Interesting perspective on the virtual (social) world

He brings it right to the point…

Carnegie Mellon University Professor, Jesse Schell, dives into a world of game development which will emerge from the popular “Facebook Games” era.

http://g4tv.com/videos/44277/DICE-2010-Design-Outside-the-Box-Presentation/

I can’t agree more – 12 Ways To Blow Your Investor Pitch

What a great presentation: straight to the point with a perfect visualization.

The Future of Social Gaming

Very interesting presentation about Social Gaming:

The Death of MySpace – consolidation of the social web

The consolidation of smaller social web sites have already started. Nobody needs more than one sport community or more than one social community for young mothers. Well, only a small group of people might be active for a longer time in niche social community.

This movie tells the story about the consolidation of even bigger social web sites. I am more than snoopy about the future of MySpace, Xing, etc.

Munich Venture Summit 2010

The Munich Venture Summit 2010 will take place on February 27th and I am going to join as a speaker. This year the event is focusing on startups and investment in the sectors of CleanTech and GreenIT.

How to Pitch a VC

Today I found a very interesting as well as funny presentation. It’s explaining how a pitch in front of a Venture Capital investor should be. Maybe it is in some parts slightly exaggerated but at the end it’s really getting to the point. I hope that a lot founders will read this presentation and will change their approach and their pitch.

We would have much more fun…

Investments in 2009

During the last 12 months I was responsible for three investments. The start-ups are active in three different markets but all of them have some of their roots in Munich. All three start-ups have a very strong technology which gives them a competitive edge compared to their competitors and most importantly all founders of the three start-ups are serial and successful entrepreneurs. This shows somehow that Munich is still a very active start-up cluster in German – especially when it comes down to technology and not pure Web 2.0 and consumer Internet cases.

www.scoreloop.com

Mobile social gaming technology provider

Located in Munich (Germany)

Scoreloop develops the infrastructure technologies to help their partners improve the gaming experience with global high scores, player challenges, and by connecting friends by leveraging social networks. They expressly do not create own games, but instead focus on providing solutions for game developers, publishers, and operators who want to build their communities and drive game discovery. Scoreloop was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Munich, Germany with offices in the US and Asia. Its seasoned management team builds on a successful track record in large-scale payment and security systems for Fortune 500 corporations. They combine the unique skill set of expertise in high-volume server infrastructures with a passion for improving the end-user experience.

www.hetras.com

Hotel management software (SaaS)

Located in Zell am See (Austria) and Munich (Germany)

hetras is a privately owned company, founded in 2007 by Michael Heinze in the traditional Austrian resort town of Zell am See. The hetras team members come from around the world and bring a wide range of hospitality experience – from small, privately owned hotels through to large hotel chains and major CRS providers. This knowledge is intrinsically incorporated in the architectural and functional uniqueness of the hetras product. So it’s no wonder that we are said to have hotel business in our blood. A team of high-ranking industry experts includes Keith Gruen, co-founder of Fidelio Software, and Johannes Steszgal founder of Austria’s leading Spa Software.

www.greenology-solutions.com

Green IT – Software to reduce the power consumption of IT infrastructures

Located in Boston (USA) and Munich (Germany)

Greenology helps companies to significantly reduce their energy costs. Their products visualize, monitor and actively control power consumption in corporate networks across all connected devices. They believe that the future is about efficient networks, smart buildings and responsible companies. Behind Greenology is a team of seasoned entrepreneurs with a strong background in enterprise software, security and networking infrastructure. They have worked across the globe for great companies like IBM, HP, CA, Internet Security Systems, Enterasys and others.

2009 from a German VC’s perspective

The German Internet start-up battle

There is lots of noise in Berlin. Numerous Internet start-ups have been founded and seed-funded in the last years. 2009 was dominated by new (mainly copied) ecommerce cases. As an early stage VC investor (Target Partners) who sees the majority of the investment cases in Germany it was quite astonishing to see the “rat-race” which is currently taking place. The German Internet and ecommerce incubator scene was ruled from the European Founders for some years. Due to the fact that this concept seems to work others tried to copy this approach. The result is that three or even more incubator organizations are often competing with their start-ups today. A good example is the battle of the German copy-cats Sponsorpay, Gratispay and Deal United. Every start-up is supported from a different incubator an is doing more or less the same.

I highly respect the power and the experience of all involved people – in the supported start-ups as well as in the incubator organizations. But I am honestly asking myself if it is a good thing or a waste of resources that such kind of competition looks sometimes like an end in itself. Well, time will tell and in the meantime we all have some interesting things to observe.

The deal flow in 2009

This year was really an interesting one. We’ve seen more deals than ever before. Statistically the ratio of pure Internet case has decreased and the percentage of technology cases has increased. Which is a good tendency because we believe that technology can make the difference. If I compare the deal flow in 2009 with the deal flow some years ago it is more than obvious that the German start-up market is growing. There is no proof but I think this is the result of various causes, e.g.:

• Public stories about successful entrepreneurs are motivating other people
• Active business angels are supporting entrepreneurs and their ideas
• Social media are connecting and inspiring entrepreneurs
• Seed investments are possible again because of the establishment of the High-Tech-Gruenderfonds and some business angel networks

I hope that this trend will continue.

The investments in 2009

Will be posted in some days…

A day in the Internet

No words are necessary. Just have a look and think about how a day without the Internet would be…

German Seed and Early Stage Investors’ Meeting

The ‘Hightech-Gründerfonds’ (HTGF), a German public-private Seed investor located in Bonn, organized a conference with almost all active German Seed and Early Stage investors today in Bonn. We discussed the situation of Seed cases, potential follow-on investments and how the public investors can work together with the private VCs.

The HTGF has generated an impressive deal flow and is really reinforcing the Seed investments in start-ups in Germany since its foundation in 2005. I think it is a much better situation for young start-ups today.

Thank you Michael, Alexander and the entire team in Bonn.