TheStartup.eu

After an amazing conference last year, where I was called on stage with Gary Vaynerchuck and Kevin Rose thanks to a post that went on the twitter wall, I’m pleased to offer theStartup.eu an exclusive 15% discount code to Future Of Web Apps London 2010.

The speaker list is really impressive and includes amazing foudners suchs as Jason Calacanis (Mahalo), Nick Halstead (TweetMeme), SandyJen (Meebo), Andrew Mason (Groupon), Mike McDerment (Freshbooks), Andy McLoughlin (Huddle), Joe Stump (SimpleGeo) and Josh Williams (Gowalla). Take a look at the full speakers list.

The conference will be structured as a 2-days 2-tracks event plus one day of workshops (last year I attended Mike’s “The A-Z of building a successful web app” and it was amazing).

So, free up some space on your calendars for October 4-6 2010 and book your flights to London. You can register here, be sure to enter the code 15DISC to get your 15% discount.

On Tuesday night TechHub and Techcrunch hosted the Techcrunch Europe Summer Pitch battle.

The venue

TechHub was chosen as the setting for the battle – the recently launched space in central London offering office space and facilities to startups. It represented an optimal scenario for the event.

The contestants

In excess of 35 different startups entered the field to pitch their ideas to a panel of judges coming from Eden Ventures (Ben Tompkins and Katy Turner), Neu Haus Partners (Paul Jozefak) and Moonfruit.com (Wendy Tan White), alongside angel investor Eileen Burbidge. The startups were requested to go through three consecutive rounds: an initial screening based on a written one-line description of their idea, a one minute slide-less pitch and a three minutes aided pitch, before getting to the final podium. Even though the scene was dominated by anglo-american companies, several continental European (and beyond) startups were present to pitch their ideas.

The battle

Around 30 startups pitched their one-minute introduction to the judges and the spectators. The process was a bit hectic, with the twitter feed being overwhelmed by tweets trying to understand the spelling of the startup names.

Only nine startups made it to the slideshow round, where the judges decided for the following podium:

1) Calaboard: presented by Francesco Masia, it promises to enrich video-conferencing by allowing “in-the-air” drawing with your finger – your counterpart will actually see the drawing appear on the conference window.

2) Duedil: complements Linkedin profiles by allowing users to post complete reviews and feedbacks, allowing professionals to build reputation and clients to make better decisions over the professional figure to hire.

3) Geomium: bringing together social and location services, Geomium creates a recommendation engine for things to do in your neighborhood – friends can see what each of them is doing, propose what to do, chat and meet.

The remaining 6 final presenters were:

- ProspectVision: improve the conversion rate of visitors to your website, turning them into sales leads

- Me-Stars: online gaming network, where the user can actually put his face in the game, thanks to a face recognition and digitalization service

- Gourmetorigins: a service to get information about the regional origins of gourmet food, including the possibility to get in touch with the local producers and the local roots of food culture

- CrowdScanner: ever wondered who is attending the same event you are in? CrowdScanner is a mobile app that allows the user to “ask a question” to the crowd, favoring new encounters and easier networking, based on personal interests.

- MindQuilt: Mindquilt is “an enterprise knowledge management platform with intelligent question and answer matchmaking and gaming achievement dynamics”.

- Oneleep: “a shortcut to hard-to-access influentials: the decision-makers, employers, investors, buyers and experts – “Shakers””.

Special mention to the second Italian team pitching, for the first time on the European scene: Fubles.

You can also find the complete list of startups in this other great recap.

The bottom line

Social-geo-location-community are the buzz-words that are closest to the hearts of the entrepreneurs pitching at the event. Many of the startups tried to answer a social question by implementing a location- or community-based layer around (or on top of) their idea. It is notable, on the other hand, how the event winner Calaboard is not a project in the social or location space. Do the VCs see an excessive proliferation of location-based social services? Is the market getting tired of this sudden abundance? It is probably way to early to tell. Or is it?

TechCrunch Europe, aside from covering perfectly what happens in the always hotter EU startup space, is also fostering the community like very few people and organizations ever did. One of the best ways to do so is by throwing the best Startup conferences (and parties).

On April 20, next week, most of the people involved in startups and VC in Europe will be at Geek’n'Rolla, a conference Techcrunch Europe is hosting in London. 15 startups will be launching their product in front of 18 judges, and some of the most influential european entrepreneurs will give keynotes.

Here is the keynotes line-up:

Mike Butcher, TechCrunch Europe
“How to Dive Bomb The European Tech Scene In 5 minutes Flat”

Tommy Ahlers, founder of ZYB which was acquired by Vodafone for €31.5m
“Exit: The How, When And Why Of Exiting Your Startup”

Jason Trost, Smarkets
“Nobody told me: practical startup advice”

Pete Smith, Songkick
“Hiring And Recruiting In Startups”

Nigel Eccles, Fanduel.com
“Customer Development for startups”

Katy Turner and Andy Chung, Eden Ventures
“How not to pitch a VC”

Ewan MacLeod, editor of Mobile Industry Review
“The disruptive opportunities for startups in mobile, and getting traction fast”

Nick Bell, Quick.TV
“How to manage PR when you’re a startup”

Lukasz Gadowski & Kolja Hebenstreit, Team Europe
“How to extend you startup to Germany”

Cedric Giorgi, Goojet
“Launching your service into the French Market”

Alicia Navarro, Co Founder, Skimlinks
“The trials of the US funding trail for European startups”

Morten Lund, Skype investor & serial entrepreneur
“Rebels With A Cause”

Mike Butcher says: “Not until GeeknRolla appeared last year have we seen such a comprehensive attempt to create a new business culture in London. A culture of open sharing of information about how people really do create the kinds of companies that become the next Google, Twitter or Facebook. Our speakers are ingrained in Europe’s technology startup culture, and are as good as any on the planet. In addition, the fact we are launching 15 new companies onto a public stage in one go shows how innovative the UK and the wider European technology scene is. We whittled down the entries from over 150 to this final 15 and I think the innovation will speak for itself on the day.”

Disclaimer: I write for TechCrunch Europe covering the italian startup scene.

This is a guest post by Andrea La Mesa, founder and CEO of PubliSoftWeb, an italian startup focused on developing social media presence for brands with their white-label My.So product. As I could not attend the event, he kindly offered to share the experience on theStartup.

Last weekend more than 100 web developers, web entrepreneur and other web enthusiasts gathered in London at PayPal offices to work on their ideas and launch a web app in 48 hours.

The weekend started on friday night, after a day-long conference where mentors and experts covered various subjects such as legal 101 for startups, digital PR, marketing and social media. (All the slides are online).

Soonafter everyone had a chance to pitch his own idea, in front of the other attendees. 35 people showed up and only 6 made it to the final round of voting.

Each of us had a chance to pick the idea he liked the most, and join the team.

You can find a video of each idea on TechFluff.tv.

The following 48 hours have been very challenging and inspiring. Each group found his balance, some natural leaders emerged, and tasks were split among the team members. Each of us had a chance to prove his value, sometimes in a field other than his core skills.

I was amazed to see that all of the six startups already had a prototype working by sunday at 4pm, with interesting business plans and marketing strategies.

For those who might be thinking that 48 hours are not enough to launch a business, here’s my point of view.

1) The experience of working with a team of strangers is professionally enriching, entertaining and enlightning.

2) I was actually amazed to see how much work can be achieved in a team, in just 48hrs. I will never allow myself to spend days and days thinking about the best way to do something;, after having seen so many results in just a few hours.

Whether or not these 6 startups will keep on developing their ideas is not what matters the most.

It’s the journey, not the destination.

Shazam, a London-based startup that lets you discover music with mobile applications, just announced some major news.

The company provides an audio discovery application for iPhones, Android, BlackBerry and some Nokia phones. It’s one of the most stunning and useful pieces of software I have ever used and I must say I’m in love with the app. Have you ever wondered the title of the song playing on the radio or in a club? Well with Shazam there’s no need to ask the DJ or call your friend saying “Hey do you know that song that goes lalalala”, you just need to put the phone close to the speakers and Shazam will discover the track for you. I use it at least once per day in my car or in clubs, and it has always worked. Impressive.

Back to the news itself, Shazam announced it has now more than 50 million users which is an increase of 15 million users since February of this year.

The company, which previously raised over $18 million from firms like DN Capital, Acacia Capital and IDG Ventures Europe, is now welcoming aboard Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, backers of Google and Amazon, with an undisclosed amount of money.

“This milestone and the backing of KPCB is a testament to both the success and enormous potential of Shazam,” said Andrew Fisher, CEO of Shazam. “Not only are significantly more people around the world accessing the service every day, they are using it with increased frequency, discovering and acquiring new music and sharing their discoveries with friends all from their mobile phones.”

KPCB has one of the most impressive portfolios ever: AOL, Amazon.com, Citrix, Compaq Computer, Electronic Arts, Genentech, Genomic Health, Google, Intuit, Juniper Networks, Netscape, Lotus, Sun Microsystems, Symantec, VeriSign and Xilinx. The investment is being made from its iFund and will enable the company to continue to expand accessibility of the service around the world by continuing to develop applications for additional mobile platforms and in multiple languages.

“Shazam is profitable and experiencing sustained acceleration in its growth rate. We are delighted to be partnering with KPCB, who join our existing investors Acacia Capital and DN Capital and will help us execute against the significant market opportunity ahead.” concluded the CEO.

London is burning with tech events, it’s just amazing.

Tomorrow Carsonified is going to throw the Workshops Day of the Future of Web Applications conference.

The workshops are:

• Copywriting fundamentals for the web
• How to Build with Facebook Connect and add Social Context to Your Website
• Building Web Apps Using Atlas
• How to Build Accessible Web Apps
• Kick-ass Online Marketing Techniques
• How to Build a Web App from A-Z
• Setting up Your Web App – Powerful Alternatives to LAMP
• Site Building with Drupal

For more details, such as the schedule for the other days of the event, or if you still need to buy your tickets, visit the official website.