"The future is already here — it's just not very evenly distributed" - William Gibson, Canadian-American science fiction writer It begins with a story. In 2001, the smartest strategic decision makers at Best Buy, one of the United States’ retail giants, decided to invest $685 million in the acquisition of the electronics chain Musicland. The next year, Best Buy wrote down a … [Read more...]
Sonar+D – A New Laboratory To Create The Future
Like SXSW and Burning Man before it, Sónar has added a new act to its annual throw-down in Barcelona. In it’s 20th year, Sónar becomes the next mega-festival to fuse innovation and technology to the beat of world-class musicians and DJs. Beginning today and running straight through the weekend, Sónar+D brings creativity, technology, mobility, innovation, and business to the … [Read more...]
Barcelona Design Festival 2013 Kicks Off Tonight
For the next 30 days, the latest in Barcelona innovation and design will be on display during the Barcelona Design Festival 2013. Co-organized by Barcelona Centre de Disseny (BCD) and Fostering Arts and Design in Catalonia (FAD), the 3rd annual Barcelona Design Festival “aims to situate Barcelona as a world capital of design and innovation internationally.” The month long … [Read more...]
5 Red Flags That Scare Away Venture Capital
While it may be best to bootstrap our startups, some ideas are just too big for our bank accounts and we need big money to scale them globally as fast as possible. In the cases when a giant bankroll is the only thing stopping us from world domination, we turn to VCs to fund our ventures. On the flipside, VCs are approached daily, perhaps hourly, with the next … [Read more...]
When You Work At Startup Gets Some Love
In true 'Eff It, It's Friday' fashion - we got nothing. Weddings and travel and work have team Barcinno coming up empty on this last day of May. So one more time for good measure we want to give a shout to our little side project that could: When You Work At A Startup. WYWAAS got some major love this week when VentureBeat blasted it out to the world and put the little guy … [Read more...]
Taking a different approach to financing: Revolving Funds
Money makes the world go round, and even the brightest ideas need investment. One way is finding a venture capitalist, business angels or incubator to generate seed fund for your enterprise in the make. Another less practiced option is taking part in a revolving fund. Well, it's time to pay extra attention to this last mechanism. In these times of fewer options for subsidy, … [Read more...]
Heard @ Growth Summit 2013: How To Build A Breakthrough Business
We know the answers, but are we asking ourselves the right questions? Verne Harish starts off yesterday's Growth Summit 2013 by posing three basic questions to assure your company keeps on growing and evolves into a breakthrough business: 1) What is the single story your entire company can focus on? 2) How will you get the crowd to help you to reach your goals? 3) Do you … [Read more...]
NYC Makes Airbnb Illegal, Is Spain Next?
Every time a new, disruptive concept gains enough momentum to threaten the longstanding incumbents in any given industry we see situations like what happened yesterday in New York. New York City officials have decided that NYC resident Nigel Warren should pay $2,400 for violating the city’s hotel laws for hosting a traveler 3 days in his apartment using Airbnb last fall. The … [Read more...]
What Is So Fun About Curating A TEDx Event?
The following is a guest post by our good friend, Aurelie Salvaire. Aurelie is the curator of TEDxBarcelonaWomen and TEDxBarcelonaChange. She is currently organizing unique events and experiences to connect changemakers with investors and is especially keen on showcasing solutions led by women or contributing to better gender equity. Some might wander (especially my own … [Read more...]
The Collaborative Economy Has Sparked The Sharing Revolution
Amid the exponential and chaotic growth of online business and mass consumption, is an ancient concept that is reemerging and gaining momentum to become the most powerful and disruptive idea in existence. The concept: Sharing. The working title: Collaborative Consumption. The time: NOW! Most of you are already participating and contributing to the collaborative consumption … [Read more...]