This past month during the Mobile World Congress, Shaherose Charania (a mobile expert by trade and VP at Opinno) spoke about the powers of mobile technology to spur positive change in the world.  Presenting before a crowd of entrepreneurs at Barcelona Activa, Shaherose posed the challenge that, because we have been granted the a gift of being educated, having resources, and being part of a network of innovators, we should always be finding ways of sharing that gift.  

“Generosity with one’s intellectual, spiritual, material or physical wherewithal is highly commended. When withheld, such gifts are a futile burden.” - Aga Khan Development Network: An Ethical Framework

Starting a company is one way of giving away our gift, because a company creates jobs and designs products that positively affect the user. Speaking specifically about mobile technology, Shaherose raised the point that "to raise connectivity, you increase productivity, and when you increase productivity, you increase wealth."  Therefore, mobile tech entrepreneurs should use their gifts and their passion to affect positive social change in the world.

Interesting consumer trends and opportunities for mobile innovation:

> Google is quickly acquiring startups, many in mobile. These early acquisitions end the competitive innovation race in niche markets. Keep your eye on Google when building your startup.

> Acquisitions in the mobile space, if not by Google, seem to only be happening with European Carriers (not US-based carriers). Watch this trend for your startup, are you offering an innovation (for example Aarvark offering social search technology to Google) or a loyal user base (For example JAJAH offering internal calling customer base to Telefonica)?

> Social Gaming: this is a big money-maker online. Opportunities to create sticky, social games using the phone, virtual currency options and more await future founders.

> Social Fraud: Someone can impersonate you online on 10 seconds. How can the phone be used to protect your online identity? What threats exist for personal security on the mobile phone itself? How often do you get a "spam" phone call or "spam" text message. This industry is ripe for innovation.

> Online Shopping: Shopping online on sites like Zappos and Overstock isn't for everyone; hence the rise of limited quantity sites like Gilt.com. Where can the mobile phone play a role in driving an easy, targeted, social online shopping experience?

> Crowd-sourcing: Mechanical turk, leveraging the power of many to complete a task. The power of the collective to answer questions. What tasks can be parsed, delivered on the phone, and returned with value to complete a greater task? How can we truly mobilize crowdsourcing?

> Mobile-local-social: Foursquare, Gowalla, Rummble are all in a battle to capture the mobile-social-local realm of social interactions. How can the phone truly provide value and drive foot-traffic? Future founders in other parts of the world can find ways to innovate on the concept and design a truly localized mobile service.

> Hardware: With more and more apps, batterylife must extend. In parallel, people are creatively finding ways to create energy - a battery you spin to charge, a energy source you kick like a soccer ball to create and subsequently use to light a room, a disposable source of energy. Innovation in hardware has begun, more to come.

Overall, the line between innovations on the web and future mobile applications and services is truly blurred. However, this assumes a smart phone, the basic phone is disconnected from this future of easy to use, valuable applications in day to day interactions. 

Other Reflections on the investing and entrepreneurship ecosystem:

In addition to mobile technology, Shaherose's presentation included some insights into the current entrepreneurial ecosystem in Silicon Valley.  For example: changes in the VC market.  Now startups have to have a product in the market and show traction before getting funding. The whole idea of VCs taking risk, well, they're not.  Or at least as not as much as they used to.  VCs want startups to take care of everything before approaching them for funding.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing, however, because entrepreneurs are funding the innovation stage instead of fundraising just to get off the ground.  

VCs are also “double dipping” a lot more now than in the past. That is, they go back to the same companies that they’ve already invested in and invest again. VCs want to fast-track that innovation stage with an already experienced team. These "double dips" are still creating jobs, but are reducing risk and increasing chances for success.  However, for newer entrepreneurs, this creates a greater challenge upfront to develop a product cheaply and quickly before being able to count on money from investors.  

“In this brave new world, startups need to re-think the traditional VC set of “letter series” – A, B and so on. In this less liquid environment startups cannot rely on follow-on investment. You need to get enough money upfront to last you through to profitability.” – Esther Dyson, Angel Investor

A little background on Shaherose:

Shaherose was born in Canada but currently lives in the US, working with Opinno at the San Francisco office. In parallel she is the CEO and CoFounder of Women 2.0, which she launched in 2006.  She is also an active advisor to a soon-to-be lauched Mobile venture. She has a passion for bringing positive change to the world, and believes in the power of mobile technology to do just that.  Before Opinno, Shaherose worked with Ribbit (BT) and more exenstively with Jajah for two years, as the Director of Product Management and Marketing which was acquired by Telefónica in 2009.  She was also a part of the initial team at Talenthouse, a social network for emerging artists.

Recommended Resources:

• Bay Area TechWire
• Great Twitter Users to Follow
  • Crunchbase @crunchbase
  • Springwise @springwise
  • YCombinator @newsycombinator
  • Eric Reis @ericreis
  • Dave McClure @davemcclure
  • Om Malik @gigaom
  • Naval Ravikant @venturehacks

Una versión en español al fin de post.

There are 4.6 billion phones in the world and 80% of the globe is “connected”. With interconnectivity and information exchange, what is possible in all corners of the earth? Is the mobile phone the “final stretch” to connect the unconnected? Where can entrepreneurs participate to create value and opportunity?

Our friends at mtrends, along with the Mobile Monday community, pulled together a fascinating presentation on the next decade of trends: http://www.slideshare.net/rudydw/mobile-trends-2020. We at Opinno are always curious about the future, so presentations like these always create quite a buzz around the office.

Some of the world’s largest and most influential players in the communications industry will descend on Barcelona for the Annual Mobile World Congress. Join myself Opinno's VP, Shaherose from San Francisco as she shares her insights on the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Silicon Valley and foresights on emerging mobile trends.

Event:
Insights from Silicon Valley and foresights on the future of mobile
Feb 11, 7 PM
Barcelona Activa

Come and meet with Shaherose Cherania, a mobile expert by trade and VP at Opinno, to gain insights into local, global and tactical information and resources for your startup as well as a discussion about the future of mobile.

We will have an informal discussion that includes:

• Barcelona, local: Learn about the Mobile World Congress and surrounding events. 
• Silicon Valley, global: Get an update on Silicon Valley’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, including a sneak peek of new ideas coming out of this entrepreneurial hotbed, an overview of the current funding environment, and success stories from some of the recent acquisitions. 
• Information, tactical: Gain tactical advice on taking your startup global, learn how to prepare to go global before you leave your mothership, and be introduced to some of the best tools and resources for entrepreneurs. 
• Look forward: there have been many recent acquisitions in the mobile and telephony space including Jajah (Telefonica/O2), Ribbit (BT), Admob (Google), Gizmo5 (Google)...and many others. From inside Silicon Valley and having worked at 2 recently acquired companies, Shaherose will discuss some observations on the future of mobile. 

This event will provide you with information for your startup and insights from Silicon Valley.

----- Versión en español -----

En estos momentos existen 4,6 billones de teléfonos en el planeta, el 80% del mundo está “conectado”. Con esta interconexión y este nivel de intercambio de información, ¿qué podemos conseguir a nivel global? ¿Serán los teléfonos la solución definitiva para conectar y dar la oportunidad de comunicarse a los “incomunicados”? ¿En qué sentido puede la comunidad de emprendeodres participar y crear valor?

Nuestros amigos de mtrends junto con la comunidad de Mobile Monday, impulsaron una fascinante presentación sobre las tendencias más relevantes de la próxima década (http://www.slideshare.net/rudydw/mobile-trends-2020).En Opinno la curiosidad por el futuro guía nuestro trabajo, así que el descubrimiento de materiales como éstos dan mucho que hablar dentro de nuestras oficinas y hacen que nos pongamos en movimiento

Con motivo del Mobile World Congress, algunos de los más influyentes expertos del sector se deajrán caer por Barcelona. Únete a Shaherose Charania que llegará desde San Francisco para charlar con nosotros acerca de los puntos clave del Mobile World Congress.

Evento: Insights from Silicon Valley and foresights on the future of mobile
Feb 11, 7 PM
Barcelona Activa

Ven y conoce a Shaherose, VP de Opinno para charlar acerca del sector de la mobilidad en Barcelona y el ecosistema emprendedor en Silicon Valley.

• Conoce en detalle todo el desarrollo del Mobile World Congress y los eventos que tienen lugar de forma paralela.
• Acércate a las últimas noticias del valle sobre nuevas ideas, innovación, inversiones y adquisiciones.
• Obten consejos prácticos para convertir tu startup en un proyecto global.

Nearly 50 Digital-media companies were narrowed down to a pool of ten finalists who pitched their ideas to a team of investors, in typical Silicon Valley style, from the United States and Europe.  

Meet the teams, meet the investors and hear from each finalist share their experiences from being a part of Spain's first National Business Plan Competition.

A warm congratulations to each team and a special thanks to our investor friends who joined us from across the pond, Cedric Latessa of Draper Fisher Jurvetson Esprit, Carol Sands of The Halo Fund, Leif Langensand of The Angels' Forum and Yasaman Baiani of Vantage Point Venture Partners. 

Some highlights from the video:

Enrique Lancis, Koliseo: “The competition has been an exceptional idea and wonderfully organized. We need more ideas like this to encourage and foster Spanish start-ups”.

Ignacio Rodríguez Teubal, Betlem: “I´ve really enjoyed watching entrepreneurs responding to queries and questions from investors. They were great”.

Francisco Correro, Social Gaming Platform: “It was the first time we faced an elevator pitch. The result for us has been very positive”.

Jennifer Vela, Subbabel: “It has been very fulfilling meeting other entrepreneurs with similar profiles, networking is fundamental. I thought it was a great idea that the jury was formed by investors”.

Javier Fernández Escribano, Tourist Eye: “Presenting in front of American investors has been tough but very exciting. Taking part in this kind of forum has been very positive”.

Antonio Jurado, Kirmedia:  “I´ve known a great range of technologies and start-ups. The experience has been very good, FICOD is growing”.

César Marco, Rytmography: “The elevator pitch is a powerful tool to show and summarize strong points from our projects”.

It turns out various that lists were very popular. So here is a list of lists to kick start your 2010. These are lists that sum up various industries and achievements during 2009, perhaps the most challenging year in the global economy.

Did you find an interesting list related to open innovation in technology and entrepreneurship? Share it with us. We'd love to include it.

Meet the top partners of Venture Capital funds by The Funded

Meet the top Startups to Watch in 2010 by Robert Scoble

Ironic summary of the online culture up to 2009 by Mike Cassidy (ok this isn't a list, but its a great read!)

Open Source in 2010, Nine Predictions by Bruce Byfield

Excellent list of resources for Startups by Om Malik

A decade of Mobile Trends by m-trends

Summary of a decade of Online Video by New Tee Vee

Gadgets for the Decade by Engadget

Top company predictions by New York Times

Eight angel investors to avoid by Martin Zwilling

François began the evening by speaking about his prior experience as a founder of Toprural, the leading portal for rural tourism in Europe, as well as a co-founder of Rentalia.com, the leading portal for holiday rentals in Spain, Portugal and Andorra.  From this experience, François offered the innovators in attendance advice for their own companies, varying from the serious (the importance of innovators to dedicate themselves full-time to their projects) to the more lighthearted (ultimately, venture capital comes when no capital is needed and when there is no risk).   François also spoke of the importance of digital-media-based businesses finding people with a commercial profile and expertise in monetizing websites.  To close the evening, François reminded the attendees that, on a more basic level, founders of companies should surround themselves with others that believe in their idea, because ultimately that's what will give the company passion and will lead investors and partners to have trust in that company.

For more highlights from the talk, please visit our twitter feed at www.twitter.com/opinno and search under the hashtag #ficod09meetup.  If you would like to read about the event in Spanish, you can also check out the blogpost by Eduardo Millán from Somflee.  Lastly, for pictures of the event, check out our Opinno Flickr album and the images below!

The World Premiere of the Ficod09 Competition Documentary

François Derbaix Speaks About his Experiences as an Innovator

Spanish Innovators Discuss François's Talk

As part of the event, we will have François Derbaix as a special guest to talk about Spanish entrepreneurship.  François is a native Belgian living in Madrid and specializes in international internet businesses.  His latest venture is serving as the Founder and CEO of Voota, a site where users can share their opinions about political parties and politicians in Spain.  He also was a founder of Toprural, the leading portal for rural tourism in Europe, and co-founder of Rentalia.com, the leading portal for holiday rental in Spain, Portugal and Andorra.  

If you are a Ficod09 Competition participant and would like to attend, please visit our EventBrite page for more information and to RSVP.  Note: This event is only for those teams that entered the Ficod09 Entrepreneurs' Competition. If you are not a participant but are still interested in attending events hosted by Opinno, please send us an email at info@opinno.com to sign up for our event mailing list.

Below I have included some pictures from last month´s competition.  For more images of Ficod09, visit our Flickr page!

The Ficod09 Competition Finalists and Final-Round Judges

Finalist Teams at the Investment Forum

A lot has been happening in the world of Opinno these past few months.  Between adding new members to the team and starting new global projects, things have been very exciting around the office. Drop by, meet us and we can tell you more.

Looking for a dynamic space to innovate? Join us at Opinno in SF. This is the first co-working space for entrepreneurs hosted by Opinno. Accelerate your startup with the Opinno Team, network beyond Silicon Valley through Opinno's global network and more. We are rolling out new services for local and global startups everyday. Join us early and help us shape the future of Opinno.

Opinno HQ in San Francisco is located at Pier 38, an area frequented by entrepreneurs and investors. Our neighbours include DogPatch Labs, Twillio, 99Designs, CoTweet, Social Media, Lab Zero and my personal favorite, True Ventures.  

For the first view of our new office, check out the pictures below:

View of the New SF Office

Area to relax inside the new office

In October, Entrepreneur Magazine published an article to give tips to upcoming entrepreneurs about how to get Venture Capitalist money in this current economic climate.  Following the data collected by a PricewaterhouseCoopers/National Venture Capital Association MoneyTree report, during the first half of 2009, a little more than 1,200 venture investment deals involving about $6.8 billion in contrast to the first half of 2009 where over 2,000 deals were made involving $15.2 billion.  Essentially fewer entrepreneurs are able to get their hands on seed money and when they do it’s usually less than it might have been the year before.  So a reporter met up with three VC investors, Alex Ferrara of Bessemer Venture Partners, Maneesh Sagar of CT Innovations and Jon Elton of Inovia Capital, to nail down what factors they consider important in a pitch to get excited enough to invest.

They were able to agree on 7 factors that are essential for any young company:

1.  An Experienced Team

Both Sagar and Elton agreed that experience makes a huge difference for VC investors.  Just because someone has a great idea does not mean that he or she will be a successful entrepreneur.  “You’ve got to find office space, do marketing—20 things you’ve never done.  You have to motivate everyone, sell, deliver, raise money and keep investors happy, all at the same time…Good judgment in business comes from experience,” says Sagar.  If you have the idea but no experience, consider recruiting an executive to gain traction with investors.

2.  A Problem-Solving Product or Service

Investors need to clearly understand how your idea is going to be attractive to consumers, whether you are saving people time, money, etc.  If you cannot turn your tech innovation into a meaningful product, investors may not see how they will benefit long-term.

3.  Assets

To limit their risk, VC companies are looking to invest in more than an idea.  Your company must have a tangible “product, patent, manufacturing process, piece of software or service with an established customer base.”  Basically they want something to demonstrate likelihood of success.

4.  Customers

Having a customer list with at least a couple of major clients demonstrates potential for further growth.  These customers serve as references and shows your company’s ability to create revenue cheaply without a major funding source.  Both are attractive qualities for investors.

5.  Metrics

Know your “hard numbers” for your business.  VCs are looking for concrete, numerical results for how your company will use their money for growth as well as how your product is actively assisting customers.  Having these figures is vital for a successful investment pitch.

6.  A Demo

During your pitch have a physical demonstration that engages investors.  PowerPoints can be boring so if you have something to show, bring it.  It’s always better when the investors can test out in front of them what you want to accomplish with your idea.

7.  A Plan

To create the confidence level that investors want, have a specific plan for what you are going to do with their money.  It may seem obvious but many times startup managers are unable to present VCs with a clear picture. 

What other tips do you think are important when trying to grab the attention of VCs?

Thanks to Warner Sallman for summarizing the article for this post.

There are a lot  of firsts happening this year at the annual Ficod conference, but one of the most important in our eyes is the Ficod 09 Premier Entrepreneur´s Competition.  The competition will culminate with a final round presentation in front of a team of U.S. and European venture capitalists on November 19th and is aimed to promote investment in new digital content-based businesses. 

For entrepreneurs all across the world, this competition will provide the opportunity to receive valuable feedback on new business ideas from industry experts and venture capitalists from the United States and Europe.  In addition, the finalists of the competition will get the opportunity to present their ideas at the Ficod 09 conference, network with investors, and receive cash prizes. 

 Important Dates:

• Friday, November 6th - Competition Deadline. All entries must be submitted by 11:59AM (GMT+01:00).
• Thursday, November 19th - FICOD Conference, Final Round of Competition and Investment Forum.

For more information about this exciting opportunity, please contact the Ficod team at competicionemprendedores@ficod.es. 

So the question now is: Why didn’t they do this before? In my opinion, it was a issue of simply choosing the right Business Model.*

 The business model for companies generally stems from the development of four key factors:  (1) A mission statement that is unique, specific, and easy to understand (Zara: fashion at an affordable price); (2) Profit Model; income, costs, profit margins (Zara: excellent logistics in a very broad sense); (3) The acquisition of key resources, including skilled workers, technology, a comprehensive information system and a network of retailers (Zara uses a large network of stores and coolhunters); (4) Focus on Key processes: Usually related to key resources and the interaction among them to provide the customer with a product/service and the business with the expected profitability (Zara: focus on time to market for the “hunted” items; all related to logistics management). Using this model in the mist of an economic crisis, Zara previously had no reason to develop an online market. In fact, some critics thought it might be a distraction from the real business. But despite of all this, why has Zara now decided to bring their sales online?

First, let´s consider when it is necessary to change the business model. Here are five potential triggers: (1) A clear opportunity to grab a share of potential clients that previously had not existed in the market (for example: future tourist vacations to the moon); (2) An opening to develop and market a product that already exists to a group of clients that formerly may not have been able to afford or gain access to the product (e.g., budget airlines); (3) An opportunity to take a technology that had previously only been available in one, specific market and develop it to be useful and marketable in another market (e.g., military technologies that could also be useful in a civilian context); (4) Competition from another company that has started marketing a similar product at a lower cost (e.g., Iberian Airlines set against the budget prices of RyanAir); (5) The industry has completely changed (e.g., the record industry).

In Zara’s case, we need to consider that the fall of widespread consumption caused the company to take into account all potential clients familiar with the brand but not necessarily in possession of internet access. Furthermore, Zara Home has had an online store since the end of 2007 and as a result they developed the technology and the experience necessary to expand the online capacity of their store. This experience solved the problem of developing profit model points, key resources and the key processes: Zara had acquired the knowledge and had taken the opportunity to test the business model on a smaller scale (Zara Home) in order to minimize potential risk on a larger scale (Zara’s full brand). As for the customer, Zara’s newfound increase in profits would not affect the price the customer needed to pay. In short, a very strategic move likely reflected a basic framework: a change in the business model of the company. Without a doubt, however, Zara will now need to achieve excellence with the implementation, as it is needless to say that this is a key part of the Indetex global business model. 

 * The elements used to define a business model and the methods of useful change in this article were based off of the article, “Reinventing your Business Model”, published in the Harvard Business Review. This article was designated one of the most influential articles of 2008 by the McKinsey Report.

 Thanks to Nacho Torre for writing this analysis for Opinno and Molly Spaeth for translating it from the original Spanish.