LeWeb and We’re Looking at Marissa Mayer and Dave McClure
The first day of LeWeb was a great opening of the best tech conference in the Europe, the second day was great as well. Marissa Mayer of Google and Phil Libin of Evernote were the highlights of the day. The second day was opened by a group of highly respected investors, so take a look at what was going on.
The Panel of the Investors
The opening event was a panel which consisted of Jeff Clavier, Harry Nelis, Dave McClure and Eric Archambeau. We had a chance to hear about the quantity of money in the investment market – we never had more money to invest than now! Startups are reaching their exit phase quicker – from six years the period has decreased to only two years to get to the IPO or an acquisition.
They also noted that it’s wrong to compare public prices of companies that are not much alike: Facebook, Zynga and LinkedIn don’t have too much in common. The investors also stated how current startup hot spots are Paris, London, Stockholm, New York and San Francisco.
Bill Gross
Bill Gross described his entrepreneurial life which started back when he was 12 and selling candies up until now when he is a software and social games producer. He keeps his eyes on markets which want and need fully customized products like a game his company developed. It was actually a game for kids, ages 4-6 in the US. Bill also gave some advice to current startups, like: Don’t overbuild or Survive until the market is ready.
Brian Chesky
Brian Chesky of Airbnb talked about how his service works. We also had a chance to listen about his personal experience with building the company. Brian explained how during the first year of his business he lived in different apartments in San Francisco, which he rented via Airbnb. Eat your own dog food, right?
Phil Libin
Phil Libin is the founder of Evernote, a well known note organizer. During the last year’s LeWeb, Evernote had 5 million users. Today, only a year after, they have over 20 million users, where 7 million of them are paying customers. They’re still pushing their free version which is their core product, and as Libin stated, Evernote still doesn’t have a sales person in their team. The fun fact that Loic, organizer of LeWeb mentioned, is that LeWeb itself is highly organized thanks to Evernote.
Carmine Callo
Carmine Callo is an author who spoke of inspiration and presentation of entrepreneurs. He introduced us to his seven principles of successful innovation: do what you love, have a clear vision of what you want to get, keep it simple, be accessible, send a clear message to your public, use visuals in your presentations and finally, sell a dream, not a product.
Marissa Mayer
Marissa Mayer of Google told us that Google Latitude currently has more than 10 million users and that she is currently focused on Google Maps and Latitude development. Google Maps are the most used tool on mobile devices, especially during the weekends, Marissa mentioned as well. She talked about Google+ which has gotten 40 million users in just three months after its launch.
Marco Tempest
Marco Tempest is a magician 2.0 – he’s a scientist who demonstrated the canvases that can bring life to drawn characters. The technology behind it is consisted in several sensors which track your drawings and projects the image onto the canvas.
Joseph Tame
Joseph is a media producer and someone who ran the Tokio marathon equipped with all kinds of gadgets that recorded his every move and everything he spoke. While running, he simultaneously published his recordings on YouTube and Ustream. Joseph also talked about how Foursquare was useful in Japan during the March catastrophe.
Ariel Garten
Ariel Garten, the CEO of Interaxon, demonstrated the advancements in her research. Her company built Neuro, a game for tablet computers in which you can control objects with your mind. She used her own neuro waves to move objects in the game; with a blink of an eye she moved the items and by focusing her eyes she broke some balls.
