Web 2 Ireland

The newly revamped Tuesday Push kicked off yesterday with IGOpeople and the number of posts was fantastic.

You can track the various posts and mentions via the Twitter Account. Here is a selection of the great coverage yesterday:

• Eirepreneur – Tuesday Push: IGOpeople really is going places
• David Kelly – Return of the Tuesday Push – IGOPeople
• ClubW – Tuesday Push – IGOpeople: Network for Real people
• Cool Sites – IGOPeople Putting A Slightly Different Spin On Social Networks
• Sxoop Journal – Tuesday Push: IGOPeople
• Clunky Flow – IGOPeople: Tuesday Push
• Touristr Blog – Tuesday Push
• Agiletech – Push on IGOpeople
• Thomas Brunkard – Consumer Relations, Online PR and IGO People
• Reverb Studios Blog – IGOPeople Irish Online Networking
• Digital Media Island – IGOpeople – Rounded Interaction for Organisations and People
• eWrite – Tuesday Push: IGO People from Campbell Scott
• coclarity – The Tuesday Push
• Jamie’s Weblog – Tuesday Push: IGOPeople
• Puddleducks Blog – Tuesday Push: IGOpeople – Networking for the Real World

Mary Boyle in Enterprise Ireland in Sligo has contacted us to let everyone know that a very experienced person from the Irish tech sector is looking to mentor and potentially invest in high potential startups.

If this is of interest to you, then put together a one-page overview of your biz and send it to Mary DOT Boyle AT enterprise-ireland DOT com along with all your contact details.

UPDATE: The person in question is going through all the proposals he has been sent. He is delighted with the level of interest & the potential in the companies. He doesn't want any more submssions until he evaluates the ones he has.  He will get back directly to companies he is interested in talking to.

Just picked up from Pat Phelan, founder and CEO of Maxroam’s blog on the news that MAXroam has partnered with Dopplr

Congratulations to Pat and team – and no doubt this is the first of many white label partnerships we will see from them in 2009

Press Release below…

Cubic Telecom partners with Dopplr to help travelers save thousands on roaming mobile user

MAXroam, the mobile roaming product from Cork-based Cubic Telecom, will be available in Dopplr’s online travel shop. Dopplr is an online service for smarter travel that helps the world’s most frequent travelers meet up with their trusted friends and colleagues around the globe.

Today Dopplr announced an online store with MAXroam as one of the key products. The store, which is available to all Dopplr travelers, contains a number of special offers on products and services to make travel better.

Speaking about the partnership, Cubic Telecom’s CEO Pat Phelan stated “We’re delighted to be working with Dopplr. MaxRoam’s SIM card will enable Dopplr travelers to save a minimum of 70% on their mobile travel bills.”

Within nine months of its launch in September 2007, MaxRoam had saved travelers more than $1 million on their roaming mobile bill and almost $1.7 million to date. These savings will now be extended to Dopplr members with a Dopplr SIM and website to manage their mobile usage while traveling.

About Dopplr – www.dopplr.com

Dopplr is an online service for smarter travel. Dopplr helps you make more of your travels by sharing your future trips privately with friends and colleagues. The service then highlights coincidences, for example, telling you that three people you know will be in Tokyo when you will be there too. You can use Dopplr on your personal computer or mobile phone. It links with many popular online calendars and social networks.

About Cubic Telecom

Cubic Telecom is one of the world’s first and largest suppliers of travel SIMs, which abolish high roaming fees that are usually charged by incumbent Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).

The company offers a 100% white label platform where MVNOs can customize everything as their own, including having their own branding of SIMs and web portal, plus customized audio prompts and short-codes.

MVNOs can set up multiple sub-distributors, each with their own discrete pricing, and customization, through Cubic’s innovative new offering.

Last year’s very successful WebMission by UK startups to Silicon Valley followed in the footsteps of the equally successful Paddy’s Valley several months previously. We’ve been contacted by James Lawn to let everyone know that Irish start-ups are very welcome on this year’s trip.

They want to bring UK & Ireland's top 20 fast-growing Enterprise Web Companies to San Francisco from 28 Mar to 3 Apr. Some good sponsorship means that you’d only have to pay for your flight and hotel. A word in the ear of your Enterprise Ireland D.A. may even cover half of that.

I have to say, the trip looks fantastic. This is what you can expect:

• Facilitated meetings with key US investors
• Meet and mingle with key Silicon Valley movers and shakers relevant to your organisation and growth plans
• Discuss your business with leading journalists
• Spend quality time with like-minded people in the valley
• Explore how to succeed and grow in the US market
• Attend Web 2.0 Expo which occurs during the same week
• Significant VP-level engagement with WebMission sponsors

The entry requirements are as follows:

• Be an Enterprise 2.0 company
• Be innovative
• Be headquartered in the UK or Ireland
• Have 2 years trading history, or failing that, compelling fast-track potential through management team etc
• Be able to provide references from key sponsors/industry players
• Able to demonstrate some commitment to sustainable business practices (eg, positive environmental, social or economic outputs)
• Be ready to do or grow business in the US OR potentially attractive to a US investor.

If you’d like to apply, have a look at www.webmission.co.uk

Niall and the crew at iFoods.tv have been working flat out for months to get the new site launched. Yesterday he announced that they are rebranding to Look and Taste and that they are going into private Beta next week.

As a total foodie, I love what they are doing and I’m looking forward to checking out the beta.

It looks like we’ll have the first two BizCamps in Ireland in very quick succession in March. These are unconferences in the style of BarCamp but focussed on business rather than tech.

Kicking off the day after FOWA, the first BizCamp is in the Digital Hub in Dublin on March 7th. All details over on the site. Now if only I could decipher their tagline!

The second one is in the University of Limerick on March 21st. It is being held in the new Kemmy Business school, from 9.30am to 4pm.

In both cases, as with all *Camps, they only work if YOU make them work. So get on over and offer to help out.

Two great sources

Dave McClure

- Check out this slideshare presentation – Numbers not Napkins: Simple Startup Metrics
- also check Dave’s blog for great info @ startups, metrics, fund raising, etc.
- Dave is also behind the Startonomics Event

Andrew Chen

- check out this post on How to create a profitable Freemium startup (spreadsheet model included!)

Eoghan McCabe and I are doing the third of a small networking event called BYOB at 7pm this Fri (tomorrow) at Contrast offices (http://reallytinyurl.com/659). All web / business / tech people are welcome to come and hang out for a bit. As the name suggests, all you have to do is Bring Your Own Beer. But if you bring friends, colleagues, partners, etc. too, all the better.

Any questions, let me know. Hope you can make it.

-Robin Blandford

Reminder for folks to apply for InnovateEurope

We blogged about this previously.

Update

- Dublin event – Feb 4th, 2009
- Apply Online

The founders of Havok, which was acquired by Intel, Hugh Reynolds and Steven Collins have recently taken on some funding for their new startup – New Game Technologies – according to the Irish Indo.

Hugh and Steven are two of the smartest gaming technologists in Ireland – and its great to see them back in startup land again.