about the new products they launched during LeWeb, the awesome Evernote Hello and Phil's favorite Evernote Food. Phil also revealed a previously unknown love for Sweden...

Photo by Magnus Höij, Flickr