ScaleUp Targets Web Startups with Free Beta of Cloud Computing Solution with Multi-Tier Applications
July 21, 2009
Hamburg, Germany based ScaleUp Technologies announced a Beta launch of its Cloud Computing solution with Multi-Tier Applications. A spin-off of internet4YOU GmbH & Co. KG, which has been offering dedicated IT business platforms for over 10 years, ScaleUp has a unique insight into the problems of the traditional server hosting solutions:
- Operating dedicated servers is expensive and most of the time they only use 15% of their capacity - leading to wasted money & wasted energy usage
- Typical dedicated server environments have limited capacity, so peak-demand adjustments are hard to accommodate on short notice - leading to server overload at critical time
The ScaleUp On Demand Computing Solution is attacking the problems of these traditional sever environments while, at the same time, seems to offer some unique differences from other Cloud platforms I’ve seen. With many other Cloud solutions, users are offered prepackaged configurations. With ScaleUp, users can control precisely how many resources they want to have (CPU, RAM, Storage) - leading to better control over the server costs based on very unique server requirements for each client.
Multi-Tier Applications
Also, this week they are introducing Multi-Tier Applications. “This means that you will get a complete server infrastructure with multiple virtual machines. Let’s say you want to run a LAMP stack. We will then give you a firewall gateway, a web server and a database server, all built into one ScaleUp application. This enables you to scale your application way better than with a single virtual machine,” said Christoph Streit, Founder and Managing Director.
The current Beta - targeting US & European SaaS companies & web startups - will include the following applications on demand at this stage. Others are in the works for future release.
- ScaleUp LAMP infrastructure
- ScaleUp Typo3 CMS application
- ScaleUp TWiki application
- ScaleUp Wordpress Blog application
You can register your company for the Free Beta by visiting their site and clicking the “!” Application Form bubble: http://www.scaleup.it/
Check out a very cool video that does a great job of explaining the ScaleUp solution:
Jimdo.com Focuses on International Growth
July 1, 2009
Jimdo is based in Hamburg, Germany. Founded in early 2007 by three friends, Matthias Henze, Christian Springub, and Fridtjof Detzner, Jimdo provides an easy way for individuals, small businesses, and organizations to create their own websites. This isn’t the first business that these three have started together; In 2004, the three founded a company together on an old farmhouse, NorthClick, now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jimdo. The web technology that powers Jimdo was first developed for NorthClick’s business clients to edit and update their sites more easily, but frequent requests from friends gave the founders the idea to offer free Jimdo Pages.
Since then, Jimdo and its website creator have been supported by partners like the Samwer brothers’ European Founders Fund (alando, jamba) and United Internet (GMX, web.de, 1&1) who have invested in the web startup. In February 2009, the 500,000th Jimdo site went online; now close to 1 million sites
From the beginning, Jimdo has focused on making its service available to as many people as possible, far beyond the borders of its native Germany. Fueled by a global outlook and strategically positioning itself in many markets, the company is laying the foundation for continued international expansion. Since its launch in early 2007, Jimdo has been available in multiple languages. Over the next two years, it has continued to add more languages. Reflecting Germany’s location at the crossroads of Europe, Jimdo offers fully-functioning versions and customer support in six Indo-European languages: German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, and Russian. Additionally, Jimdo is also available in Chinese & Japanese.
Jimdo’s East Asian Expansion
How does a startup in northern Germany successfully launch so far away from its home base? Since July 2007, Jimdo has partnered with the agency Web2Asia to provide Chinese language translation, user support, and local community expertise. Jimdo made the news this year by entering the Japanese market in March of this year by collaborating with KDDI Web Communications, part of one of Japan’s largest telecommunications conglomerates. Not only is KDDI WebCom managing Jimdo presence in Japan, it is also adding Jimdo’s technology into its existing line of webhosting products.
Country Managers Offer International Perspectives
Making sure a service is being presented in a culturally consistent way in such different markets, ranging from Paris to Colombia to Silicon Valley takes across-the-board commitment. Each “language” has one dedicated manager, coordinating translation, user support, as well as marketing & PR. Through these culturally competent representatives, Jimdo is investing in long-term growth and continued relevancy — not just a one-off translation.
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Interview with Markus Witte of Babbel.com
June 2, 2009
The following is an email interview with Markus Witte, Co-Founder & a Managing Director of Babbel.com. It is part 2 of our focus on this fast growing startup out of Berlin. [Check out part 1 here] Babbel.com is a globally-focused Language Learning Platform, with over 300,000 users. I’m impressed with their innovative plan for using their API as a core strategy leading to increasing their pipeline of users & paying customers.
GSB: I’ve read how your team met when working at Native Instruments. But, can you provide a little deeper story on how & why the 4 of you came together to create Babbel?
Markus: That’s right, the four Babbel founders met at Native Instruments. We had all been working there for some time, though two of us had second jobs. Our Technical Director, Thomas, was an IT consultant at Accenture, and Toine, who is now responsible for R&D and for the server back-end, was also self-employed as a software developer. At Babbel, Lorenz and I are now the Managing Directors — or CEO’s as you might say in the US. Back then, my role at Native Instruments was online marketing and building up and maintaining the website while Lorenz was one of the founders of Native Instruments.
Lorenz was really the creative mind behind Babbel. As he was always working on new business ideas and generating online concepts for Native Instruments, we often sat down together to talk about new projects. Lorenz had this idea for an online collaboration platform for musicians that was really groundbreaking — and I totally jumped at it. When we realized however that this was something that wasn’t going to be possible at Native Instruments, we started thinking about breaking off and starting a more or less independent company. We contacted Thomas and Toine, who are two of the best software developers we know. By then they had already left Native Instruments. We were really excited about the team and began thinking about different business ideas. Online language learning simply seemed the best thing to do because it was a rapidly growing market and, at least in late 2006, the competition was very limited.
GSB: Is the unstable economic climate affecting consumers desire to pay for entertainment learning environments such as Babbel? Also, is it affecting your ability to secure more funding for future growth?
Markus: Of course the bad economy affects almost everybody. People tend to be more conservative in their spending, and it can be difficult to sell anything in this climate. But we also see the opposite effect in our market. Pressure in the labor market has increased, and continuing education, or let’s say, extra-curricular learning, has become more important than ever. As we offer a very affordable way to increase foreign language skills, we seem to have the right product at the right time.
The VC market on the other hand is not very favorable for start-ups, as values have decreased significantly. We do however see a lively interest from different international VC’s. At this point, securing more funding is not the problem, the real question is if the conditions are acceptable. Fortunately, we are well-funded for the time being and don’t have to rush towards the next round.
GSB: Can you talk a bit about your coming API & how it will help you increase market penetration?
Markus: From a technical point of view, Babbel is different than most other websites. It is a Rich Internet Application (RIA) which means that the technical structure is clearly divided between front-end and back-end layers. Both layers are already communicating over an API. Opening this interface enables application developers all over the world to use Babbel content in all kinds of environments and contexts. Of course this is a great advantage for our current users, as they can recap their lessons in the way they feel most comfortable. As these third party applications will spread into different networks and markets, we expect to find a lot of new users.
Our primary objective is to improve the learning experience for existing users and continue to provide innovative content for new users. We’re going to offer paid content on top of the free service, and we’re confident people will like it. When it comes down to it, we’re going to have to find a way to sustain our business through revenue we make, but we truly anticipate that we’ll also be able to continue supplying a quality service that is completely free.
GSB: Can you give some examples of the types of developers & applications you expect to utilize your API?
Markus: Babbel content could be very interesting for anybody who builds internet applications, be it on mobile platforms like iPhone or Android, as desktop applications under Windows or Mac OS, or as plugins for social networks like Facebook or Hi5. These applications can be distributed free of charge or sold by the developer. We’ll provide our content for free, and only charge the customers who want to buy our premium services.
GSB: Is there a “united startup community” in Berlin supporting each other? How easy is it to recruit new staff & Rails developers in this market?
Markus: Yes, there is a lively startup scene here in Berlin. Our location here in Kreuzberg is a little off the industry hotspot in Mitte, but we are in constant contact with many small and larger startups. Startup events like these help a lot to maintain and intensify contact among startups.
- “Echtzeit” http://www.deutsche-startups.de/echtzeit/
- the TechCrunch meetups e.g. http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/07/techcrunchcrunchgear-meetup-berlin-june-11
- the Berlin Web Week http://berlinwebweek.de/
Babbel.com - Language Learning Platform based in Berlin
May 18, 2009
I had the opportunity to spend some time with one of the founders of Babbel.com at a recent Next09 TechCrunch party. Babbel is a German startup based in Berlin - one of many innovative web applications launched here in the past few years. It is an Internet application for playful language learning. There are intuitive lessons and diverse opportunities to connect through the online community.
Babbel.com
In the coming days I’ll have an in-depth interview with Markus focusing more on the team behind the company, the business model and their approach to market expansion. For now, check out a bit more about the company through a Mashable.com article from 2008 following their funding announcement.
Also, you can watch Markus’ pitch at Next09 Startup Presentations... (NOTE: the Babbel pitch is the 3rd in this video - starting at 16:25)
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Next09 Conference in Hamburg
May 5, 2009
On May 5 & 6 the next conference is taking place at Kampnagel in Hamburg. Organised by SinnerSchrader, the next conference is one of the most important networking and trend conferences within the European web industry.
We’re expecting a hundred international speakers and more than 1500 participants, amongst them will be marketing decision makers of the media, technology and advertising sector, agencies, service providers and start-ups. It is the only conference that unites the Internet community with brands and leading companies. To learn about our success story, check out the websites of next06, next07 and next08.
Share Economy is this year’s theme of next09. This term is shaped by the economy theorist Martin Weitzman. His basic idea: The more we share our success with others, the more we profit ourselves. This applies to humans as well as brands. An outline of the topic and further information can be found in a brief summary of Share Economy.
This is a well developed conference with an interesting focus & theme. And, it is bringing in some well-known US startup people along with attendees and panelists from all over the world. I’m sitting across from Chris Heuer (founder of Social Media Club) and have run into Brian Solis, Stowe Boyd, tons of European startups, VC’s, agencies and major brands.
On Wednesday I’ll be live-blogging during the Rising Sun Startup Rally - 19 companies that will rock the web in 2009. Check out the finalists and stay tuned for more.
German Startups Taking the Stage
March 28, 2009
Image via Wikipedia
Several months ago I moved to Hamburg, Germany after spending many years in Austin, TX - a fantastic city and tech startup mecca. I am and have always been in/around the startup world - as a founder, partner, employee or contributor. Nothing amazingly famous, but a number of fun, profitable companies who made some great software. I’m now a consultant in a Startup Accelerator - headquarted in Austin and my outpost here in Hamburg. The point is that I dig the startup scene, have a pretty keen eye for great companies & business models that will likely bubble to the top - and I love talking to & working with people behind them.
As a newcomer to Hamburg, I’ve been digging into everything going on in the startup & social media world - here and in Germany overall - since, as I’ve said, this is where I make my living. Reading blogs, tracking on Twitter, going to meetups like Open Coffee Club, Social Media Club and meeting tons of people. So, when the opportunity arose to partner on GermanyStartups.com - I thought it would be an interesting way to dig deeper into the who’s, what’s and why’s of this startup economy.
As can be my way when I write, I’ve been agonizing over how to tell the bigger story. That story is this… that there are some really great tech startups here, with innovative business models, strong financial foundation, and an eye for growth during a challenging economy. But, rather than make that a single article, I’ve decided to dive deep into the foundation, the catalyst for growth and success that I’m finding here.
The upcoming topics will include:
- The economic & investment foundation of the tech startup scene in Germany. Bootstrapping means something a bit different here
- The ‘big wins’ in Germany - successful companies who have paved the way for a strong tech & VC/Angel investment scene
- Interviews with the founders & investors behind some of those companies
- Interviews with people behind the forward-thinking events here in Germany, such as the Next09, MicroBlogging Conference and DLD 09
Is there anything you want to see? Any people you want interviewed? Let me know what you’re interested in hearing about.
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To all the US internet startups thinking about going to Europe: Start off in Germany
March 27, 2009
If you are a US internet startup and are thinking about entering the European market you are likely to consider the UK as the starting point in the old world. Think twice: Germany might be the better choice. Why is that? Let´s have a look at the facts:
Market size (regarding population):
UK: 60 Mio vs. Germany/Austria/Schwitzerland (all German speaking, known as the DACH region): 98 Mio
Community
There´s is a very vivid internet professionals community in Germany, especially in Berlin, Hamburg and Munich. Whether you are looking for staff, cooperation partners or mavens who promote your business, they are all there.
Costs
The rent for office space in - let´s say - Berlin is a bargain compared to the high end prices in the London city area. As is the level of prices regarding living expenses in general. Even experienced staff costs you at lot less in Germany.
Currency
In almost every European country you can pay with the Euro. Not so in the UK. Consider this if your business is selling products.
Geolocation
If you want to set up a European headquarter, Germany is the place to be. It is centrally located in Europe so you have quick access to all other EU countries.
Difference
As a great part of the US startups who try to conquer Europe start off in the UK, it will provide your company an outstanding position if you don´t follow the crowd. Press coverage will be easier to gain, the attention of the internet community in Germany easier to catch.
Traps and Hurdles
Don´t assume to conquer Europe as a whole. Every country has it´s own regional distinctions. Whether you start from the UK or from Germany: You have to work yourself through the other countries one by one. Of course, this sounds not very encouraging at first. But be assured: If you do take on the challange, your competitors will have a hard time catching up to you.
So, see you in Germany soon.
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