March 2012
20 posts
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END OF HIRING FROM EASTERN EUROPE?
(UPDATED)
Just had an interesting conversation with an Eastern programmer we were interested in hiring. His demands were plain ridiculous. It made me think, that perhaps the time of hiring in from Eastern Europe is soon over?
In this case, his salary expectation was €7000 ($9000) plus flights plus moving expenses (moving expenses, seriously?). He thought that was fair since, according to him,...
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TWEETING CEOS ARE TRUSTED MORE
According to a new survey by BRANDfog, CEOs who communicate freely using social media are held in higher regard – not just by employees, but by customers too.
The idea being that the Boss Who Tweets leads to an organization where internal communications is more dynamic and transparent. The findings were picked up by eMarketer, who made this:
In terms of importance, 86% of respondents rated CEO...
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KEEP SALES EMAILS SHORT AND SWEET
I get a lot of emails from people wanting to help us drive traffic, downloads, advertising, i.e sell their services to Everplaces.
Most I just skim, and half the time they use such vague marketing-speak I don’t understand what they are selling. Goes without saying, I never buy any of that.
But yesterday I got this one. Had ten times more effect than all the others one. Short and sweet:
...
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CONVERTING HITS TO USERS
Good conversion rates are the holy grail of web startups. Today I signed up for Faavorites. I really like their copy of the signup button. It stresses the urgency and therefore makes you want to sign up.
“Hey, we only have a limited amount of spaces left; hurry on through before anyone beats you!”.
Psychologically it hits you because it implies Scarcity. One of Robert...
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GOOD DESIGN MATTERS
In Everplaces we’re not afraid to admit we’re a little crazy about design. We think it’s hyper important.
Therefore we’re stoked to be listed on D-Lists’ Inspirational Web Design list. Here we are together with some of the other sites on the list:
Whole list can be seen here
Tine, CEO
Posters can be art
Lo-Fi Film Posters
This brightened my day. Here’s to you.
Credits to Aziza Asat
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THE MYTH OF OVERNIGHT SUCCESS
We talk way to little about the bumps along the way to fame and fortune.
The truth is that being an entrepreneur is mostly about being knocked back, and only occasionally about winning. This makes it a tough, and sometimes lonely, journey. But it needn’t be lonely.
I wish people would share the tough stories more. Some of the stories that have been the most inspirational to me personally...
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STOP FOCUSING ON SAVING MONEY WHEN TRYING TO...
Here’s some pointers on what’s wrong with the way government tries to create growth.
It’s from an interesting podcast by @trendsonlinedk with @kaspertidemann founder of danish startup @meeho that’s based in the US.
To listen, go to around 14.00 on http://t.co/SIdyBlI Its in Danish. Quotes more precise in meaning than words, admittedly, as I’ve translated them.
...
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THE AGE OF CURATION - WHAT'S DRIVING THE PINTEREST...
My company Everplaces was recently dubbed by Fast Company as “Pinterest for the real world”, because it’s made to save and share physical locations you really like, such as restaurants, shops and beautiful locations.
It is no secret that I consider curation to be a considerable opportunity. This excellent report by Engauge sheds some light onto why Pinterest works so well:
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How to hire great coders, says founder of Codility
Greg Jakachi, founder of Codility, is a bit of an expert in hiring programmers. He just did a talk at HackFwd’s Build9 event which I attended.
Here’ his rules for hiring truly great ones…
1) Smart AND gets things done
2) People you done work/project/hacking/school with. Trust plus you know how they work. Start building relationsships before you need them
3) Hiring is...
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10 most important SEO steps
We all need the google juice. Today I am at HackFwd where the Sebastian Deutsch, founder of Watchlater just did an excellent talk on SEO.
Cheat sheet from the talk. 10 essential SEO steps:
1) most relevant content at Titel, H1 and H2 2) avoid dublicate content 3) Use link masking to include links google shouldn’t follow. 4) Make sure you have site map 5) Careful with canonical meta tags...
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Please stop peeing our pants to keep warm. Plea to...
Just did a radio show with Minister for Growth and Commerce in Denmark, Ole Sohn, and two fellow entrepreneurs, Martin Bjerregaard, Rainmaking and Tommy Ahlers, Podio. It was part of De Seks Hatte on 24/7, radio show I am part of.
It has left some pretty big questions in my mind…
To start, here is the Governments plan
1) Map Denmarks positions of strength 2) Develop innovation strategy...
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Hail the bureaucracy. Step up EU.
The EU has discovered social media. Or, fast moving as always, they’ve heard about it. So they are conducting an investigation “into its benefits in order to catalyse the take-up of social networking by European organisations.
I just got invited to come down as a part of a massive panel explaining them how social media works (could I suggest reading on the internet as a slightly...
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Layers of the web
The bar has been raised for building products people will love. Today we need to consider three layers of the web, all of which needs to be addressed in a great product. Imaging a pyramid consisting of:
Emotional Utility Content
Bottom layer: Content: The first challenge is simply to get relevant interesting content. This used to be an end goal in itself but the bar has been moved.
Middle...
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Best marketing campaigns: Chocolate covered...
Yes, I know I have mentioned Grasshoppers before but they truly deserve it. This was the campaign that made them instantly famous, as described by Mashable. In short, they collected a list of the most influential 5000 people in their segment in the US, and send them bag of chocolate covered grasshoppers and a link to a video.
The Campaign: Dead Grasshoppers
The campaign took over two months to...
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How to pitch journalists
I keep coming back to this list of what is interesting as a story for journalists by Mike Butcher of TechCrunch.
Its easy to fall into the trap of thinking the rest of the world find your startup as interesting as you do. They don’t. So I use mike’s list to reality-check communication.
This can be news-worthy:
*Drama
*Gossip
*Insight (trend, zeitgeist)
*Evolution (we’re the...
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