blog.amazee.com

Please find my future blog posts under blog.amazee.com

entrepreneurial limmat valley!

dania, luci and myself spent a fantastic day at the second swiss blogcamp of this year; a relaxed yet structured information and networking event fort swiss bloggers and internet interpreneurs. many thanks to all the organizers (william, dominik, peter and remo)! it was great fun meeting so many good people and getting the chance to listen to all the interesting presentations. e.g. cédric hüsler‘s geoWeb preso, herbert’s preso on kooaba‘s object recognition technology, roman balzan’s preso on their project swissopolis, luzius meisser’s preso on Wuala’s file sharing technology, chris lüscher’s preso on facts 2.0, pascal müller’s preso on procedural and their cityengine (leading edge 3D content creation)! there definitely was a good load of entrepreneurial energy – no not in silicon but in limmat valley!

from zurich to lucerne

looks like our extended amazee team is complete for the moment and set for the next few steps of corporate development! the last missing piece was a talented studio that could support us with our communication concept and at the same time develop the platform design. i'm more than confident that we found exactly the right combination: mixer and netnode!

yesterday we met for our first session and mixer's remko left no questions out that were useful on the search for amazee's most inner characteristics - from "target age" to "the person our company would represent if it was a human being" - they were all discussed. after a very productive day of distillating our thoughts down to very fews words, i once more had to think of NZZ's advertising campaign stating "Die Arbeit an der Sprache ist Arbeit am Gedanken"; how right they are!

from belgrad to timisoara

high time ro report about our exciting trip to timisoara, romania, where we for the first time met the epoint team, daniel banica's squad of professionals we chose to do the programming with. the first contact was made via xing, and after some intense benchmarking with other drupal developers (in canada, singapore, st. petersburg... thanks prodosh!) we unanimously decided that epoint was the partner to go with: professional, sympathetic, reasonably priced and geographically and culturally close to Switzerland.

after a day and a night in beautiful and vibrant belgrad we had the luck that two local friends drove us over to timisoara; without a local guide we would have probably lost our way so badly that we would still be trying to get to timisoara today. almost no road signs and a lot of nasty junctions. luckily there were enough locals hanging out on the village squares, guiding us from village to village... and finally and thanks to our sportive driver we made it to our meeting with one hour delay only (already bad enough for swiss people).

back in belgrad we spent two more days and nights with our friends. it was a lovely experience getting to know all these warm and hospitable people and not less important: being able to participate in the yearly distillation of the local schnapps using the affectionately named "happy machines". it seemed to me that no fruits were spared... might be one of the secret propellants behind the recovery of the eastern european economies!

subjects-diary

setting up a business means doing so many things in parallel that you end up not really knowing what you've really done or achieved... for everybody who has the same problem: as most of business activities condensate in your mailboxes one way or the other i recommend you just read the "subjects" for a short recap: a week in my "subjects"-diary looks about like this:

amazee
epoint consulting & development: a new file has been uploaded
updated GUI
milestones for first semester - amazee rules!
amazee markeneintragung
unser gespraech am dienstag
amazee AG
job profile M&S
epoint consulting & development: re: hi lucas
migration
contract_V5
fette konkurrenz
termine
our youngsest exec summary
fwd: stellenbeschrieb
streber
how we should never ever promote amazee... ;-)
nachtrag zum Vertrag: xhtml
alles in butter!

so make sure you have a solid mail storage capacity to save enough "subjects" required to publish a decent subjects-autobiography one day.

cybersociety

how are the internet and the emerging internet media going to change society in the coming years? after some reading, a few hours of thinking and two or three stiff drinks my version looks about like this:

• less private sphere: the world will see a remarkable increase of transparency. all information that has been publicized once will be stored and remains accessible on some public server somewhere in this galaxy. people will get used to becoming more and more transparent, having to live with their publicized past and trade in their privacy for the convenience of publicity and their internet presence. all my thoughts publicized in this blog will remain stored in some database...
  
• efficient markets: the increase of transparency, informative liquidity and the reduction of asymmetric information distribution will lead to a more efficient and fair allocation of resources (only for people with internet connection). people looking for goods, services and people will have a much higher comparability (only for people who know where to search and having the money to pay for increasingly commercialized internet services). and therefore – with a higher probability - spend their time, money and efforts on what they really want. for example when they’re looking for the right partner on the internet...
  
• less human intermediaries: the increase of transparency and the user-friendly internet tools furthermore lead to a world of increased “self-control” with less (human) intermediaries and less transaction costs. for example when people book their flights with easy jet...
  
• more intercultural communication: people are increasingly communicating with people that live outside the cultural unit in which they’ve been socialized. the world’s geographic cultural differentiation will melt down in favour of global networks of people living the same values and interests. wherever they live, people will meet up virtual societies, and maybe one day decide to build up a real society somewhere in the world. for example a real cyberpunk community in the black forrest...
  
• social collaboration: more and more goods and services will be produced by peer groups on a not (directly) profit oriented base. well known examples are open source software such as Linux, Drupal, the online encyclopedia Wikipedia or the Human Genome Project. in this work mode, primarily enabled by the increasing digital interconnectivity, hundreds or thousands of dispersed volunteers can create fast, fluid and innovative projects. for example a new open source application or the realisation of a charitable project. non-commercial and internet based social collaboration will become the strongest reformer and transformer of global society.
  
• modular collaboration: people will choose the topics they want to get involved more selectively. instead of joining a “horizontal” organization such as a political party, people will more and more focus on “vertical" activities and specific goals that are in their very interest. these projects and initiatives will be presented and promoted on dedicated internet platforms that allow people to publically collaborate.
  
• virtual collaboration: society is shifting from closed and hierarchical workplaces with rigid employment relationships to increasingly self-organized, distributed and collaborative human networks. these global workforces will meet on an ad-hoc or an ongoing base and assemble the intellectual, financial and physical assets required to realize their common goals with their working unit (firm, political party, project group etc.). people will be free to work in the environment that enspires them most; in vibrant manhattan or laid-back surfers paradise jericoacoara...
  
• increasing pace of problem detection and problem solving: due to the efficient information flow, people will be able to resolve problems more efficiently and effectively. this will give them more time to relax. or look for further problems, for which the web again will provide more solutions. the pace of “social renovation” will therefore increase
  
• governments remain to protect rights and enforce duties: internet based, democratic and global “massive social collaboration” initiatives will more and more replace many national, governmental efforts. “netizens” will partially take over what used to be the duties of “citizens”. especially with regard to global problems. Cp. John Perry Barlow’s Cyberspace Independence Declaration (http://www.eff.org/): “...We will create a civilization of the Mind in Cyberspace. May it be more humane and fair than the world your governments have made before.” let’s see...
  
• dematerialization of society: society’s mindset will shift from deriving social recognition and status out of material possessions (except for the most trendy information accessing tools such as handhelds, PDAs et.) and reward those with fame who are fast and flexible in accessing whatever material and immaterial goods required to live a fast, fulfilled and fun life.
  
• fusion of real and virtual world: the dichotomous construction of real vs. virtual life will become more and more obsolete. the more realistic virtual experiences get, the more will real-life experiences take place in virtual spheres. the game in the game will become the game... cp.”Total Recall” or “The Matrix”...
  
• cybercrime: governments and critical infrastructures rely increasingly on network computing technologies and are thus ever more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. crime, terrorism, wars and other violent confrontations will more and more be transferred to the net, including the “infovasion” of other countries...

internet – big, fast and cheap

holiday – time to sit back and follow some basic thoughts. for example: what would happen if the internet was disabled for good, right now. or a more realistic one: how are the internet and the emerging internet media going to change society in the coming years?

at least the first world countries are experiencing a fast diffusion of the internet and internet based media and tools. while the internet started as a military sponsored non-commercial network for academics and scientists, it has become a highly dominant media in almost all areas of life: professionals start and end their day with and ever-repeating routine of scanning their mailbox, reading mails, answering mails, storing mails or engaging in instant messaging sessions. where there is enough bandwidth for reasonable rates, people meet up in internet based video conferences. games do not have to be bought in shops anymore but can be downloaded and played online in massive gamer communities. cooking recipes, jokes, science, medical and legal advice, almost everything can be found in the internet. all reputable magazines, papers, radios and TV stations provide a substantial amount of their content online. and if they don’t do, you can be sure that there is a gaggle of citizen journalists that will cover the latest news and views in their blogs. politicians promote themselves and engage with the people via internet. people check their accounts and do their payments via internet. one of my cousins met his wonderful wife over the internet... why is the internet winning?

• because it is the biggest, fastest and cheapest information transmitter and therewith builds the base for a global army of information and internet service providers dedicated to storing, sorting and efficiently bringing the right information to you. any information, contact or tool is at your fingertips.
• because it is built on a sustainable base. the internet is not owned by anybody; it is run by a system of self-regulating governance rather than a government. it is carried by a global base and liberal and democratic soul. it is an efficient and effective catalyst for a more transparent world and builds a base for global approaches to global problems.

video to warm up for Jeri...

amazee Ltd!!!

once again my days couldn't be happier! first reason: on 1 september i married the most wonderful woman on earth (except for yours of course), the days before, during and after the celebrations were just magic!! second reason: we founded our company "amazee Ltd." on 3 september. third reason: our friend lucas bally (http://www.luci.ch/) is going to join our amazee team by 1 december 07! fourth reason: we're leaving for our honeymoon in jericoacoara tomorrow!

Stag night!

amazing how time flies! my original intention was to write a weekly post... but there's just too much exciting stuff going on, preventing me from getting into a weekly blogging routine. today i've got the time. the reason is that we celebrated my stag night (polterabend) yesterday and therefore kept all dates out of the agenda... what a great party that was!!! i think i haven't laughed so much in years! and i once again realized how unmeasurably valuable it is to have a circle of close and fun friends! having recovered from this men-friends-only-night (and i promise no exception of surprise female strippers!) here my update of the last weeks' highlights: a fun oldtimer rally, lots of work, a big family reunion in the bernese oberland, a few days windsurfing in tarifa (spain; check the picture for my outdoor tarifa office), lots of work, a great wedding of a friend in galicia (spain), lots of work... and of course all the preparations for our wedding on 1 september (not even a week anymore!!).

so has all work born any fruits? yes it has! our business plan went through some solid tuning. the core workflows of our web user interface have been defined. the shareholder agreement and the legal documents for the founding of a swiss limited liability company (ag) are being assembled. the cooperation with an eastern european web development company is being established. and the most important thing: most people believe in the success of our business idea - including a swiss angel investor. looks like green lights for the coming months. or let's say an upgrade of our nutshell to a little catboat...

life's just perfect! except for the last remainings of my hangover...

Venture Cocktail

the next venture cocktail will be on thursday, 30 august, 2007, 19.00 at the aya bar in zurich west, hardstrasse 260, steinfelsplatz. for more information and registration please go to

https://www.xing.com/app/events?op=detail;id=136656

first month - and the wind's picking up!

it's exactly a month now (and i apologize... only 4 blog posts) since we're out "at sea". and i can feel how the wind is slowly but surely picking up! what have we done so far? quite a lot. the spectrum ranges from work on our prototype, analysis of the competitive landscape, improving our businessplan, drafting contracts, meetings with potential investors, partners, other swiss start-up entrepreneurs and companies such as smagoo, colayer, givawine, realxstream, iturn.tv, vergleiche.ch, swisscom innovations, bluewin.ch. connections that have mainly been enabled through organizations such as venturelab, technopark luzern or the easy-going local venture cocktail initiated and supported by elizabeth perry, trigami's remo uherek, red herring's farley duvall and my business partner prodosh banerjee.

so, definitely a fun, interesting life, but quite a challenge not to lose focus and end up using time like the content of a Streu mi, a swiss herbal mix used to season whatever's eatable... i'll be back soon.

digital desktop

i came to realize that the most basic question running a "virtual" office is how to optimize one's information flow. you probably receive most of your information through the internet. So it really pays to think about setting up a personalized interface to the web. e.g. to access your mailbox, your favorite newsfeeds, blogs, your favorite social networking provider, the local weather forecast, you name it. just think of yourself being a pilot who has to design his cockpit to get a comprehensive and realtime overview of all relevant information.

below find a few independent and free "startpage" providers (not part of google, microsoft or yahoo) you should check out

www.netvibes.com
www.pageflakes.com
www.protopage.com
www.webwag.com

entrepreneurial vs. corporate life

it’s one week now since i’m unemployed. it feels a bit like having left a harbour where i learnt quite a lot about life out at sea (and the harbour inns around bahnhofstrasse ;-). now our nutshell is taking us out. we know that we want to reach a mostly undiscovered continent and we’ll either succeed, sink or become robinson crusoes somewhere on a distant island. life feels like an adventure again and i like it!

let me tell you the 9 differences so far.

freedom: we’re free to do what we think is best, to steer our nutshell wherever we think is right. there are no reporting lines, directives or other limits to our thinking. everything goes.
skills: in our current team of three, every skill counts. there are no helpdesks and no company internal specialists anymore. is it in handling communication devices, calculating the latest revenue model or thinking about promoting our platform in a web 2.0 environment. whatever the task, every brain has to be in the game. creativity and flexibility are required more than ever.
attentiveness: opportunity costs have become an important component of our thinking. our senses are more alert than ever to catch the even smallest thing that could be of importance to succeed. we constantly look out not to miss any opportunities or threats.
working hours: my day starts later. no getting up at 6.30 to be in the office at 7. i take myself more time in the morning; to go for a run, read the newspaper and some internet publications. a day usually lasts longer and goes well up to midnight. a weekend hasn’t got the same meaning anymore. it just represents another two working days. somehow my mind is always grinding.
discussions: we have tons of inspiring and solution driven discussions with other entrepreneurs, potential partners, investors and of course within our team. we get to know people of all disciplines: graphic designers, economists, lawyers, cooks, doctors, IT specialists etc. most are dedicated to their vision, a product or a service they want to sell.
no office: there’s no office no more. all work i do takes place either at home, in a café, a hotel lobby, a train station or wherever there’s a place to sit, discuss and connect to the internet.
clothes: i wear whatever makes me feel most comfortable. mostly flip flops and my cargo pants . i of course look like a good old banker again when we meet up with business partners;-)
age: age plays no role. unlike corporate life, age plays no role no more. there’s no hidden hierarchy linked to certain age brackets. and less politics. the intelligent, sales-driven and fast get to play.

so where’s the downside??

no revenues yet! prix garantie and mbudget have therefore become quite present brands!!

dear friends, dear family, dear all!

this blog will keep you up to date on my journey through the next thrilling chapter of life. i’m quitting my job at a swiss bank for one of my so far biggest adventures: the attempt to create a new breed of internet platform with my colleague prodosh and my fiancé dania.

most of you asked me what it was that brought me to this decision to exchange corporate safe-play for an adventure with a lot of uncertainty and downward potential? my gut instincts! and the one’s who didn’t ask me, i know that they know that there always has to be a crazy and challenging mission for gregory to be happy :)

i’ll use this weblog to report about our experiences on the way to finding investors, the creation of our internet platform, our bad and our good decisions, the consequences of our actions… and all the other stuff you will want to know.

i'm looking forward to read your comments!

gregory