25 resources for start-ups
January 10, 2008
Great list of resources here from E-Consultancy all aimed at the entrepreneurs and start-ups amongst us. It’s mostly events, forums and groups but these are great places to get to meet your peers and potential investors and so well worth a look.
Top 10 Dot Coms to Watch
July 30, 2007
The Guardian has published an interesting list and insight into what they pitch as the top ten dot coms to watch. They’re all great companies who’ve been included and I’d find it hard to disagree with any of them being featured although there are some other start-ups that deserve to be featured too. So maybe a top ten is a bit short and a top twenty would have been better to include the other rising stars.
The list is as follows:
- Dopplr
Social networking for frequent travellers. - Extate
Intelligent search of property websites. - Garlik
Online identity management. - MindCandy
Alternate reality gaming. - Moo
Print on demand: cards, notes and stickers. - OnOneMap
Map-based property search. - Touch Local
Local directory services. - Trusted Places
User-created local information. - Zopa
Peer to peer lending. - Zubka
Recruitment 2.0.
Web 2.0 vulnerability found!
April 2, 2007
Fortify Software, the leading provider of security products that help companies identify, manage and remediate software vulnerabilities, today announced that its Security Research Group has documented the first major vulnerability associated specifically with Web 2.0 and AJAX-style software. Termed JavaScript Hijacking, the vulnerability allows an attacker to steal critical data by emulating unsuspecting users. To combat this issue, Fortify has released an in-depth security advisory that details this vulnerability, how enterprises can determine if they are vulnerable and how they can fix the issue. A copy of this advisory can be downloaded at http://www.fortifysoftware.com/advisory.jsp.
As part of Fortify’s work, the 12 most popular AJAX frameworks were analyzed, including frameworks from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! and the open source community. Fortify determined that among them, only Direct Web Remoting (DWR) 2.0 implements mechanisms for preventing JavaScript Hijacking. The rest of the frameworks do not explicitly provide any protection and do not mention any security concerns in their documentations. Even if an application does not use any of the frameworks listed above, it may be vulnerable if it contains AJAX components that use JavaScript as a data transfer format for sensitive data.
This could potentially affect apps such as Gmail so is concerning. I’ve always had my doubts about the security of data transferred in AJAX apps but not having the technical resource to look into it in detail have never investigated fully. My concerns have prevented us using a lot of AJAX features in our site and where we do it is all secure as no sensitive data is involved. Imagine the furore if this proves to be a major problem, just how many Web 2.0 start-ups could fold as they are forced to re-engineer their apps to secure themselves. I’m sure it won’t be that bad, but it is something that needs taking seriously!
Web 2.0 innovation getting more difficult?
April 2, 2007
Great post here from a VC’s blog! I’m totally onboard with his premise that the Web 2.0 goldrush is slowing and it’s becoming more difficult for start-ups to innovate and gain traction.
Worth a read for anyone interested in Web 2.0 and funding with a VC twist.
Web 2.0 Wonders
March 28, 2007
Courtesy of the BBC News website here’s some really good interviews with some of the rising stars of the Web 2.0 world. There will be more to add to this post as the week progresses:
Also, here’s a great article giving the lowdown on the Silicon Valley tech bubble.
2006 Web 2.0 VC investment soars
March 21, 2007
Unsurprising news that investment by VC’s in Web 2.0 start-ups has soared in 2006. We’re looking at a figure of double the investment received by start-ups in 2005. That’s a huge increase, but then there were some rather large deals last year…
Facebook ($25 million), Zillow ($25 million), PodShow ($15 million), Zimbra $14.5 million), Veoh Networks ($12.5 million), Six Apart ($12 million), Kayak.com ($11.5 million), Revver ($10 million), NetVibes ($14.4 million), Where Are You Now? ($9 million) , and Toodou ($8.5 million). That’s just a selection as well…
Actual numbers of deals were was 167 last year. It would be really interesting to know how many of those have joined the deadpool since…
More details from Prime NewsWire:
- The U.S. dominated the Web 2.0 market, with 126 deals and US$682.7 million invested, an 83% increase in deals from 2005 and a 136% increase in capital.
– On a sub-regional basis, the San Francisco Bay Area was the busiest region in the U.S. for Web 2.0 deals and was home to more than half of all financings last year. The New York metropolitan area, Southern California and New England also saw tremendous growth in deal flow and investment over 2006. - Europe has also shown significant interest with 20 deals in 2006, up from four deals in 2005. The amount invested in Europe, US$100.5 million, is more than a 200% increase from 2005.
– Within Europe, France posted the most activity with seven deals and US$39.3 million invested in 2006.
– Five Web 2.0 deals were completed in the United Kingdom last year, raising US$23.4 million in investment capital. - China posted 21 Web 2.0 deals. This was the same number that occurred in China in 2005 — indicating a flattening of that market. Investment declined by 26% to US$61.3 million.
- Israel had two venture-financed Web 2.0 deals in 2006 and US$22 million invested, a jump from one deal and only US$1 million invested the year before.
- The most active investors in Web 2.0 on a worldwide basis are Benchmark Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Sequoia Capital, and Omidyar Network.
Top 25 UK web 2.0 start ups
March 16, 2007
Here’s a great list of web 2.0 start ups from the UK, kindly provided by The Register. It’s a really good list containing a lot of the old favourites (OnOneMap, Last.fm, Crowdstorm, Zopa etc) but also there are some sites I’ve not seen before which you may find of interest (Garlik, MailSpaces, SelfCastTV etc).
Worth a read!
