I don t understand german. but this short film on the middle east conflict is really mind blowing from a visual point of view. Enjoy

knowledge (subtitled version) from Axel Rudolph on Vimeo.

I was in shock when i started to compare the prices of the iDigital/Apple Store recently opened in Tel Aviv with current US Apple prices. On average 30 to 40% (on some accessories up to 70%). The proof in video below shot direct in live from the Apple store in Tel Aviv

Israelis travel. they are hyper price sensitive. I expect this to have a direct impact on accessories/laptop than can be conveniently bought abroad and taken in through customs (just like i did). Let's precise this is not an **official** apple store. it is a premium reseller. They have to take some margins and pay taxes. But the price gap is way too big (click on pic to see equivalent in USD and original prices from the apple store)



Another example : i wanted to buy the wireless keyboard sold 79 USD in the USD and 470 NIS here in israel or 139 USD ; ok i forgot you need to add those special hebrew characters on the keyboard, marginal cost = 1 USD all included

From my short observation: most people where here to try/taste and not to buy...

Funny. My ISP sent me a reduction of 42 NIS on the purchase of a Macbook...What an incentive



Other than that the Story is quite nice

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No better word than this, to start the year. It is also a world famous song written by Leonard Cohen (there is of course the world famous Eurovision song but we re not talking about that here). Played below in Solo Piano by my friend Yaron Herman (skip to 0.50") on the evening he won the prestigious Victoires du Jazz Award in France.

Israelis (and maybe others) will recognize the intro who is taken from  "Lu Yehi" a song by Neomi Shemer. But this not so many would know it outside israel :)

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Congrats to Outbrain, an LGilab.com startup,  to having been integrated on all b5media blog network (300+ blogs / 10m VU and 30 m PV). Outbrain is being installed slowly but surely on all major blogs. I am not saying that because i am involved, it is just the best blog rating system you ll ever find out there. If you don t believe me:try them all, you ll come back to it. I have extensively explained why if you have a blog or on online media use outbrain. It is just a no brainer if you want to increase opportunities of interaction with your readers and improve the understanding of how your blog is read and appreciated. way more than comments other type of feedback.

B5media is not the biggest blog network but you can find there some very influential and nice blogs. I think it is a great move (in addition you can also find it on VentureBeat, CenterNetworks - that covered the news - and other big blogs)

update: the news makes it on Techmeme this am (where an Israeli,a very nice guy i recently met, is working with Gabe Rivera)



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Really Cool. Made in Tel Aviv with rollers and a GPS. Well done (by a friend of a good friend)

Happy new year to All btw

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Thanks to Benjamin from ZeFlog (The photo blog) who took some time to shoot a few pictures with me. I nearly felt like a model for 15 min. Those are the most stunning pictures someone ever made of me, although i am not a big fan of my own pics. Benjamin he s a professional photographer that became famous by shooting portraits in natural light of some bloggers and web celebrities (Orange CEO, ..) in France and now in the world. He will soon come to the valley to pursue his mission

This is very rare but Benjamin allowed me to shoot a portrait of him (with my iPhone camera, hmmm). i also video interviewed him on Qik (in French). I had a good time chatting with him and it was interesting to discover how blogs (once again) can change someone's life (in this cas his)





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This guy is either crazy or a genius. or both. I am a big fan of Loren Feldman, sometimes he pisses me off for always being the nasty black toy of the webosphere. In a very short period of time he made himself uber-famous (and sometimes unpopular) with his spicy and provocative often very funny videos.

But after meeting with him, i discovered what i suspected: the impression is far from the truth and i had a great moment during that little interview with mr 1938media (made during TechCrunch50)

We actually never met before although we had several mail/twit exchanges. Which is what i like about the web: bridging virtual connections with true encounters. For a first video, i think it looks like it is not the first time we talk together. We talk about TechCrunch and Mike Arrington of course but also about Europe and the differences with the US.

There is another video coming up, which i hope to publish soon, where i interview him (for a change). I am sure you ll like it

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It used to be my favorite analytics service for my little blog, over all the others. Why? because it was damn fast to load, access and simple to view and digest. Overnight, with a new design and a TERRIBLE migration login process i think the service just lost it.

Sitemeter.com is now SO slow, i was used to access Sitemeter with a URL shortcut pointing to a specific page i liked, this is now over. And worse, my favorite page/stat has disappeared: sources, so i could see where my traffic was coming from URL by URL

I am done with sitemeter. They obviously tried to take the service a step further moving to more sophisticated UI and services (in order to get a premium). They totally failed in keeping the original spirit. I assume most of their users were using the free version for the same reason. I am sure many will feel like me

Moving to Google Analytics. More conversation about that on Techmeme

Question: can anyone point to an alternative service giving access to chronological sources where i can see, link by link where my traffic is coming from? Goog analytics and Whosamong.us are not providing that either

update: big surprise this am. my source page is back on sitemeter, but on the old format/site. looks like they are keeping both versions for now. until they decide to kill it


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TheCoils has a good post (in hebrew) that gives an overview on what happened in Israel regarding internet seed investments. 2007 was a very active year. Way more than 2006. I expect 2008 to be also an active one but many of those early investment will have to prove (including for our own portfolio companies) that a sustainable model is in place.

The interesting part of 2007 was that different models of investment were established in Israel and as TheCoils say, there is no Israeli VC that has not (tried to) put in place a special seed program to address correctly the internet companies.

If you can't read Hebrew there is a great table recapitulating the investment operations made over 2007 (click above to enlarge). The Internet Lab proves out to be one of the most active internet seed programs there. We are working very hard to make it also efficient and 2008 will be important for us in that respect.

Another trend i notices is that appetite from foreign investors (with no representation in Israel) for israeli startups: Mayfield, Spark, Mangrove (Zlio), Accel but also power angels Peter Thiel. And probably soon more (i heard about a deal or two coming up)

An important thing to spot is that many startups did not receive funding and probably won't. This is not necessarily a bad news: you do not always need VC money to succeed and you can build a very nice company without that (for example with angel money only). You can find some of those startups here

Finally 2007 was quiet in terms of M&A activity in Israel: all the attention was of course on Quigo (disclosure we invested in the new company of the founder of Quigo, Outbrain) that sold to AOL for 300+ m USD. Yedda was also acquired by AOL.

TheCoils should probably add also dPolls that was acquired by Toluna. 

2008 will reserve many opportunities for M&A as many startups will hit some nice milestones and some won't be able to pursue but still offer some nice assets to be acquired. The question will remain: Are we able to build giant internet players in Israel? I am not sure we will have the answer in 2008. Actually i think we won't. We'll need more patience for that.

2007 was a good year for the Israeli internet ecosystem and i think we are on a good learning curve. I am a bit concerned by the lack of developers and good wed design guys. But i am sure this will change soon. Really look forward for 2008

We are announcing today a new investment in French startup Bahu.com promoting a European social network for young students across Europe (special south and eastern)focusing on promoting talents.

Bahu is a French startup created by two students and backed by Oleg Tscheltzoff a serial and successful internet entrepreneur i have known for some time now.

We know, the space is not virgin but we were impressed with Bahu achievements only a few months after they launched (already 2 million unique visitors and present in more than 6 countries in 4 months).

Investing in non Israeli related startup is not the first purpose of the Lab, but this was an opportunity that was not easy to ignore. We are committed to support israeli entrepreneurship. We already financed 5 israeli related projects and hopefully more soon.

I am happy to serve on the board of Bahu and face some very tough challenges that we have in front of us.

Btw why "Bahu"? In cool young slang french it means "High School"

We recommend you this read from VentureBeat "When seed funding is better than Series A".

We could have written exactly the same this since this is precisely why we created the internet lab. A few quotes here

...So why do entrepreneurs think they need so much money right out of the gate? Some seem to be attempting to finance their way to profitability, but more often than not they think they need to ask for several million to get the attention of VCs. It’s become a bit of an urban legend: VCs won’t take an entrepreneur seriously if they ask for less than $5 million. That tall tale belongs in the archives with the one about how alligators live in the sewer system...

...By securing only as much capital as they initially need in a form of a seed round, entrepreneurs do themselves a big favor. First, assuming they take the seed funding as a bridge round which will convert into an eventual A round, they suffer no dilution. Second, they ensure themselves a much better valuation when they do eventually secure an A round because they have reduced one or more key risks during the seed period. Third, with this small amount of money, the entrepreneurs can get more insight and information on whether their idea is worth investing their own valuable time in before they have to make the multi-year commitment that comes with larger investments.