As you can surely remember, last month we’ve had the pleasure of talking to Patrick de Laive, the Initiator of The Next Web Conference about the awesome things that are going to happen this year at The Next Web. Patrick had come to Romania to present the benefits of participating in the event to Romanian entrepreneurs and had also prepared a special surprise for the ones interested in taking part in The Next Web 2011 conference. 10 Romanian internet entrepreneurs will have the chance to participate in this year’s event as a group with a special 65% discount.

The Next Web 2011 conference will take place in Amsterdam on 27th, 28th and 29th of April 2011. You can read more about the event’s agenda here.

If you want to take part in this year’s event with the Romanian group and take advantage of this 65% discount, all you have to do is leave a comment to this article with your contact email address. The first 10 applicants will be contacted by us and will be able to buy a ticket for the conference 65% off.

If you are not yet convinced, you can check How To Web’s interview with Patrick de Laive about the TNW 2011 conference and the conference website.

As you already know the Cambridge-based web startup accelerator Springboard has been launched this year by Jon Bradford reuniting 100 investors and mentors. Jon, the founder and CEO of Springboard, has come to Romania in February to present the program to Romanian web entrepreneurs at Bucharest Hubb. How To Web had the pleasure to talk to Jon about Springboard and the benefits it can bring to Romanian startups. Check out the below videos for How To Web’s interview with Jon Bradford and Jon’s Springboard presentation at Bucharest Hubb.

How To Web’s interview with Jon Bradford, Springboard CEO

Jon Bradford’s Springboard presentation at the Bucharest Hubb

Calling all hackers! The Yahoo! Developer Network has announced today the Yahoo! Open Hack Europe 2011 event which will take place on the 14th and 15th of May in Bucharest, Romania. This is the 3rd Open Hack held in Europe and Yahoo!’s 14th Global Open Hack event.

The last European Open Hack event was in London in 2009 and gathered over 350 developers and designers which produced 61 fantastic technology hacks in weekend hours. Bucharest will be the first Open Hack in mainland Europe.

The event will begin with a series of hack-related presentations from some of the most famous and respected global web developers and will continue with 24 hours of hacking using a great collection of web tools, services and APIs from the Yahoo! Developer Network and other APIs and data from around the web. The second day of the event will end with the hack demos.

Yahoo! will provide you with everything you need in order to be creative, productive and have loads of fun and will be fueling your creativity with a variety of Yahoo! technologies and APIs like YUI, YQL, Flickr, Updates, Answers and more. All you need to take care of is to bring yourself, your creativity and your laptop and toothbrush. You can find out everything you need to know about the Yahoo! open technology on The Yahoo! Developer Network at developer.yahoo.com.

Wembrio is very proud to be part of the promotion and organisation team for this event and hope you will have a great time hacking in Bucharest.

Participation is free of charge and the event will take place on the 14th and 15th of May 2011 at Crystal Palace Ballrooms in Bucharest. For more details about the event and registration check out the Yahoo! Open Hack Europe 2011 official page.

Patrick de Laive, The Next Web Amsterdam conference and blog initiator, has first come to Romania last November at the How To Web 2010 conference. He was one of the main speakers at the event and he was also part of the jury we had at the Startup Challenge competition so he managed to meet a few of the Romanian web developers and startup founders here. As he liked the local web startup scene and felt like there is a lot of talent here that could turn into a real success he came back to Bucharest in February at the invitation of Bucharest Hubb and spoke to Romanian web entrepreneurs about The Next Web and invited them to join the 6th  edition of the conference in Amsterdam.

We took the opportunity and had a small chat with Patrick about The Next Web 2011, the Romanian web startup scene and the way TNW 2011 could benefit internet entrepreneurs everywhere.

Raluca Georgescu: So, Patrick, last time we met you told me a very funny story about how and why you started The Next Web conference…

Patrick de Laive: Yeah, so back in 2005 I had my own startup called Fleck.com. We were on the verge of launching the company but then we didn’t know how to attract users. So we called a US startup and they said “well what you should do is you should go to a conference and you learn a lot, you get to know VCs and also you get feedback on your product”. Sounded like a good idea so then we asked how much this was. And the answer we got was that, well, you have to fly there, you have to sponsor the conference, you have to get some marketing materials and you have to pay for the hotel which altogether is like 30,000 USD. We were like wow, that’s a lot of money. We didn’t have any. So then we said “OK, thank you very much, man”, we hung up the phone and then I looked at my business partner and we said “well, if we had 30,000 dollars why not organise our own conference?!”.

That was on the one hand a good idea, but on the other hand it was a very bad idea because I’ve never been to a conference before, I organised my first at The Next Web so I had no idea what it took to organise something like that. And before I knew it we spent 100,000 EUR on all kinds of stuff and we sold 1 ticket for the conference and that was a month before the first conference. But then at the end of the last month it began to become better because we contracted one of our idols to speak at the next web, he was very expensive – Kevin Kelly. Because we took that risk people thought like “OK, these guys are really doing it,  we thought it was a joke” and it the end we still lost some money but 208 people joined the first conference and that was it.

We never launched our own company at the conference in the end. It was not finished in time because we needed to organise the conference. And yeah, that’s how it started and Fleck was finally launched about a year and a half later. But the conference, that was something we were very fond of and we started to grow the conference and the conference turned into a blog. That was 5-6 years ago.

Raluca Georgescu: What’s the big surprise you are preparing for this year’s edition?

Patrick de Laive: Well, I’m not honestly sure if I like surprises but I think every year we try to do something new and grow the conference. So we started off as a 1 day conference and right now it’s a 3 day conference. And we also have a hackaton for developers which is one day overlap with the conference. So basically it’s a 4 day event in total for us to organise so we have on Tuesday and Wednesday a hackaton which can be attended for free if you have the right credentials so if either you’re a web developer or a mobile developer. Then, on Wednesday the conference starts and lasts until Friday and people from the hackaton get invited by APIs and SDKs to the conference and they get a free ticket for the conference.

So the hackaton is new, we added an extra day which is new and we’re also adding a second track which allows to go deeper into certain topics so could be like mobile gaming (special session). we’re doing an extra session on successful European startups, we’re doing an extra session on SEO… So it goes a little bit deeper into the different subjects in the second track. You can actually choose where you want to go. Either you wanna go to the keynotes and startups or you go to the second track with more in depth information.

Raluca Georgescu: Is the Startup Rally competition also taking place this year?

Patrick de Laive: Yes, so in total 80 startups launched at TNW so far. Each year we do a startup rally, this year again. 200-300 signups each year for joining Startup Rally and we select 20 of them after multiple rounds of jury to join us in Amsterdam and they get 5 minutes on the main stage to present what you’re launching. And after that there’s a lot of press and investors in the audience. So if you want to raise money or you want to get attention from bloggers and other press it’s also a good place to be.

We see that each year the level of startups goes up and the quality gets a lot better and we have had a lot of interesting companies that after launching at TNW raised money or sold their company.

Raluca Georgescu: Could you give us some examples of companies?

Patrick de Laive: There are many, many examples I could give you. So, last year we had a company  Fashiolista – they launched at The Next Web and they raised500,000 EUR about a couple of months after from an investor they met at TNW. We had a company called Yunoo, they raised 1 million EUR and a company called E that raised 800,000 EUR. There was also Netvibes. And there’re probably more examples out there.

Raluca Georgescu: You were also in November in Romania at the HTW conference and you met a few startups here. I wanted to ask you how do you feel about the Romanian online environment and about the entrepreneurs here?

Patrick de Laive: So, I think one of the reasons why I’m back here in Bucharest is because I liked HTW, I liked the Romanian startup scene, I think there’s a lot of talent here, very good developers which is an asset you can be proud of and I hope that we’ll soon see one cool  startup coming out from Romania and having international scale success. So, I think there are some examples. Brainient is one of them and actually last year they were also presenting at TNW Startup Rally last year.

I think there is still something missing both on the business side and also on the product side. There are very good developers but they might now know exactly what to build so there  is some catching up to do but I think that with conferences like HTW and places like Bucharest Hubb there is something than can definitely grow from there. So that’s why it is very important to have places like Bucharest Hubb and to have events like HTW and to be able to get local coverage for the startups so that they can get more attention and maybe can raise more money. So I think there’s a lot to be done but you’re definitely on the right track.

Raluca Georgescu: So how will TNW conference benefit Romanian startups? Do you think it would help them on developing their product strategy and defining their business model?

Patrick de Laive: Yeah so one of the reasons why TNW exists is that people need to do business and if you do international business you either go fly abroad to all the  different cities where you need to do business or you go to an international conference like TNW where all your business partners are in one place and you can make many appointments in a couple of days. So I think also for the Romanian startup they can first learn a lot and secondly they can do business there.

So that’s the other reason why I’m here and why How To Web and Bucharest Hubb are organising a trip to The Next Web Amsterdam this year. So I’m really happy to see that we can work together with these 2 parties and I hope it will give something back to Romanian tech scene.

“There is no delight in owning anything unshared.” – Seneca

This is always one of the first questions you will need to ask when co-founding a startup: who gets how much equity and when? Everyone hates the negotiation, everyone is trying to avoid but nevertheless each one of you has a number on his mind and a few arguments for it.

We talked about sweat equity some time ago and the way to determine its value. However, the tips in that article don’t really help you in distributing equity amongst startup co-founders. So I thought I’ll just give you a hand. Here are some tips on equity sharing between startup founders and on how to solve the problem between founders who come up with money and founders who bring their own time and sweat into the business.

A mathematical approach…

There are 3 things you should be looking at when discussing the equity distribution issue:

1. the money each one of you invests in the startup;

2. the time each one invests in the startup;

3. the experience each one of you brings to the table.

However, not all 3 of the above have the same level of importance in every startup. You and your co-founders should decide which of the 3 above – money, time and experience – is more important and attach a percentage to each one of them to grade this importance. For example, you and your partners may decide that money account for 30%, time accounts for 45% and the remaining 25% go to experience.

Then after you decide upon the weight of each of these 3 components, you look at each of the founders and decide the percentage of time, money and experience they will give to the startup. Based on that, you will have a purely mathematical split which no one can deny.

… and some insights regarding motivation

However mathematical the answer there are still some things you should pay attention to:

1. If you want to motivate people you have to remember that a 5% share will never ever be an incentive. So, for example, if you think that money has a weight of 70% in your business and one of the co-founders doesn’t bring any but has quit his job to work for this startup, then maybe you should think about a motivational equity for him. I know the argument about how much this 5% is going to be worth. Nevertheless, put yourself in this person’s shoes and remember that emotional reactions are much more often than you would think;

2. Even if you think things are equal you shouldn’t go for the equal shares approach. Not only because obviously not everyone brings the same value to the business you are about to start. But this is also a reason. But mainly because having a complex discussion about roles, contributions and what value each one of you is planning to bring to the business is a way of making each one of you feel responsible for his share;

3. It is very important when valuing expertise to determine roughly each person’s hourly rate on the market as it will give you a much more clear picture.

“Meetings are indispensable when you don’t want to accomplish anything.” – John Kenneth Galbraith

Entrepreneurs generally leave their day jobs because they are so sick of the endless bureaucracy, nonsense procedure clutter and boring middle management meetings (where you are supposed to share knowledge but end up by sharing a total state of boredom). When they start their dream business they get to realise that meetings now account for more than 70% of their time, while bureaucracy is more present than even.

A meeting is a gathering where people speak up, say nothing, then all disagree

Don’t get me wrong. I know meetings can be fun. They can also be very helpful and can definitely get you closer to your goals. However, they are usually longer than necessary, less effective than they should be and unfortunately seldom reach their initial objectives. And when at the end of week you have drank a whole lot of coffee, met tens of people and had the same pleasant chitchat with each one of them, it is sometimes difficult for you to actually focus or make any relevant progress with your startup.

Coffee is money

And now I don’t mean just saving them money you would otherwise spend for coffeee. Jokes aside, the main point I want to make is that most of the business meetings we have are not nearly as effective as they could and should be. They are in fact a waste of our time and money.

I thought it over a few minutes and got to the obvious conclusion that not having meetings is out of the question. Meetings help us define partnerships, present plans, brainstorm for creative concepts and finalise business deal. Therefore, I’ve come up with a small list of 10 tips for making the most out of your business meetings. You can check them out below:

1. So… what is your objective? This is something you need to make clear before setting up a meeting. Do you want to find out information? Are you trying to get a deal? Do you want a decision? Are you just brainstorming for ideas? Otherwise, if you don’t know where you’re going you might just end up anywhere.

2. Always stay on the agenda… Errr, which agenda? You should of course have one. It is very easy. Whenever you’re planning a meeting with someone you should sketch a brief agenda of points you want to discuss and objectives you want to achieve. The list of discussion points can easily be mailed to the other persons attending the meeting as well. During the meeting, you should always keep in mind that your time is limited, precious and that you need to stick to the initial agenda. Allotting a time frame for each discussion point can help keep things moving smoothly. Oh, and don’t forget to set the priorities first.

3. Never lose sight of your goals. We each have our own attention span and energy level. At a sales meeting a 20 minute chitchat about the winners of the Oscars is a complete disaster. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t make some introductory chitchat but a prolonged discussion can tire your partner and lose his focus from the initial goal of the meeting.

4. Ensure the meeting stays on topic. Don’t be afraid about being impolite. It is in everyone’s better interest and you can sure find a way to be assertive and diplomatic when doing this. If certain people are dominating the conversation, make a point of asking others for their ideas. Or if it’s a 2 person meeting, express your own. When an item from the agenda has been discussed, make a brief summary to make sure everyone participanting got it right.

5. Set a time limit for the meeting in advance. Pressure is obviously counterproductive but so it the total lack of it. Setting a time frame will help you stay on track when connected with a well set agenda and will help you focus on achieving your objectives in the given time limit.

6. Venue without distractions. It’s good to meet business partners for lunch to loosen up the atmosphere. However if you get them to have lunch in a French restaurant and get them to try escargot for the first time in their lives, they will probably focus more on not getting shells in your hair than on your actual elevator pitch. This is of course an extreme example, but if you think at your last 10 lunch meetings you will probably also find a few things about the venue you could have chosen better.

7. Action! Action! Action! Everything you discuss, even if it’s a meeting where you’re gathering information, should be summed up as action points at the end of the day. Otherwise, it’s only more information, more clutter and they probably won’t get you much further.

8. Thou shall always follow-up after a meeting. List all tasks that were generated at the meeting and the people responsible for each one of them – who is assigned to do what and by when. Send a summary by email after the meeting to inform every participant about these assignments.

9. Always be prepared. It may seem obvious but if you are honest you’ll remember you don’t always actually do this. When you’re not prepared you waste precious time (yours and your partners) by asking others to explain things you should already know and getting up to date.

10. Fewer meeting are better meetings. In other words, call a meeting only when necessary. Reducing the number of meetings will automatically improve their quality as well. Especially if you keep in mind all of the above.