Archive for December, 2010

Trueskin

Trueskin operates advanced skin clinics in convenient retail destinations, offering free ongoing skin consultations, advanced skin care treatments and products from leading cosmeceutical brands. The format is underpinned by ongoing free skin consultations, using latest state-of-the-art imaging technology, which enables clients to track the improvement in their skin condition over time. The concept can be offered through various retail formats including cosmetics floors in departments stores, high street clinic, in-line units in shopping centres and mall retail units. With a convenient retail focused format, Trueskin is well positioned to take advantage of the growth in non-invasive cosmetic treatments and cosmeceutical products within the overall Health & Beauty sector. With two clinics open by February 2011, the company is in the process of rolling out the format across the UK in the coming months and years.
Trueskin was co-founded with Dominic Perks, Louise Taylor and Huw Anthony.

Greenwire

Greenwire is an electronic recycling business trading from commercial premises in Copenhagen, London and Hong Kong. The company specialise in the recovery, refurbishment and recycling of consumer electronic devices. The company operates in 8 European countries and  and have millions of  registered customers. International partners include Vodafone, Tesco, TDC, TeliaSonera, WWF, HMV and MediaMarkt.

Greenwire was co-founded by Rainmaking and FiveVC.

Latest in Beauty

Latest in Beauty is an online business. The company has pioneered the membership based approach to online retail in the beauty sector. This sector is notoriously tricky. More than five times fewer customers buy beauty products online compared to other categories. The company solves this by giving members access to selected normal and luxury samples. This allows beauty enthusiasts to explore and eventually buy with confidence.  For brands it is a remarkably efficient and measurable way of gaining new customers online. The ROI is instant, demonstrable and it is all done with respect for the brand without resorting to discounting.

MarketingLion

MarketingLion is an international digital marketing boutique delivering all-inclusive results within search engine marketing (Google AdWords and SEO) for larger businesses. Through in-depth research and frequent communication, we get to learn the unique characteristics and challenges of our clients business and industry. We then develop an emergent SEO/SEM strategy aligned with the client business strategy in order to strengthen visibility, increase sales and contribute to the overall business success. Every action is backed up by data using web analytics to help measure, monitor and adjust the strategy. The people behind MarketingLion are best described as hardcore online geeks with passion for digital marketing.
MarketingLion is an official Adobe Omniture Partner with expertise in SiteCatalyst, SearchCenter and Test&Target.

Smartlaunch

Smartlaunch is the world’s leading manufacturer of gaming center and internet cafe management software with several thousand customers in more than 90 countries. Smartlaunch System is headquartered in Denmark with offices and employees in Sweden, Greece and the US.

Smartlaunch has developed a platform for digital distribution of advertising, games and services that uses this infrastructure of thousands of Internet cafes to target the large group of tourists and the rapidly growing gamer community.

Random (and not so random) acts of kindness

It just took me 24 hours to return from Madrid (where I was visiting our friends at Tetuan Valley).  It was a trip from hell – not the Madrid part, the snowed-in Frankfurt part!  But it’s strange how a few random act of kindness can help lift your spirits in the middle of a bad day.

First the Spanair stewardess spotted that I was sitting with my knees next to my ears (is it me or is the leg space getting squeezed with every new generation of low cost aircraft?).  She went and looked at the exit row and waved me to move.  Three hours later my legs and I thanked her profusely.  Then as we queued for 45 minutes to get through security, an elderly lady in front of me spotted a single mom with a child in a trolley so she lifted the rope and waved the pair ahead of us, easily saving them 20 minutes.  That woman’s look of surprise, relief and thankfulness was worth the wait.  Small, random act of kindness but they sure changed someone’s day.

It’s the holiday season so it’s appropriate to thank people whose not-so-random acts of kindness made Startupbootcamp possible.

First of all Carsten Kølbek, Morten Bjerregaard Nielsen, Morten Kristensen and Martin Bjergegaard, the four Rainmaking musketeers who shared the vision and took the first risk on Startupbootcamp (and on me).

Then of course our amazing mentors without whom there would be no program.  As David Cohen says, mentors are the secret sauce to startup accelerators.  There are too many individuals to name here but these brilliant people all volunteered their time and made a huge difference to ten startups, and to Startupbootcamp.

Next our interns, Sylvia Brune, Maribel Estrada, Mikkel Rosener and Anders Olsen.  They went way beyond what was expected of them and are the unsung heroes of Startupbootcamp.

There was a whole community of people who got involved by spreading the word, joining our Facebook page, following us on Twitter and joining our events – including the amazing group of volunteers who helped me pull off arguably the most successful Startup Weekend ever.

Finally of course the 150 entrepreneurs who applied for Startupbootcamp, and those 32 special people who were selected as part of the ten teams.  They all quit jobs, left family behind and took all sorts of risks in the hope that Startupbootcamp would deliver value.

On a more personal note, my wife Gro and kids Noah and Olivia sure took a heavy load as I ran around building Startupbootcamp.  I thank you and I love you three .

2010 was a landmark year I will not soon forget.  We took an idea and brought it to reality in record time and had a blast doing it.  Running Startupbootcamp is a dream come true and my wish to 2011 is that we can continue to build on this success story.

Thank you all and very best wishes for 2011!

-Alex Farcet

Startup Weekend

Rainmaking brought the very first Startup Weekend events in the Nordics in 2010 when we ran Copenhagen and facilitated Oslo, Stockholm, Lund, Vilnius and Kaunas events on the same weekend!  We are big fans of the Startup Weekend approach and are closely involved in the development of this non-profit organization in Europe.