pariSoma innovation loft. coworking and tech events.

Check out the great blog post from Swissnex about our European Startup Demo Night:

Imagine running shoes that vibrate when you turn left, eliminating the need for a map. Think computer-mouse that scans and instantly lets you edit in Word and Photoshop. These are just a couple of the products presented when 13 budding companies took part in European Startup Demo Night on July 21st at pariSoma in San Francisco.

Co-organized by swissnex San Francisco, faber Novel, and blackbox, young entrepreneurs from all over Europe did their best to make an impression on (and possibly secure funding from) an audience of select VCs and fellow startups at this unique pitching event. And it worked. Networking during the breaks was so intense that moderators had a hard time getting the attendees back to their seats. “It’s great, we’re getting exposed to the next wave of thinking,” remarked Augie Rakow, an audience member who practices law for start-ups.

Two Swiss start-ups that participated in the CTI Start-up US Market Entry CAMP at swissnex, Dacuda (the scanning mouse) and Mirasense (who created a smartphone barcode scanning technology), presented at Demo Night and overwhelmingly rocked, if we do say so ourselves.

So lookout, Silicon Valley. Be it Spain-based innovalley’s smart clothes (have your t-shirt display your tweets!), searcheeze’s online search engine that lets you share results with your friends, Dacuda’s novel mouse, or Mirsense’s barcode scanning software—here they come, the European start-ups ready to disrupt!

Until recently the investment process in the high-tech industry has been ironically low-tech. Fundraising has largely based a face-to-face process of meetings and personal relationships, presenting a huge barrier to entry for some of the most promising companies. Eighteen months ago AngelList set out to change that by developing a curated social network connecting startups with different levels of investors

AngelList began as an email list to let wealthy angel investors know about hot startups, but in the past year has grown to encompass over 2,300 investors and 10,000 companies. Part of AngelList’s success comes from its exclusivity, the list is maintained through reviews of both investors and companies to make sure that it runs smoothly, and according to founder, Naval Ravikant; ‘Because the intros to angels are curated, the conversion rate for angels is much higher than in real life’ (via Forbes). The site has driven funding rounds down from months, to a matter of days or even hours.In fact there has been so much demand that the site has been accused of causing a frenzy in seed funding, the response was to lock down volume and focus on quality rather than quantity.

For all its success however, the site has yet to monetize and the founders do not seem to be in a rush to do so. There is certainly potential for AngelList to be acquired by a larger network such as LinkedIn, but there are no plans have been announced as of yet.

• 2300 investors.
• 10,000 companies.
• 400-600 fundraises (almost 2 per day)

Sources: Forbes.com - AngelList takes angel investing to warp speed, Gigaom – Bringing Sand Hill Road to cyberspace

Hello again from Paris, France where pariSoma paid a visit to La Cantine – the very first coworking space in France! I met with Nathanael Sorin-Richez who showed me around and so kindly let me ask question after question!

During my tour and visit, Nathanael explained to me that this is the original La Cantine and that there are now 5 of them throughout France. The spaces are very dedicated to building communities. Besides offering coworking/office space community building and facilitating is one of their biggest focuses. They host around 1,500 events per year and structure them around the communities they’re building.

A little bit more about La Cantine:

La Cantine is a technology focused “coworking” or collaborative workplace.

• Open to everyone, La Cantine offers actors and workers in the digital realm an environment conducive to innovation and collaboration. The space also provides a set of services (logistics, consulting, communication) to foster cooperation, accelerate innovation, and encourage the growth of an already booming sector.
• In 2010, La Cantine welcomed 757 coworkers and 16,000 visitors, and hosted over 400 events.

As a collaborative workplace, La Cantine is dedicated to creation, experimentation, and innovation.

• The unique nature of La Cantine’s mission is to offer those in the digital and tech sectors a place to meet and an environment conducive to collaboration and the development of innovative projects.

Some photos from my visit:

The exterior of the space, located in the heart of Paris.

The bar, and one very dedicated coworker!

My work station for the day! Note the comfy over-sized bean bags and the cool cactus planter box. Love the feel of La Cantine’s open space!

A bird’s eye view of the open space.

So thanks La Cantine, I had an awesome visit to your space & thoroughly enjoyed the bean bags! Your community building is inspiring and impressive. My one regret: I was not able to talk to more of the coworkers, my visit was too late in the evening! So, if I’m back in Paris I would love to stop by again and talk to more of the community.

And now, to wrap up pariSoma visiting Paris, one of those “by chance” stories. On my way out of La Cantine, while trying to decide between eating a full meal or just sampling some of the delicious and unbelievably tempting pastries Paris had to offer, I saw a familiar face. It was Christian from MakeSense, who had coworked at pariSoma! Christian and two of the other MakeSense team members set up shop in pariSoma for a week in July, they were working on their site which is dedicated to connecting social entrepreneurs.

So, here’s to coworking, where you can meet someone in San Francisco and see them again across the world in Paris!

And next up on my list of coworking spaces to visit: Coworking Lille.

Borders’ file for bankruptcy protection back in February was the perfect highlight to show how disruptive the digital market really is. The book retailer faced a number of problems including strategic mistakes and executive turnover however there’s no missing the company’s failure to meet the challenges of the e-book market. The filing came as little surprise as the company had been showing dwindling earnings and laying off employees for some time.

Borders’ deepest flaw was its failure to quickly adapt to digital media in a number of important ways. Firstly it was slow on the uptake of online retail, from 2001 to 2008 Borders relied on Amazon.com for its online retail services even though it was a direct competitor. By 2008 when it finally developed its own online marketplace, unlike Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, Borders didn’t develop its own e-reader, choosing instead to support the Kobo far too late in the game. Meanwhile the company was also slow in reducing the size of its CD and DVD sections, while other retailers were much faster to adapt to download markets.

Since rapidly expanding during the 90s, growing from a single used-book store to an international chain with over 650 outlets, Borders was once renowned for its excellent customer service and personable feel. However its core was so deeply entrenched in bricks-and-mortar book-selling that it simply could not produce an answer to consumers’ changing demands. Online retail boasts convenience for customers, but Borders’ model was based on interaction with expert sales staff, a feature which they could not successfully translate into an online experience.

Sources: WSJ – Borders forced to liquidate, NYT – Borders’ bankruptcy shakes the publishing industry

So, thank you pariSoma coworkers for your answers, and I hope to to hear more inspiring stories and learn about coworking from my travels!

For the first pin on the map: pariSoma goes back..to Paris!

Stay tuned for pictures & a post about pariSoma’s visit to: La Cantine.

And we celebrated in style!  It was also Bastille Day (a pure coincidence? I think not!) so we spruced the space up in fitting colors, ordered up the perfect cake and setup the photobooth to help us capture some of the fun. Check it out!

Fun and festive!

Bon anniversaire!

Thanks SusieCakes!