Since Monday is the best day for “follow-ing-up on what I have not done last week“, we have uncovered a promising Romanian startup: Labels.io. What Labels.io does is making it easier for employers to find professionals with key skills and for professionals to find suitable jobs. Therefore, employers & professionals out there look out

If you’re a professional looking for a job, all you have to do is post a profile on Labels.io and the platform will do the “job hunting” for you, allowing you to focus on more important things like networking, interviews and saving money. It increases your response time, your abilities to focus more on offline than online and dedicate the necessary resources to maintaing a vivid digital profile.What makes Labels.io different from other human resources websites is the fact that it is based on the concept that a professional is defined by three criteria: portfolio of previous employers, skills and personality. Labels.io wishes to differentiate the search possibilities and avoid countless key accomplishments, dull corporate speak or five page resumes filled with mindless bullet points.

We’re extremely happy not only with the app, but with the guy’s efficiency: Labels.io was the only Romanian startup present for Seedcamp Ljubljana. And, since we are noise editors, we wanted to hear more from them and what the experience taught them. So, we hooked up with Octavian Popescu and here is what we have come up with

Birth of a startup

When asked to let us know what he thinks of the process through which a startup is formed in Romania, Octavian considers that there is no particular process in the beginning, or anyway, not too different from what happens elsewhere. He considers that the differences start to become noticeable when “your <project> begins to turn into a real startup”, for example when your business is receiving a bit of traction. For Ocavian, that is the moment when you “start thinking and deciding long-term and realize that maybe you need a bit more patience and persistence than your average Silicon Valley counterpart.” On the other hand, what he marks with a plus is that in Romania you may require less financing in the first stages; and things have their own way of evening out eventually.

Tips on attacking an investment

When looking for an investment, Octavian mentions that his realistic expectations (i.e. entrepreneur mentality, not investment banker mentality) are to have access  to a network of contacts he can actually leverage while pursuing opportunities for his startup. Of course, he also adds money that come with a reasonable enough term sheet on the side.

What a fresh-minded and mature thinking entrepreneur considers to be important are:

1. Don’t focus on raising money, focus on getting (paying) customers. Fame, glory and VC money will come once you manage to solve that issue.

2. Raising seed money is always tough but it’s even tougher if you’re trying to do it while based in the Eastern Europe. Read, learn, prepare yourself and get out there: apply for Seedcamp and similar accelerators (but first read their fine prints), go to the TNW or How To Web conferences and always be prepared to pitch your startup and your ideas to anyone who’s listening.

3. Once you have decided you need to raise money, make sure you know what you are getting yourself into: read, talk to other founders and generally speaking, try to get as much leverage as possible before going for an investment.

Labels.io is going right now through some pretty exciting changes, which will conclude in a short while with moving out of the Beta and launching a new set of features. We’re surely looking forward to seeing all your inputs and the best of luck with your digital professional profile.

Editor’s Note: This article is a summary of thoughts and possibilities. It does not assure immediate success, nor does it state that there is no better way to handle the process.

Thank God, I now have a start-up. That means that I also have a product / service / both which apply to an identified need on the market. But how do I get the public to actually try it out? Promotion, promotion, promotion. How — this is the question? Taking on a few ideas inspired from real-live campaigns and also inspired by trust-worthy sources, I have tried to summarize the concept and do my best to come up with some acceptable solutions.

1. Lots of PR?

Traditional approach: PR — that would be something if you actually have something to say. It’s not about a bundle of media partners to team up with, but about the message you are putting out. Of course, there is an entire mixture of possibilities and it depends on the start-up itself: does it address a niche? does it address the mass-market? and so on. Don’t forget there are companies that receive lots of media attention, but end up lacking support from the market. And there are also other companies, such as  Instagram, that end up taking off like a rocket not necessarily thanks to PR plots and they actually never slow down.

21 century approach: What I would find more valuable is to make it big in the media, as well as the market place. Let’s put it differently: how can  I get Ashton Kutcher to invest in my start-up? See Airbnb and find out how they launched and caught his attention. Or can you turn a video in a viral and populate the idea? See Empire Avenue and find out more. For more details of what Empire Avenue is doing see this video by Chris Pirillo.

2. Have a story

PR is not PR if your start-up does not appear on TechCrunch. Well, of course, but it does not answer it all. Only think of the massive amount of articles that appear on TechCrunch. Actually, can you read them all in one day? So, do think about it and when your product or service address a nice market, a blogger sponsored campaign can do wonders. What all start-ups need to remember is that to grab anyone’s attention — both media and readers alike — they need to have a story that fits into their already-existing world view. And just as to make the example more vivid: show someone at TechCrunch a new app designed for iOS. They will ignore it completely. Start by describe why he would use his phone more wisely and you actually might have struck gold. Above it all, make sure you are not boring — being on stage for TechCrunch Disrupt is not a winning lottery ticket if the audience is yawning, is it?

3. Communication, communication, communication

Harder than you imagine it is! Really! At first, make sure you at least tick on these bullet points:

• Make a blog.
• Make a YouTube video channel.
• Start Tweeting.
• Get a Facebook Page.
• Get a hell of a rocking website.
• List your company on Angel List (StartupLi.st, CrunchBase, etc).
• Identify let’s say 10 journalists you want to have see your product before you actually launching and friendly ask them for a valuable feedback.

These channels are basically used by everyone and I am sure there will be voice that will mention I have forgetten all about Google+. It is not all about choosing the right channels, but more about identifying the proper message for each of them and finding a way through which your ideas will be made popular by virtual supporters. How? “Speak their language.”I imagine it sounds so poorly, but it all leads to discovering the right language to run by and the triggers to unleash the media dragon. Make each interaction personal, do not resort to Copy-Paste as it will lead no were. Moreover, mix it all with  SEO, Biz dev, affiliate programs just to name a few.

4. Tech, tech, tech

Don’t remain behind a computer monitor, and really participate, participate and network, network, network. We’re not into teaching anyone how to network, but if you search on Google (no advertising, believe us) you will find approximately 629.000.000 results. We’re sure there are some cool things hidden. Believe in your product / service and act as if you have discovered the fountain of youth. Start by making a great product that you yourself are dependent to: if you can’t stop using it, there just might be a chance that others will have the same addiction too.

What can be more challenging is discovering the manner in which your product can be found attractive at a tech event. Back your product up with a key influencer for the topic which the tech event circles by, and give a special one week in advance trial to desiring participant. And when you achieve 45 supporting voices, voices which are known to have a say in what is hot and what is not in the tech industry, do through out a launch party. You will probably have more participants then you think.

Therefore, in my humble opinion, mix wisely and thoughtfully, stay up to date to the market, see what your friends are doing and know people that know people. Again, this is not a recipe for success, as it all depends on you and your product. And just before closing off, I recommend another information source written by Philip Kaplan : Getting Users For Your New Startup. Be ready to provoke, challenge, appreciate, distribute, learn. Let’s see if we get invited to a new start-up launch. Would love that

As you may have a heard, a new accelerator has come to life recently in the North-East of England. ignite100 is a mentorship-led programme with a £1m fund and over 50 mentors from a wide variety of backgrounds.

Here’s how it works: After being accepted into the program, each team receives an initial funding of £5k (up tp £15k). Then, the founders will move to Newcastle and be part of a 13 week programme where they will receive intense mentoring and business support. At the end of the programme, if the teams achieve pre-agreed milestones, they will receive the rest of the £100k in the form of convertible loan.

We took some time to talk to Jon Bradford, ignite100′s Executive Director, the man who also launched The Difference Engine and Springboard. Here’s how it went:

How to Web: Hi Jon, how’s the weather in the North-East of England?

Jon Bradford: Very pleasant.

HTW: We’re obviously here to talk to you about ignite100, the accelerator you recently launched. What’s the exciting deal with it?

Jon Bradford: Having launched two accelerator programmes historically – the Difference Engine and Springboard – I am always interested in what comes next. Accelerator programmes have a massive impact on teams during the 13 weeks, but to maintain momentum it is important to provide the teams a runway – hence the additional funding in the form of a convertible loan.

HTW: Why should an entrepreneur choose to join ignite100 instead of one of the other accelerators? What’s this got special or who would this be most suited for?

Jon Bradford: Clearly £100k per team helps to differentiate ignite100.

But this is about enhancing accelerators. The combined historic knowledge of accelerators – this will be the fourth programme I have personally run and Paul Smith, the programme manager, was a mentor on the Difference Engine – with experienced mentors, location and monies makes the programme very appealing.

HTW: Are you looking forward to any specific kinds of projects or teams?

Jon Bradford: ignite100 is best equipped to help teams who are helping themselves. We are looking for teams who are ambitious and want to be disruptive but most importantly are doing stuff. Remember “talk is cheap”.

HTW: I’ve noticed you base your programs on the 13-week formula. Why the “lucky” number 13?

Jon Bradford: Unlucky for some – being locked in a room with Paul Smith and myself for 13 weeks – beer and pizza optional. Seriously, 13 weeks provides the team enough time to make a real impact, but short enough that teams feel the pressure to keep sprinting.

HTW: Ignite100 is the successor of The Difference Engine. Why the need for change? What went wrong with The Difference Engine?

Jon Bradford: Ignite100 represents an evolution of Difference Engine. We felt that the change was so significant it deserved a new name. We have taken all the goodness of Difference Engine and made it better.

HTW: There are quite some accelerators happening in Europe lately, yet few of them in Eastern Europe. What do you think is missing there?

Jon Bradford: Nothing. I believe that accelerators represent an important part of the ecosystem alongside incubators, angel investors and VCs. It is, however, exceptionally difficult to make a commercial return with accelerators and therefore it requires support from many different elements of the ecosystem to make it happen and someone who is willing to commitment themselves wholly to the process.

HTW: What’s your opinion on the Eastern-European entrepreneurs? How did your interactions with them go?

Jon Bradford: I love and hate Eastern European entrepreneurs in equal measure. Eastern Europe has so much raw potential – there are many exceptionally talented engineers but many fail to recognize their potential. A minority of gone on to be very successful – but should this not be the norm?

HTW: Thank you for your time. Any final piece of advice for entrepreneurs preparing to enter an accelerator?

Jon Bradford: In the words of Nike – Just Do It.

PS. If you’re interested, applications for ignite100 are open until July the 17th.

School for Start-Ups or S4S is a wonderful program dedicated to Romanian entrepreneurs. What the program aims to achieve is making aspiring entrepreneurs start successful businesses and help the ones that have already started a business venture with their efforts to grow and constantly develop their ambitions.  What the organizers lay emphasis on is that the program is a hands-on and intensive process. We were not the first ones to have such high ambitions and expectations, the program was pioneered in UK and for the Brits it went over 5,000 Euros per student. In Romania, the cost is covered 70% which shows that when there is a will, there is definitely also a way.

The registration for the 2012 program started, so all the entrepreneurs that wish to be part of the 2012 program should take action. Beginning with 2012, the program will expand throughout the entire region of South-Eastern Europe, with Timisoara becoming the new center of start-up learning, followed by Cluj and Bucharest. Interested entrepreneurs can register by the end of January 2012. Moreover, all the interested participants have the possibility to pay fee rates and also meet some interesting investors from UK at the end of the program.

To the 10,000 UK startups, 170 S4S Romanian students joined the community of better skilled entrepreneurs. The Romanian courses were held by Doug Richard and Marius Ghenea. With over 20 years experience in the development and management of technology and software companies, Doug Richard showed that entrepreneurship can and should be taught, giving participants real business lessons and instilling practical methods to achieve success. And Marius Ghenea is one of the best known names in Romania when it comes to entrepreneurship and business ventures. In 2012, School for Start-Ups aims to become the largest community of entrepreneurs from South-East Europe and we must admit this is quite a challenge.

You can find more information on the official website for School for Start-Ups Romania and follow their news on Facebook. The best of luck to the organizers, that put great effort into making a difference and to the entrepreneurs that are willing to take their business step-by-step: learning & practicing.

Eventriffic, the team of three students representing Romania, has won the third place in the Europe Enterprise Challenge 2011 final, which took place in Madrid on July 6th and 7th.

The Europe Enterprise Challenge is a competition where teams of students develop companies that offer real products or services and try to sell their idea to potential investors, each of them having a fictional €50k to spend.

Translating the social networks buzz into statistics

The Romanian team has developed an online software that “translates” what people are talking on the social networks into statistics and solutions for events and campaigns organizers. After recording what the Romanian people were discussing about Shakira’s concert in Bucharest, the Champions league final and the “Romania’s got talent” TV show, they won the national “Compania anului – START!Business” competition and got the support to further prepare the product launch.

From the faculty labs to an international market

The Eventriffic team got founded and won the Startup Weekend competition, organized at the Bucharest Hubb in last year’s November, and is made up of Diana Prajescu, Stefan Neculai and Gabriel Voicu, three students of The Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers from the University “Politehnica” of Bucharest. The recognition gained in the Europe Enterprise Challenge competition is a big step in the life of a product designed for an international market.

Soft32 recently launched Soft32Updater, a program designed to scan the PC for the latest software updates and give a notification when one is available, also offering an online interface for downloading the updates.

A product meant to complement the company’s main activity

The Romanian company based in Sibiu that, up to now, was specialized in providing software reviews, now enters the market of software developers.

Asked about how this fits into the company’s business strategy, Lucian Todea, Soft32 CEO & Founder, said: “We still review software and we are still going to do that. Soft32 Updater is developed as an extension of our original service and we believe it complements it very well by first of all solving a major problem most PC and Windows users are having: chasing, searching, finding and installing the latest software versions. Soft32Updater is just the first step we are taking right now towards fulfilling our vision of making the finding, downloading, installing and buying apps on Windows powered PCs a fun and easy-to-do task.”

Focusing on home-users from the mature markets

In reference to the type of user they’re counting on, Lucian Todea said: “In this phase, we are especially looking for home users no matter if they are tech-savy or not, but a corporate version might become a viable option too for us in the future.”

Aiming their focus on big and mature markets, Soft32 states they have plans of bringing a localized version for all major markets and languages.

Yes, it’s here and everyone has been talking about it — How to Web 2011 will be hosted on 9th and 10th of November, in Crystal Palace Ballrooms, Bucharest. Yes, Bucharest, Romania or the new technical hub of tech entrepreneurs and unlimited talented resources for successful start-ups.

Last year, How to Web was not only a greatly mediated event, it also became a powerful brand. That speaks a great deal of the team’s dedication and self-explanatory for the achieved results. In 2011, How to Web will be structured in 24 presentations and panels, 12 technical workshops dedicated to web and mobile development and also an exhibition area where you will find up to 25 start-ups ready to present their business to the most influential companies and representatives from Europe. They will even have buses running from place to place, picking you up and driving you in the safest and most entertaining manner to the How to Web venue. Wow and huge!!!!!

We are more than happy to welcome for this edition of  How to Web: Carlos Espinal - Seedcamp Partner, Alex Hoye – Business angel & tech advisor, Jon Bradford – Managing Director Springboard (ex-VC Manager, ex-founder The Difference Engine), Chris Kowalczyk – Founder of Gamma Rebels (Tech accelerator program for Eastern-European start-ups, from Warsaw), Reshma Sohoni – Seedcamp Partner, Alastair Mitchell – Founder and CEO Huddle, Eric Wahlforss – Founder Soundcloud (project awared with “Best European music sharing service” at Startup100), Miki Devic – Founder  HTTPool (one of the largest online network of advertising in the CEE), Adam Somlai-Fischer – Founder Prezi.com (innovative instrument for presentation design), Branko Milutinovic – Founder and CEO Nordeus, Thai Tran – Founder Lightbox (Ex-product manager Google Maps, ex-product manager YouTube), Michael Breidenbruecker – Founder RjDj, Felix Petersen – Co-founder Amen & Plazes and all time favorite  Mark Randall – Chief Strategist, Digital Media Adobe.

Topics for discussion: never ending. The key focus will be the future of web, Eastern Europe’s entrepreneurs, How To’s, entrepreneurship, business development, financing & developing mobile apps, Focusing on web technologies, cloud technologies,  mobile development.

If you wish to find out more, please also visit the newly designed How to Web website and buy your tickets starting now!

PepsiCo10 is a program launched last year in London which this year will be extended in Europe. What is PepsiCo10 looking for? Fresh start-ups with a dedicated mission in social media, mobile, video, gaming, location-based technology, 10 of the selected view having access to a 10,000 £ grant. Once in the program, start-ups will work closely with Pepsi teams, internally and externally and will gain valuable experience, access and most important visibility. You can find more info here.

Who can apply until 15th of July? Best of luck!

• Early-stage: The company must be in the marketplace for less than two years as of 1st June 2011

• Technology business: Your company has a demonstrable business technology or application. No agencies or consultancies please.

• Ready-to-Go: A viable product or service is ready for business application. The product must have been publicly launched or is in beta ready for immediate launch.

There is so much going on in the world that we sometimes wonder: is there a recipe for business success? Most probably not, but to my mind when there is a will, there is a way. Young entrepreneurs often make the mistakes of placing their whole trust and faith into one single action; and when the end result is a failure, they lose all hope. This can also be the case of business incubators. Now, what makes these activities a success and what is the impact on the start-ups that are part of the process? To be or not to be in a business incubator?

The USP of an incubator is simple:”programs designed to accelerate the successful development of entrepreneurial companies through an array of business support resources and services.” And, just as graduating from university, participating in such an action can have significant results with long-time effects.

Why are start-ups looking for tech incubators?

• Cost savings
• Key advisers and insights on the market the start-up addresses
• Research material
• Seed investments

And does an incubator assure success? No, it is just a manner in which start-ups can define their business perspectives better and find the marketing and financial resources to gain access to a wider a.k.a international market. Therefore, if I were an entrepreneur, I would first ask myself what is the best measuring norm to rate an incubator a success or a failure? Let’s just take a wild guess:

1. Quality of mentors

Have you been reading of the mentors which you will be having? Have you searched for real-life results other start-ups present in the program improved their success rate? Are these mentors passionate about their activities and do they seem committed to their promise? There can be incubators that trigger only a slice of the entire pie; and depending on your end result, you can make the wiser selection. Digg your way and understand how many companies got funded after the program, what types of investors have been involved, what types of companies participated and how fast did graduating companies grow.

2. Participants

It is extremely important to understand what type of “colleagues” you will be having. Judge their interest and expertise and to some extent you will know just how avid the competition is. Kidding, but it can be a point worth looking into.

3. Methodology for picking mentors & participants

Having a clear idea of which is the process behind the selection of participants and mentors all together gives you a wider understanding of the proposed mission and goals of the incubator. It should be obvious that no business incubator can be successful if every member of its governing board, its management and the public think it should be achieving different goals. All supporters should come together to gain consensus and aim to achieve the same desires.

4. The type of activities before, during, & follow-up program

It is more important to judge an incubator by the program it offers than by the media attention it has received. More than once, an incubator shows the actual quality and value by the appreciation and consistency it develops. A one time thing is, basically, a one hit wonder. Developing and communicating a clear review policy can strengthen the services available for participants and help ensure success of the incubator as a whole.

5. Funding & Additional assistance/support

What one expects from an incubator is developing powerful partnerships and pursuing grants and other funding opportunities. Nevertheless, do not expect funding to happen immediately — just like any good thing, it takes time, patience, understanding and constant growth. On a smaller scale, access to information, know-how and most importantly practices on accounting and maintaining a sustainable cash flow will be essential for participants. This can be one of the business services provided by a successful incubator.

There are, of course, many, many do’s and don’ts of effective business incubation. No incubation program, though, can become an effective engine of economic growth – fostering the creation of an environment that is friendly to entrepreneurs and that can promote their success – without adherence to these basic, yet most of the times struggling to achieve guidelines. In your opinion, which are the most successful business incubators? We’ve started a list of start-up accelerators here. Let’s add some more by leaving a comment to this post. Thank you!

We love European start-ups. And, since we are European too, we have organized a video call with Stockpodium, a promising Bulgarian start-up. Georgi Kadrev founded Imagga Ltd. in August 2008. Imagga is a technology company focused on visual image search and exploration, and its many applications. StockPodium is Imagga’s flagship product. Hristo Georgiev, Pavel Andreev, and Stavri Nikolov joined the company as partners in 2009 to bring additional web design and technology expertise.

The idea about StockPodium came as a natural consequence of the proprietary visual similarity technology and the founders vivid interests in photography and Internet entrepreneurship. They have identified micro-stock photography as the ideal area where visual search can add a lot of value by reducing the time and effort needed to find the right images for a brochure or website.

The underlying visual similarity technology applies sophisticated combination of algorithms in order to analyse the content of each photo in our database index. Stockpodium extracts features that describe the images in terms of colour, shape, main objects, and composition. These features are subsequently used in the search process and allow us to determine the degree of similarity between images.

The main differentiation and competitive advantages are Stockpodium’s visual similarity technology and smooth user experience. They have been focused on constantly improving and tweaking them in order to best fit the micro-stock user -  save their time, reduce the routine work they otherwise need to do, and last but not least – allow them to have fun while searching for images. Enjoy finding out more about Stockpodium!

HTW: What is your definition of a successful start-up?

Start-up is a business after all, so in order to be successful it needs to create value for the founders, shareholders and the market it’s operating in. Getting investment doesn’t make your start-up successful. Getting customers to use your product/service and making them happy using it it’s what we consider success. Happy customers usually mean good incomes as well.

HTW: Was there a special reason for which you started on the way of entrepreneurship?

Being independent and free to do what you really like to do is one of the main reasons we got ourselves on the entrepreneurship shore. It’s not because we can’t stay under authority, it’s the urge to create something new, something that you dream of and is of help to others, but not being limited by the corporate boundaries and complicated policies. The world is moving fast these days and if you want to achieve something significant you have to risk and get your hands dirty, sacrifice free time and some friendships. Entrepreneurship is not for everybody, but people that dare.

HTW: Which would be the first thing you would encourage a fresh entrepreneur to take into account first?

Thing do NOT happen as planned. Get ready for some good but also for some bad times. Not everybody is excited about what you are doing. But if you really believe in your product, you have to endure. Don’t give up too early, the big success might be on the next corner.

HTW: Is there something which you change now, if you were to start StockPodium all over again?

Focus right away on the product development. We spent too much time participating in business competitions and de-focusing from our prime goal – to launch the resell phase of StockPodium and start generating revenues quickly. If we can start over it would probably be in the Silicon Valley or New York – the start-up ecosystem is the best there so you have greater changes to meet the right people and eventually succeed in what you are doing.

HTW: Can you inspire our entrepreneurs with telling us a little bit about your marketing strategy so far? (achieved results, identifying marketing and communication opportunities)

What we’ve achieved so far is with almost no marketing money. We’ve put a lot of efforts to make great product and that’s the best marketing you can do. Consider Apple and the attention every new product creates. We’ve also spent a lot of time making the site more search engine friendly and we think this really pays off. Using social media and personal contacts to tell the world of your product is another not very expensive approach that can eventually can yield great results.

HTW: And finally, what makes a pitch in front of interested VCs successful?

You need to have great product, that will make you confident when presenting. Learn your 10 min speech and never read. You read stories to your kids late in night, not to VCs – they may fall asleep. Tell them about your product, not how great you are – they can judge themselves based on what you talk, how you behave and how convincing you are. Create a need in them to learn about your product – how you do the magic, why so many people need it, your competitive advantage, how come nobody before have come up with that great idea?! Be prepared to answer couple of questions – nail them with your answers, do not take another 5 min to explain the obvious.