At this week’s InnoTown conference in Ålesund, I found an energy bar deep within the conference swag bag. Shortly after demolishing it, I spotted Andreas Friis, the owner of said energy bar, tweeting merrily away on the #innotown hashtag. I couldn’t miss the opportunity to grab a few minutes with him to hear about the fascinating story of his burgeoning brand.
Live Arctic is a massive gamble for Friis. Not only is he launching a product business from scratch in a notoriously difficult industry, he’s also working for little personal gain, setting the business up so that 100% of profits go to charity. Read full article
The word startup conjures up images of mobile apps and cloud services, so when something different comes along it can really stand out, especially in the offshore oil & gas industry.
Norway’s R&D expertise tends to be concentrated in the payroll of the major players such as Statoil and Aker Solutions, but maybe there’s change afoot thanks to last year’s Startup Weekend in Stavanger and its novel winner – ClickLift.
Novel not just because of the topic, but also the age of their founder and CEO. At just 19, Max Gouchan is competing in an industry dominated by multinationals. And he’s having the time of his life. Read full article
Q&A with Christer Hansen Eriksen, Co-Founder of Pido
When thinking of Scandinavian startup hubs, Bergen’s not the first place that springs to mind.
But from deep within Bergen’s historic Bryggen district, comes an inspiring tale of a company formed out of a last-minute Startup Weekend pitch.
The team of 10 won the event, and four guys took it forward to win significant investment. This week their idea for a restaurant service app goes live in their home town for the very first time.
I travelled to Bergen to meet Pido co-founder Christer Hansen Eriksen, in their office at The HUB.
What is Pido?
Pido is Spanish and means “I order”. A lot of British people have asked about the name… Read full article
nexttome.com is an iphone app that wants to help you find interesting people that are next to you. - link
Q&A with Magnus Jepson, Co-Founder of WooThemes
Magnus Jepson – WooThemes
WordPress is a popular tool for bootstrapping startups the world over. The once simple blogging software is now a fully-fledged digital publishing tool that powers some of the biggest sites online – Mashable, BBC America, CNN Blogs, The New York Times blogs – and Startup Norway of course.
In 2008, three guys from different countries met online and began creating themes and addons for the growing WordPress community.
Five years later, the WooThemes project is now a multi-million dollar business employing 28 people from around the world.
A little-known fact about WooThemes is one of those three founders, Magnus Jepson, is from right here in Norway. We bumped into him at the recent WordCamp Norway event and he was only too pleased to share his story.
In the September version of Wired there is a 36-page supplement showcasing 10 startups from 10 hot startup cities in Europe. It is great to see both Helsinki and Stockholm on the list among huge cities like London, Barcelona, Berlin and Istanbul.
Oslo unfortunately did not make the selection of cities. No wonder really as there is little startup news even in our own local press. And as it makes little sense for a startup to make much fuzz about being Norwegian, they are often mistaken for being American. We are working on making them more visible and to show that things aren’t totally dead in Oslo we made this list of 10 hot ambitious, non-copycat startups from Oslo!
The Kick – Portable lighting studio for iphones and DSLR
Norwegian startup Riftlabs has been working the last two years on making the best possible portable light source for iphone and DSLR’s. Their solution called The Kick and it is an affordable portable light source with very advanced features. It does white and colored light, animated light (lightning, fireplace, candle, etc.), it can extract the light profile from a video and much more. With a price point about the same as a flash for a DSLR but with a lot more flexibility this seems like the superior solution.
Startup Weekend Oslo graduate Soundrop takes on Northzone as investor
The social playlist and music discovery service Soundrop annouced today that they have taken a $3M investment from Northzone. Having bootstrapped the development so far the $3M investment will open opportunities like hiring a designer and front-end developer.
At this week’s InnoTown conference in Ålesund, I found an energy bar deep within the conference swag bag. Shortly after demolishing it, I spotted Andreas Friis, the owner of said energy bar, tweeting merrily away on the #innotown hashtag. I couldn’t miss the opportunity to grab a few minutes with him to hear about the fascinating story of his burgeoning brand.
The word startup conjures up images of mobile apps and cloud services, so when something different comes along it can really stand out, especially in the offshore oil & gas industry.
When thinking of Scandinavian startup hubs, Bergen’s not the first place that springs to mind.
In the September version of Wired there is a 36-page supplement showcasing 10 startups from 10 hot startup cities in Europe. It is great to see both Helsinki and Stockholm on the list among huge cities like London, Barcelona, Berlin and Istanbul.