VentureBeat - Latest Comments in Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

Re: Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

Guest — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:09:51 -0000

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Re: Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

furniture stores — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:33:53 -0000

I believe they get exposure and if they use it wisely, like zemanta, a former seedcamp winner, the will do well.

Re: Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

Ben — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:10:07 -0000

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Re: Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

Andraz Tori — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:56:39 -0000

Hi,

being at Seedcamp for the whole week I can say that all startup teams there got one of the best advice that they could get from the industry, but now it is up to them to run with it and make great things.

UberVU could actually be pretty big since there is definitely the space for the "me" service, they just need to execute properly.
Ah, the soup.io. It might be strange to americans, but someone can easily do the tumblr thing for europe/central europe and be pretty successful with it. They already have non-negliable number of users.

Dan, you were a bit harsh, but seriously, almost everything is a "copycat with a twist" nowdays. And for companies that are a bit more locale-specific than the ones listed, regional VCs over here actually love copycats with proven business models and unsaturated markets.

Oh... and this just came to my mind: VentureBeat should get a writer from central europe! Things are really getting interesting here.

Re: Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

Dan Kaplan — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:19:47 -0000

Andy, I referred only to the winners I saw, not the whole group of finalists. Feel free to drop me a line if you want to talk about what you're up to.

Re: Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

jake — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:00:47 -0000

I'm reading this and thinking about what everybody is saying about new ideas vs. competition. Just thought this site might interest some of you as the subject matter is mildly similar. unleshingideas.org

Re: Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

Mircea Goia — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:06:15 -0000

UberVU will do just good, if not very good. I can't speak for other startups but knowing the guys from uberVU I know they will leave the mark on the Web 2.0 landscape.

Re: Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

Andy Swarbrick — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 06:38:02 -0000

Dan, as Mike indicated had you been at the event you might have got clued in to the fact that TickerTXT actually operates with Internet technology outside the Internet cloud. This I personally consider about as different as you can get. I challenge you to indicate any sense in which TickerTXT was a copycat of any other company at Seedcamp 2008, except that we were there.

Re: Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

Dan Kaplan — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 12:21:26 -0000

Indeed, I must work with what I have.

Re: Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

robwatts — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 04:12:22 -0000

I like UBERVu too, looks like it's definitely one of those disruptor apps that comes along every once in awhile and shakes up the space. This'll make a big difference to a lot of people.

Re: Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

Mike Butcher — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 03:57:11 -0000

This is a well-written post which works in parts but suffers from the usual blogger blind-spot of not actually being at the event you're writing about...

Re: Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

greg — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 01:38:46 -0000

All I can say is http://this.isfuckingaweso.me. Just like soup.io but not as cool and no one is using it. It's perfect for that certain hipster who doesn't want to be followed.

Re: Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

hannes a. schwetz — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 16:48:20 -0000

you might not agree with the ranking, bout there is no doubt, they are winners.
they went out, competed on a european wide level and they made it. the get exposure and if they use it wisely, like zemanta, a former seedcamp winner, the will do well. maybe there are hundreds of similar ideas out there, but only the entrepreneurs will make it, which will also sell their idea properly, and seedcamp is quite a good way to sell.

Re: Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

Dan Kaplan — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:50:17 -0000

It would be helpful if you could point out how they are innovative. For the record, I was not particularly impressed with nearly the majority of tc50.

Re: Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

Dan Kaplan — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:49:05 -0000

Noted. Their website is still listed as Babuki. Kyko is looking at multi-player social games. FIxed.

Re: Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

Dan Kaplan — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:47:52 -0000

Competition is essential for spurring innovation. I'm just not sure it makes sense to devote resources in areas where the payoff is questionable to begin with.

Re: Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

Zee — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 10:33:58 -0000

Dan, you don't know what you're talking about... Soup.io as worst? Man, Soup.io would beat nearly the majority of tc50 companies in innovation & attention to detail. Your rankings here are enough for me to completely abandon your posts entirely. What a joke.

Re: Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

Setok — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 05:51:43 -0000

Additionally Babuki, at least in that form, was not one of the winners. The name was Kyko with, I believe, a different concept. They're still in stealth mode, though.

Re: Seedcamp, ‘08: In a pack of copycats, two start-ups shine

Roko — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 03:00:24 -0000

Dan, are you not being too harsh? For every 5 startups covered on VBeat, you can bet 3 of them are me-too features. The same goes for every tech blog. It is normal.

As users, we cannot have one startup that offers a unique product. Competition is needed or else companies can get cocky and not care about users as much as they should.

Google was a me-too startup. Venture Beat was at one point a me-too blog, but here you are today with hundreds of thousands of loyal readers.