Auch Startnext beschäftigt sich mit dem Thema Crowdfunding. Es ist das erste deutsche Portal dieser Art und fokussiert auf Projekte aus Kunst und Kultur. Mitgründer Tino Kressner erklärt im Interview, woher die Inspiration und Motivation für die Crwodfunding-Community kam, was die Ziele sind, welche Bedeutung er dem Thema für die Zukunft gibt und vor allem, wie es funktioniert.

Crowdfunding wird in Deutschland immmer beliebter. Mittlerweile gibt es zahlreiche Portale, die Menschen mit Ideen dabei unterstützen, diese mit Hilfe vieler anderer finanziert zu bekommen. Dabei setzen die Portale ganz unterschiedliche Schwerpunkte. So richtet sich die Crowdfunding-Community SEEDMATCH explizit an Unternehmensgründer, deren Ideen besonders gutes Wachstumspotenzial versprechen. Wie das Crowdfunding genau funktioniert und was dabei zu beachten ist, erklärt Gründer Jens-Uwe Sauer im Interview.

Barcoo is a mobile application which helps you to get more information on the products you buy. It got into the attention of mass media during the dioxin scandal in Germany. With the app you could simply scan the barcodes of the eggs and check if it was infected or not. Resulting for barcoo in more than 2 Million downloads so far, being one of the most successful apps from Germany. To learn more about Barcoo.com, just check the interview with co-founder Benjamin Thym.

Crowdfunding is taking over in Germany. First mover www.startnext.de offers crowdfunding for art and cultural projects. They have a 40% success rate, which means that 40% of the projects get funded. Co-founder Tino Kressner provides some insights on the process of starting startnext, which was actually inspired by sellaband.com rather then kickstarter.com. The plattform is so far bootstrapped and realized as an non-for-profit business. They have ambitious goals to be realized till the end of the year. Well, just check yourself what Tino has to say about crowdfunding in Germany.

The Brazilian mobile market is booming – mobile veteran Marcelo Castelo founded the digital agency fbiz.com.br 11 years ago believing in the power of the mobile.
There is almost one mobile by Brazilian inhabitant, meaning that there are more than 190 Million mobiles out there. But 82% is pre-paid meaning that the majority of people will not have entrance to use mobile services. Today the smart phone coverage is 10%, but as the Brazilians change their mobile every year there will be a big jump soon. Apps are not to stop neither in Brazil. But there are some special issues which are important to know about the market. Marcelo provides some interesting insights on how to succeed on the Brazilian mobile market.
We experienced the boom ourselves on the way to the interview. The taxi driver surprised us by picking out his iPhone to check google-maps for directions.

The Brazilian startup scene seems to be kicking of, one more hint for that fact is provided by Pedro Melzer from Warehouse Investimentos. Pedro is setting up kind of a startup incubator in a warehouse in Sao Paulo. Pedro himself is an active entrepreneur since he is 16 years old. He spend time abroad, studying at the kellogg school for management and working a few years at google. With Warehouse Investimentos he focusses on early stage investments ranging from 1 up to 10 Million US$ valuation, sector wise looking at technology, especially green tech and mobile. Pedro also provides some more insights on the Brazilian startup scene, mentioning the high mortality rate due to the bureaucracy and a lack of financing. Well, that is of cause something Warehouse Investimentos provides some solution for. Some numbers about the Brazilian market provided by Pedro Melzer: 250 US$ average spend on online shopping per head and year, 190 Million mobiles, covering 100% of the inhabitants.

Brazilian digital dinosaur Bob Wollheim from Sixpix Content is all passionate about entrepreneurship and the digital world. He provides more insights on the Brazilian market and the Brazilian startup scene. One of the most successful examples is BuscaPé, a price comparison site that was started by a young student and his friends in 1999 with nothing more than a few computers and just sold for US$ 342 million in 2009. Bob also introduces other promising startups like boobox, a social media advertising service.

A few weeks ago, I had the amazing chance to check out the Brazilian startup scene. I was quite impressed by the energy of Brazilian web entrepreneurs. Take as an example Rafael Russo. After spending quite a view years abroad in other countries, he decided to go back to Brazil to set up ; his own company: True Brazil Travel. Besides talking about this new venture, Rafael provides interesting insides on the Brazilian startup scene and the Brazilian market. If you ever plan a trip to Brazil, Rafael is definitely the right person to talk to!
The interview was shot at an amazing location, providing a stunning view over Sao Paulo: Hotel Unique.

We’ve been smashing around some ecommerce ideas and ended up with an idea which combines an easy to set up white label online shop with a marketplace model. So that marketplace allows any shop-owner to put their products on a general product-database, other shop-owners can embedd in their shop realizing a wider variety of products. For both parties it means higher reach and more revenue.
Idea by: Matthias Höfer, Martin Ebendorf and Viktoria Trosien.
Sorry, video is in German.

Christian Vanizette is not only one of the organizers of the Green Innovation Camp Paris, he also co-founded makesense.org. Makesense is an online community which aims to bring together social entrepreneurs with people who want to help out with knowledge and hands-on commitment.
Check it out and get active for change. Are you ready to take the challenge?
Christian himself is looking for experts who can give him adivces about how to activate a community. Get in touch with him, if you have ideas about how to get people involved.