Quick update
Hi listeners. I hope you all had a great Easter break. Andrew is still away in Borneo taking a well deserved break and I’m about to publish 2 more episodes that we recorded before he left. The first is with the inimitable, Raf Weverbergh of Whiteboard Magazine, the other with the “about to crack America”, Vincent Theeten of Cheqroom.
But before that, a few of announcements.
First of all, congratulations to Yambla for winning the Microsoft BoostBamp. We interviewed them in our last episode, so if you don’t know what they do, check it out and find out what winners sound like.
Secondly, there will be a half day workshop on April 17th at the ICAB on Rapid Paper Prototyping. Early bird ticket have sold out, but there are a few tickets left and you can get 10€ off with the code TECHBREW. If you’re building any kind of digital product, come along, it’ll save you a lot of time and money in the long run. Full workshop details here. Tickets here.
And finally, there are two new local Startup Weekends on the near horizon. You’ll have to make a choice though as they are both on the same weekend of May 24-26. You’ll find full details on their respective web sites:
Brussels http://bit.ly/raSeTE
Luxembourg http://bit.ly/R72Yj1
Meet Gianugo Rabellino, Senior Director of Open Source Communities at Microsoft and member of the Apache Foundation
Open Source and Microsoft aren’t two phrases you’d naturally place in the same category, unless you’d been watching Microsoft closely over the past few years. But this Wednesday March 13th. 15.00 – 17.00, you’ll have the opportunity meet a key figure in the Open Source community who works at Microsoft.
Gianugo Rabellino, Senior Director of Open Source Communities at Microsoft will give a talk entitled,
OPENING UP OPPORTUNITIES FOR STARTUPS AND SMALL BUSINESSES
He has been an active member of the Apache Software Foundation since 1999, has a deep understanding of Open Source technologies and platforms and more than 20 years’ experience in the Open Source community including creating the first official Linux association in Italy.
He’ll talk about successfully running a startup or small business, give tips on making technology decision, creating interoperable systems, using the cloud and making money.
The presentation will be followed by a session of Q&A and a cocktail. Come ready with your questions.
Venue: ICAB – Madera Room 4, rue des Pères Blancs, 1040 Brussels http://goo.gl/maps/Z97HQ
To register, please send an email to Raymonde Gyssels at rgy@abe.irisnet.be
The event is organised by The Software in Brussels cluster, in partnership with the Microsoft Innovation Center Brussels.
Techbrew Interview with Yambla.com
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Traditional organisations are managed from the top-down: management defines the vision, the strategy to attain the vision, and (hopefully) aligns the company to deliver on the strategy. But even great leaders can’t know everything: there is tremendous knowledge and experience to be found throughout the company. The trick is how to tap into this resource. One way is via Yambla.com.
Started 6 months ago by Yoeri Roels and Jordan Vermeir, Yambla is their answer to promoting ideas through organisations. As employees at their previous company, they were frustrated with the challenges they encountered trying to get their ideas heard. Promoting an idea from the bottom-up is filled with challenges: first you have to convince your boss it is a good idea. Then your boss has to also be convinced he won’t lose credibility if he takes it further. Repeat until the idea gets to the CEO, if it survives. It’s like struggling up a steep hill, in the snow, with ninjas attacking you along the way!
Organisational entrepreneurship, or intrapreneurship, appears to be a growing trend: have you noticed any job advertisements requesting people who are entrepreneurial? A quick search of ‘entrepreneurship’ on Monster.com brings up 1000+ results. However, making entrepreneurship work in a large company is not trivial.
There are two factors without which [intrapreneurship] can’t get off the ground:
- Encouragement and support from senior management
- Reassurance that even if the ideas fail the intrapreneur will not lose his or her job or be “punished” in other ways
(Ernst & Young. Igniting Innovation: How hot companies fuel growth from within. Nov 3, 2010)
Which brings us back to Yambla.com. The idea behind Yambla is to make the process of generating ideas in a company a social and collaborative experience. Before you pitch your idea to your boss, you use Yambla to gain support from your peers.
First you post your idea, somewhat like a Facebook status message. Your post is then shared with one or more Super Awesome Ovals (circles) of peers, each of whom could be from your department or from a cross-functional group. Each person is able to comment and like the post, demonstrating their support for the post and helping to refine it. Once the idea has enough support, it is automatically promoted to the next level in the organization, your manager. But in this case, you have the support of your peers.
Of course there is much more to Yambla.com, but it looks like a powerful tool for organisations who are seeking new ideas or want to engender a culture of innovation. However, it will only work if the company – and management team – embrace the process and actually take the ideas seriously.
Listen to the podcast to learn more about Yambla, how they started, their steep learning curve, and who they admire. We paired this interview with a Chimay Cent Cinquante, a smooth beer brewed last year for Chimay’s 150th anniversary. If you can’t find it, try a Chimay Rouge instead.
Enjoy the interview and don’t forget to check out our calendar for upcoming events in Belgium.
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Tech Brew Interview with BetterStreet.org
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Welcome to 2013 and our first podcast of the year! Last year was full of passionate people pursuing their ideas and this year promises no less! We kick off the year interviewing the winner of Startup Weekend Liège, Jean-Marc Poncelet, about his company, BetterStreet.org.
Last year Belgium hosted two Startup Weekends, one in Mons and the other in Liège. We were able to join the teams in Mons for a day and posted some videos, but we were not able to make it to Liège. So we asked Jean-Marc to come to us instead.
When Jean-Marc set out for the Startup Weekend he had no real expectations for the event, just that he wanted to try something different. During the pitch night, he found two others who wanted to improve the appearance of their local neighborhoods, an idea which resonated with Jean-Marc. Months earlier, Jean-Marc started photographing problems in his neighborhood and uploading them to Twitter and Facebook. … Continue Reading
Announcing the Brussels WordPress Meetup
Because I don’t already have enough on my plate …. I’ve created a Meetup group for people from all walks of life who use WordPress.
So if you’re a writer, a techie, a designer or a business owner who relies on WordPress, come and join us on the 19th of February for the inaugural meeting.
We’ll be organising “Show and Tell” style presentations, ”Ask an Expert” sessions and running a job board for any kind of WordPress related activities.
The first meeting will be a chance to get to know each other socially, assess skills and needs and plan out how we go from there. What is sure is that we’ll meet on the 3rd Tuesday of every month.
Back to Tech Brew though, our next startup interview will be published on February 4.
Brew Work City
Regular listeners to the podcast know that we’re made up of three key ingredients. Startups, beer and a dash coworking.
We discover most of the embryonic startups we interview through places like the BetaGroup coworking space and the events they host.
Well things aren’t so different over here in New York where I’ve been spending the past few months. And the good news is that American beer has come on leaps and bounds and it’s no longer difficult to find a decent beer. But imagine my great delight when they installed this gizmo at New Work City, one of the coworking spaces I’ve been frequenting during my stay.
It’s called a keginator and you hook it up to kegs of your favourite beer. That’s right, they now have draught beer on tap right here in the kitchen at NWC. It’s a pretty cool set up with two beer taps and a dedicated seltzer tap to keep you sensible and productive during the working hours.
So if you’re one of the increasing number of Belgian startups heading West looking to forge links with companies and investors over in the USA I can highly recommend NWC as a port of call whether it’s for a spot of coworking or to attend one of the many events they host.
And if you do visit, make sure you say hi to these friendly guys, Tony Bacigalupo and Peter Chislett who keep the wheels turning. Who knows, they might even offer you a beer. Cheers.
Dear BetaGroup, We Love You Just the Way You Are
Ay ay ay ay ay. So Jean Derely is stepping down from BetaGroup.
Ramón Suárez, the new “face” of the BetaGroup wrote a very fitting tribute to the well loved Jean, Thank You Jean
But while it was maybe a shock for some people to hear that Jean was leaving, the people now running the BetaGroup have always been deeply involved in it’s organisation anyway so it’s not that big a switch.
I think the BetaGroup format is great. It’s a social gathering of the Belgian startup tribes. I’d hate to see the format change too much, but I do think there is scope for some improvement. And now, in light of the change of guard and the new year approaching is probably best the time to reflect upon some tweaks. Here are my thoughts. Chime in on the comments if you have your own. … Continue Reading
Give a Belgian Startup a Christmas Present
The Europas Tech awards are taking place in Berlin this coming January and there are a number of Belgian startups listed under the peoples’ choice category that I’m sure would be very grateful for your support and more importantly votes.
Here’s the list in alphabetical order. … Continue Reading
Tech Brew Interview with Kukoo
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It’s our season finale!Time to celebrate the end of the year with Tijs Vrolix, Kukoo Mail, and FREE Beer!
Tijs has been working on ideas to improve his productivity for years. His latest project, Kukoo Mail, aims to improve your productivity by removing one of the distractions in your day: checking email. … Continue Reading
Tech Brew Interview with Soonfeed
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Virtual events is a growing industry which is forecasted to become an $18.6b market between 2013 and 2018. Unlike physical events, online happenings are not necessarily limited to a local geography. But how do you find out about what online events are coming up? That’s the role of Soonfeed.com.
“Billions of moments online everyday, but few of them I would actually like to be at.”
If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a noise? This philosophical question could also be applied to events: if no one knows about it, then according to Soonfeed founder, Richard Medic, it isn’t really a ‘happening.’ Soonfeed connects people to the “happenings online you don’t want to miss.”
Importantly, Soonfeed is not about meetups or other physical events. The site is focused specifically on future online events: webinars, live tweets, chats, hangouts, etc. It is a way for users to discover upcoming online happenings, join them, and share them. Joining a happening early allows organizers and attendees to start the conversation early, building up the buzz and interest ahead of time. … Continue Reading
Tech Brew Interview iCourses
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Online learning is a hot topic these days with lots of hype about sites such as Udacity, Sebastian Thrun’s latest venture, and the Khan Academy. What if you want to do something a bit more focused and more hands-on? You get the theory, but you are having trouble translating theory into practice? This is where iCourses fills the gap.
Created by co-founders Ramon Suarez, Pascale Van Den Driessche, and Mateusz Kukulka, iCourses.be features courses which are “based on the professional knowledge that our teachers use in their daily jobs.” They recognized the need for something more interactive based on their experience with clients. For example, people understood the need to embrace social media for their business, but lacked the expertise on how to implement a cohesive strategy. So they built courses to help individuals, and companies, get the necessary experience.
This episode, we drink a Lupulus Brune while we interview Ramon about the idea, the challenges, and the impact online education is having in the world today. Andrew and Ramon also get pretty … errr… philosophical about whether or not online education makes sense. It’s a lively debate about education which we’re sure many of you have opinions about.
Enjoy the discussion and feel free to share your thoughts here about online education. Do you think it will be successful? Why or why not? Discuss.
Enjoy the interview and don’t forget to check out our calendar for upcoming events in Belgium.
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