But Swedes are also very positive towards new ideas, which means that founders usually get a lot of encouragement, even by blogs and media. After 4 years in Sweden this is in my eyes one of the biggest characteristics of the Swedish mentality: Being positive towards the most, not sceptical. I think that this helps a lot, because new services can be sure that Swedish users will come, since they are pretty tech-savvy and interested in new web products.

Kimmo has an excellent point because business-wise the product has to be simple enough to be adapted and valuable enough for customers to pay for it. This is always a great challenge in da interwebz where everything is supposed to be free…

Would be great to try it out!

Those who are interested in joining this financing round, please contact directly Replicon Corporate FInance Ltd. by e-mail.

We will send you more information.

Replicon is the exclusive financial adviser of Oversol Oy / Lumi Group Oy.

Thanks,

Petteri Hirvonen, CEO

I think you got this one wrong. We are not reducing options from consumers, actually we are giving more. Consumers can still buy Spotify from Spotify. We just give more options with bundling our products with Spotify. Hence, technical development of Spotify (Ip-tv etc.) will also serve consumer.

Cheers

Petri / Development Manager, Teliasonera

I’m responsible of Spotify business at Sonera. This is simply a strategic partnership for Spotify and us. Spotify wants music to be everywhere you go and we can provide connections and gadgets to do so. Our cooperation in Sweden has been very successful and it’s just natural to spread cooperation to Finland.

Exclusive partnership enables us to do cooperation in more levels then just selling stuff, eg. Spotify will be part of our IP-TV – which something very special.

Petri Pekkarinen
Development Manager / Teliasonera

There was a great comment about Steve Jobs in todays Wired story about touchscreens:
“For a good touchscreen, you need someone who is a generalist who can ask more than whether the software is complete and whether the hardware is complete,” says Verplaetse. “Steve Jobs is an example of someone who probably asks, “Does this feel right?” when he’s looking at a new product.”

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/touchscreens-smartphones/#ixzz0hoBcPaYu

Bringing those things into practice may not be simple, but I as an entrepreneur I see that as one of my main missions.

Of course I have noticed that there is a lot of web start-ups in Sweden and that they go public with their ideas quite well. However, I’m also thinking the business value. Ideas can be innovative and cool, but I don’t call them great unless they really are worth it. And if they’re worth it, they will turn into successful business.

Personally I see nothing great in MyClubCards, although I understand the point of the idea.

The reason for this is that the main idea with a loyalty program isn’t so much loyalty as it is a marketing scheme.

All club card programs fight to be the card in the top of the pile. The one people see when you open your purse or wallet. This is BIG thing in loyalty programs, ask any clothing line CMO.

I’ve actually tried to do this ten years ago using a website and SMS/Bluetooth. Tried selling it to merchants but it generated very very little interest.