These last weeks have been fun, Im really happy with my wrklife – the newspaper seems to be doing realy gd – and takes a lot of time. I spend a lot of time on my water project (if you feel like helping out – drop me a mail at m aatt lundxy dot com with subject water – its game changing and can REALLY PRODUCE DRINKING WATER out of poisoned rver water and salt water – AND its 100% all gore compliant). Im also spending quite some time on Hostedlabs.com (super efficient aplication hosting) – Im talking o 4-5 new startups – realy going deep on the IPO in india – and looking over the rest f my amasing startups – talking to bank and people who wans to buy some of them… :) – cray stufff.

Im so happy with my paper – its so so big and positive. And here (for danes) you see that we are nt oly number one in readers – but also in the most interesting segments for advertisers. WOW.

Also the numbers – are interesting:

Alle (15+)
The readers of Nyhedsavisen spend average 11% more time on a page than the readers of Politiken do on a page in their paper. 

The readers of Nyhedsavisen spend average 60% more time on a page than the readers of Metro do on a page in their paper.

20-59 years
The readers of Nyhedsavisen spend average 30% more time on a page than the readers of Politiken do a page in their paper.

The readers of Nyhedsavisen spend average 58% more time on a page than the readers of Metro a page in their paper.

Yesterday I was at this Cinama For Peace – Film, Charity, Lets Change The World because we celebrate the small movies and have international superstars (Kasparov, Swank… the ful shabang) – but I felt very strange. Invited by my German friend Christian (impressive 29y ld with hs own giant investment bank and 2-3bio in funds under mamagement) – I went to Berlin with excitement and open mind. And he intentions where fantastic – 1000 people in supernice tux and dresses – but it felt like fresh orange juice where the fruit pieces are made of plastic… Weird.

Here is a respond from a FANTASTIC US Based business angel – that shows all the right points in how to think about a startup. I never saw such a spot on approach. I have covered up the company name – but its all makes sence to nearly all companies. Read and enjoy:

I love the XXX concept. I think the idea is fantastic. However, in my opinion, the User Interface is way too complex. There’s too much effort for someone to get benefits, too many complex charts and too much work to do. Even the investor charts were hard to follow. I highly doubt with such a complex interface and so many screens with so much going on, you will be able to capture a meaningful portion of the market for obese people.

I also feel there are too many scientists involved, but not enough tech people or UI designers.

Here’s my challenge to you:

If you can manage to reduce what XXX does differently and its main use scenario down to one sentence, it would be compelling. I still like the idea a lot but in its current state, I think it needs work.

I also don’t like the idea that breakeven is expected in almost 3 years. Why not launch in a major market instead of just Denmark ?

The distribution channel seems too complicated – too many companies/partnerships to keep track of – likely to result in too many hires, salespeople, bus dev people increasing costs (whereas most of the traction could come virally through word of mouth). I do agree getting XXX PARTNERS would help, but also limit your target market to people that actually visit those (for which I have no stats in Europe).

When you look at successful web apps, they’re all SIMPLE. Twitter, Google, Facebook, Flickr, Youtube – when you have take so much to explain what the site does and how it will build sales, in my book you lost half the battle.

I think the major innovation missing here is automating …. Not sure what the right formula is, but highly doubt this is it.

Today was a FANTASTIC day for my newspaper – Nyhedsavisen is now officially number one in readers in Denmark. Dont mix it up with being number one in profitability – but its a VERY VERY good start 4 weeks after taking over. Im still feeling trouble in my stomach when I think about the 180 people we have fired – but its time to move forward. Humble and Ambitious and Positive – and get the media buyers to use our product.

Extra info: Hardcore article about NYT

About Unions

Im a socialist (believe it or not) comming from working class – using my skills to change the world a little bit. And I think the unions in Denmark are FANTASTIC – they have a BIG BIG STAKE in our economy being the best in EU – since they have been super fair in the how to hire and fire – unlike Germany and France (and unlike all the greedy CEOs who wants a billion to leave their jobs)… BUT I have to say that the process of firering journalists is stupid and very bad for the “worker” – since we have now been in a limbo for 7 days (and will stay like that for another 7) where we cant decide who should stay or who should go – thats simply not human (probobly there is a another good explanation).

Ok – I know its stupid of me to comment on this – but I had to.

Im NOT on the fear Google team – I LOVE GOOGLE!! And as long as everyone (criminals, pedofiels and dopedealers) wears a trackable phone that can be opened remotely from the authorities :) – lets not complain…

The AMASING TEAM at BullGuard – (my consumer Anti Virus baby) – is really having a breaktrough (basicly we always just wanted to beat DanWare in revenue for some srange reason – sorry Peter :). But its also 6years – and more then 12mioUSD we have spend to build it. Im so proud of this award – and all these reviews.

A lot of people around me have quite stiff smiles these day because of the financial markets downturn. But its all so relative – when people talk about their losses. I have a meeting with a very nice guy from the bank tomorrow and just checked up on the potential of his option package ;)

I was fully aware that taking majority in a top newspaper would mean a LOT of interest and speculation. But I did not foresee so much negative and wrong bullshit. I cant go into specifics – BUT WE ARE NOT AT ALL LOOSING FAITH OR POWER AND GIVE UP IS NOT A PART OF OUR VOCABULARY!! I will let this graph say everything. Dear highly respected Professors, Experts, Bankers, Friends and Enemy’s – only George Bush is loosing track faster – and he is not even on a subscription model like many of our highly valued and very good competitors…

Im getting a new blog design and some functionalty – and I really look forward. Its gonna be very cool – but Thomas – the amasing desinger and creator of the news thing has been a little slow. And now – dear Valued Readers – we will see him naked at Burger King on Wednesday.

Mr Techcrunch (Michael Arrington) is really good at this.

Today we had to layoff quite a lot of people at my newspaper and restructure quite a bit. I really rally hated it, Im simply to soft for shit like that. But it was simply needed to make our profit plans work. And even though Im really hard to myself on it and have to face that “thats business”- I cant stand the idea of some people going home to thier families and have to tell the terrible truth – BUT it was highly needed (and the alternative would off course have been worse). But urghh – what a day. Cant even smile thinking about that sales was record for a Wednesday (but we are still lossing about 2-3 average danish yearly salleries pr. day).

Press has been really fair and quite possitive – when you think about how small our country is and that all journalists went to school together (more or less).  Its also kind of really weird to see 12-15 journalists and professors and investment bankers having a clear idea about our business (on TV, Online News, Print…) – when they dont even do a deep Deep DEEP dive into what really going on. The paper will very likely be number one very very soon – and we are SUPER HUMBLE – but we will fight with EVERYTHING WE HAVE TO MAKE THIS THING MAKE MONEY. And change the whole business a bit…

I looove this movie and this guy (enthusiasm beats all glossy production tricks!!!) – wow. I learn so much – Wii learn – its just amasing – to see how technology evolve with lightspeed just because everyone has a global voice. Also it makes me think about how Youtube (or whatever video community) can become the ultimate teachers inspiration. Remember how happy you where when your teacher in elementary school showed up with a video…

Carnegie Mellon researcher Johnny Chung Lee – my new hero

23 and Me – is so interesting when you think about it for a minute. Ad off course just the act that its a Googlewfe behind it – kind of gives another dimension. Off course Ester Dyson is in as investor/help ;) – (ED you are amasing!)

Chris Devries was a good business friend – and only 21 years old at hearth and mind. He really had a deep impact on me – as a non teaching teacher – and as a friend you could ask about the bigger questions in life. Working at CityBank for a life time he had a true network of REAL FRIENDS all over the world. Im so so so sad that he is gone. Love.

Someone asked me what stuff I owned (invested in) that no one knows about and that is super cool.

HEALTCARE.com
I have to say that www.heathcare.com is supercool just going BIG BIG.
Why its killer: The person

OPENSTREETMAP.org
This thing is killer – http://www.openstreetmap.org – people simple build maps from scratch with GPS equipement and entusiasm…
Why its killer: The idea

NAILS4YOU.co.uk
Nothing beats the team and the quality ad the revenue.
Why its killer: Idea is simple and amasing
Gateway Technology Labs
Simply amasing people – impresse size – and the market demand endless amounts of services like this.
Why its killer: The team! I have never seen anyhing ike hat.

As you see from my WILD idea – I have an urgent need to change the world a little bit. And this video of Bill Gates speaking at Davos about CREATIVE CAPITALISM (the wording is really stupid) is really interesting.

The team is stellar – and advisory board rocks (for a Slovenian biz.. :) – and now the press picks up even before launch – see Techcrunch.
http://blog.noovo.com/

I did invested during summer – lucky again…

I invested in this brilliant company United Mobile last year in spring – and sales and technology is skyrocking. And now its the 800pound gorilla of the venture industry steps in – Accel Ventures – the guys who invested in Facebook – have just injected 15mio€ to make the growth even faster. Management is stelar – Charles the new CEO takes over excatl where Svenn (the brilliant foundeer!!) stops.

So – what does the company do?

Save up to 90% on mobile calling worldwide – you simply get a simcard with many numbers in one – and use it for traveling… Easy peacy..

This invitation is fantastic – drop by and have a drink. Thomas is setting up our shop in NYC – and the selfconfidence is there as you se ;)