StartU

Google Buzz hackathon wrap-up

Bruno Pedro — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:50:33 +0000

Yesterday evening, a Google Buzz hackathon took place in downtown Lisbon, at the Internacional Design Hotel. The event, which is called a #buzzathon, attracted around 50 participants who were eager to learn more about Google Buzz and how to develop applications that can interact with it.

The Google Buzz logo

Adewale Oshineye opened the event by giving a talk about Google Buzz and its API as a way to let people get acquainted with the technology and be able to start developing immediately. Topics included Activity Streams, Pubsubhubbub, OAuth, PHP, Python and more.

Then the real fun began and the hackathon started: 5 projects were demoed and the winner took home a Nexus One. The Google Buzz API provides developers with a powerful set of API endpoints for searching, reading, and updating post content and metadata. Here are some of the demoed projects:

Python Buzz, by João Neves: a bot where you buzz python code and it gives you the output of the program;
mashmush, by Rui Lopes: a client-side music listening application that shows buzzes about the bands you’re listening to;
Tori’s Eye, by Luís Abreu: a visualization of buzzes about a given search query;
Buzz battle, by João Pedro Gonçalves: a way to compare references to query strings around a geographic location.

And the winner was mashmush which will be available online at http://mashmush.com. Congratulations to the winner and to the portuguese GTUG for an excellent organization!

Think Orange launches it’s first Mobile App (Mechanical Pomodoro)

leo — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:50:14 +0000

Think Orange, a Lisbon-based web design & development agency, just launched their first app for the iPhone/iPod Touch dubbed “The Amazing Mechanical Pomodoro“.

The app was developed using the Titanium Mobile framework, and the design is authored by Bauke Schildt. The initial prototype, built without any attention to design but rather focused on a first attempt with development with the framework, was put together in 3 days.

After that Bauke was brought in for the design, and 1 month of real tests on iPhones, performance tweaks and polishing, the App was approved and launched a week after submission on the App Store.

A version of the app for Android systems was only left out due to the lack of support of Google Checkout for Portuguese customers.

According to Pedro Sousa this was their first experiment with a mobile app and all it’s challenges, but they plan to launch more apps in the near future to understand how sustainable the mobile app market becomes for Think Orange.

More screenshots and information about the App and it’s birth can be found in this post at Pedro’s blog.

Promotional codes: For those of you readers using the US version of the App Store, we’ve got 5 promotional codes to get your free version of the App – just leave a comment below and we’ll send it to your e-mail.

Seedcapital: 3 startups in portfolio, more to come soon

leo — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 09:30:28 +0000

Mário Valente gave an interview to Económico.TV about Seedcapital, a portuguese VC mainly focused on web-related startups he started in 2009. For those of you that understand portuguese, it’s worth watching the whole video.

A quick wrap up of some practical information shared in the second half of the video: Seedcapital was born as a way to invest in portuguese IT and communications startups, providing not only early stage funding but also some of the experience and knowledge by Mário Valente (with some 15 years of entrepreneurial experience) and his advisors.

By early stage funding Seedcapital means investments close to ycombinator’s model of 5k + (5k * founders), in exchange of a share ranging from 25 to 35%. The objective is of course growing the company so that in a period from 1 to 3 years it’s value allows Seedcapital to get a significant return on their investment.

Seedcapital had a first fund of 250k and is currently growing it’s capital to 500k through the portuguese investment program QREN (National Strategic Reference Framework, a European Community policy for economic and social cohesion).

Their target is to invest in about 5 startups/year, and a way to get to the startups is a free workshop for startups they organize twice a year. The latest of this workshop took place last month and had some 6 participating startups.

The second half of 2009 was mainly about getting operations and the legal framework set up, but currently they already have a portfolio of 3 startups and are close to investing in 2 or 3 further startups.

Current investments are in Tarpipe (social media publishing), Sysactum (simple SaaS for veterinary clinics) and Quirkafleeg (development of classic games, currently working on the already licensed Deus Ex Machina).

Mário Valente gave an interview to Económico.TV about Seedcapital, a Portuguese microVC mainly focused on web-related startups he started in 2009. For those of you that understand Portuguese, it’s worth watching the whole video – stream available here, original mp4 here.

A quick wrap up of some practical information shared in the second half of the video: Seedcapital was born as a way to invest in Technology, Media and Telecommuncations startups, providing not only early stage funding but also some of the experience and knowledge by Mário Valente (with some 15 years of entrepreneurial experience) and his advisors.

Seedcapital had a first fund of 250k and is currently growing it’s capital to 750k (250K own capital + 500k credit line through the EU-backed investment program QREN).

Their target is to invest in about 5 startups/year, and a way to get to the startups is a free workshop (called Kickstart) for startups they organize twice a year. The latest of this workshop took place last month and had some 6 participating startups.

According to Mario, the next Kickstart will be held in early January 2011. But project proposals, especially if they’re already past the idea phase (i.e. there’s a prototype and some market interest), can be sent in at at anytime using the form on their website.

More info:

http://seedcapital.pt/
Mário Valente’s post about the interview
Post at TNW PT about Seedcapital (Dec ‘09)
Post at TNW PT about the first Kickstart workshop (Jan ‘10)
Interview with Mário Valente at Alt.Prt.Sc (thanks Vitor Domingos)

The Perfect Portuguese SaaS Application

Alex Solleiro — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 09:22:42 +0000

This post was originally posted here. How do you think this model applies to Portuguese SaaS applications?

The perfect Software as a Service (SaaS) application provides:

an efficient workflow (to DO)
a resource library (to LEARN)
an eco-system / community (to CONTRIBUTE)
a spiral of positive feedback (to GROW)

Efficient workflow (to DO)

Your app’s way of doing [insert your app’s main feature here (email, project management, contact making, to-do lists,…)] is the best out there for a large enough number of users.

Resource library (to LEARN)

Your app offers, through self-production, user contributions and/or partnerships, rich content in a variety of formats (blog posts, how-to articles, templates, best practices, video interviews, etc.) that enables your users to better understand and make the most out of your application and the workflow it implements.

Ecosystem and community (to CONTRIBUTE)

Your app has built-in integration with other applications and services (API, data import/export, streamed authentication, etc.) and community-oriented features (forums, wikis, etc.), as well as a set of tools and processes that allow people to connect to with each other and/or with other apps.

Spiral of positive feedback (to GROW)

Your app has an unique dynamic that drives the user to become better at doing whatever it is your app is supposed to help them do. This is the result your app’s hard and soft qualities, and their mix: the way your app leverages the tie between Doing, Learning and Contributing, the quality of its metrics and statistics system, its game dynamics, the way it facilitates, synthesizes and communicates progress (or lack of progress), etc.

Your Thoughts?

What do you think about this model? Is it useful to help you analyze your idea or application? Which apps could be used as examples of “perfect” SaaS applications? Do they fit this model?

Yoomit – Meetings Simplified and Organized

leo — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:04:56 +0000

After their first (LawRD – reports on demand for Law Firms) and second (Teepin – idea management system) SaaS offerings, muchBeta recently launched Yoomit – a web app that has the intention of simplifying and organizing one’s meetings.

According to MuchBeta’s CEO João Martins this offering is the smallest and most specialized of the three launched so far. Yoomit will be reviewed in the near future for polishing and understanding what usage user have been giving it (editor’s note: seems like a “early launch, quick iteration” approach to me).

One of the lessons and short-term strategy highlighted by João is that launching a SaaS without having content and knowledge supporting it makes it hard to gain traction (this is where their recent launching of a whitepaper about the efficiency of meetings comes in).

Medium term plans include building partnerships in and outside Portugal to support their user growth (European and Latin countries are a priority target).

MuchBeta is a ~8 man company based in Porto, Portugal. They focus on web design and development, received early stage funding and support part of their operational costs with consulting projects. Most of the consulting jobs come to life through the client’s interest after seeing much Beta’s SaaS portfolio.

AVIN on 20 million bottles

leo — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 11:05:42 +0000

AVIN (a unique 13 digit number, which acts like an ISBN for books, but is used for tracking wine) has been gaining impressive momentum and is currently printed on over 20 million bottles worldwide. See one of the codes in action here. Originally a side-effort from Adegga (social wine discovery) to keep track of all wines in their database, AVIN is now an independent project with it’s own Board of Advisors.

The list of producers includes more than 10 brands, including from countries like Spain, France and Greece. Some portuguese and english wine catalogs and websites also adopted the standard, and in Portugal a whole wine region (Região Tejo) was the first worldwide to adopt the AVIN code for their wines.

About AVIN:

An update on Adegga

leo — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 10:38:57 +0000

Adegga, a social wine discovery by André Ribeirinho (chosen Person of The Year in Portugal’s wine scene), André Cid and Emídio Santos, just launched a new Design to turn their site friendlier to the user and to accommodate a bunch of new features.

The design was crafted by Corefactor (Hugo Baeta was involved), who share their office space in Lisbon with Adegga.

New features according to André:

Wine Producers will be able to have Verified Accounts that allow them to post content, including video, on their producer page and their wines.
An iPhone App is on it’s way due to popular demand (there’s already a mobile version at http://m.adegga.com/).
An API is going to be released soon (Editor’s note: I guess the iPhone App will be built using it?).
Adegga Selection will be a 15-day stock-limited special sale of selected wines, starting next week. Portugal only for now.

About Adegga

20.000 verified wines from 40 countries.
4.000 wineries.
10.000 tasting notes.
75.000 visitors / month.
+2.000 wine regions.
+35.000 activities (comments, add to cellar, wishlist, tasted).

Second UX Lx edition in 2011

leo — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 23:15:17 +0000

2010’s User Experience Lisbon conference was a huge and unanimously recognized success, with 420 participants coming from 25 countries. Now, their organizers (Usability consultants Ideias e Imagens and APPU, Association of Portuguese Usability Professionals, both very well represented through a state-of-the art curator Bruno Figueiredo) just announced a second edition for 2011.

The dates are 11-13 of May and there’s already an event page on Facebook. The conference will generally follow the same concept as the 2010 edition. Speakers will be huge and announced only after summer 2010 according to this post, and here’s a tweet that suggest there won’t be a speaker two years in a row.

About UX Lx (from their description):

UX Lx is a 3 day event with all of the industry’s biggest names: Jared Spool, Peter Merholz, Luke Wroblewski, Dan Saffer, Donna Spencer, Bill Scott, Brian Fling, Dana Chisnell. It’s an unmissable event for all User Experience Designers and Managers, Web Producers, Information Architects, Usability Experts, Web Designers and Visual Designers.

Portuguese Startup Lists

leo — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 17:21:52 +0000

I stumbled upon this article at Hacker News with a great collaborative spreadsheet of portuguese startups. The spreadsheet is pretty complete, although it also contains some dead/zombie projects and some companies that probably won’t exactly fit the definition of startup (New business venture in its earliest stage of development).

Also relevant (and cited on the spreadsheet) are following sources:

Hub Porto – Novo Espaço de Coworking

darkua — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 17:55:51 +0000

Foi inaugurado no passado dia 24 de Julho o primeiro espaço de coworking da cidade do Porto. Tive a oportunidade de comparecer ao evento e de ficar encantado com a qualidade do espaço. Este segue o modelo implementado pelo Hub em Inglaterra, e está disponível a ser “habitado” a partir de Agosto por uma “pechincha”, 120€ mês sem limite de horas. Para saberem todos os detalhes vão ao site oficial em http://porto.the-hub.net/ ou contactem directamente a Mariana Almeida, que é a pessoa responsável pelo espaço através do twitter @hubporto.