Read more about how we’re thinking and where we’re investing here.
Recent Posts
Version One
I think that Curt Cherewayko has done a great job in this week’s Business in Vancouver describing the market opportunities for both W Media Ventures as well as Nexopia. Only correction: I am the proud father of only one (and not two) boys but what the heck….
Entrepreneurship
These are definitely tough times for start-ups and it is amazing to see how quickly the mood has changed, from continued optimism despite the looming sub prime market meltdown to sheer panic after the stock market sell-out. Since the now-already-famous Sequoia presentation, many start-ups have already reacted by significantly cutting their burn-rate and more cutting […]
Entrepreneurship
Not a day passes that people don’t talk about the great opportunities that India and China are offering and I have been slowly getting involved with both countries: Indochino – while a Canadian company – operates it tailor-made suits business out of Shanghai and LiveCurrent is very active in India with its Cricket.com venture. But […]
Portfolio
The season of relaunches continues: last week, Techvibes launched a completely overhauled product that has received some pretty good feedback here and here. The new product should lay the foundation to build a network of hyper-local technology news blogs and communities across North-America – while Techvibes currently only covers all major Canadian cities plus Seattle […]
Version One
Today Amazon announced the acquisition of Victoria-based AbeBooks, the company I have been involved with for over 7 years (operationally as COO until October last year, since then as Director and consultant). As you can imagine, I am extremely excited about this deal which makes tremendous sense for everybody involved: Amazon (who has been heavily […]
Version One
Summer seems to be relaunch time for our portfolio companies: TeamPages has a fresh new look and an easier navigation and Tripsbytips completely relaunched its site making it much easier to add recommendations so that the best community-based travel tips should emerge very quickly for the main travel destinations of this world. In addition, LiveCurrent […]
Portfolio
While Facebook goes for world domination, signing up teens, parents and grandparents alike, Nexopia stays focused on the 13- to 20 years olds– this t-shirt says it all and it has been a huge hit with Nexopia’s users (and strangely enough, often with their parents as well).
Entrepreneurship
Fred Wilson published an interesting post today about the start-up scene in Berlin. Having founded my own start-up in Germany (JustBooks, later acquired by Victoria’s AbeBooks), being currently invested in a successfull Internet start-up based in Berlin (Tripsbytips, an online travel community) and working with one of the leading German VC’s (Munich-based Acton Capital / […]
Entrepreneurship
Techvibes.com, the network of local technology blogs, just released their first Canada Start-up Index. The methodology to determine the index is by no means scientific but the list still provides a really good overview of the Canadian start-up scene. The performance of the W Media Ventures portfolio companies (2 among the top 3, 5 among […]
Entrepreneurship
Over the weekend I attended NextMedia 2008 in Banff. It was my first NextMedia conference and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the sessions and the attendants. A few thoughts that I took away from the conference: Nexopia is still one of the best kept secrets in social networking: while the site is […]
Version One
As the Internet evolves, the venture capital business starts evolving and we have been seeing more and more investors focusing on growth and late stages in the past few years. This is exactly the step that our partners over in Germany have taken in the past months: after having managed the corporate venture capital business […]
Entrepreneurship
Brian just shared this document with all participants of the Burda Digital Ventures / W Media Ventures event last Friday and I thought it would be worthwhile sharing this with a larger audience. The Painted Picture of 2008 The best way to ensure the future happens is to create it first in our minds. At […]
Entrepreneurship
Last week we brought together over 20 founders, CEO’s and senior managers from 6 portfolio (AbeBooks, Suite101.com, Nexopia.com, TeamPages, Techvibes, Carrie & Danielle) and 2 associated companies (LiveCurrent, the company behind Perfume.com and Cricket.com, Strutta) for our first Burda Digital / W Media Ventures event in Vancouver. It was a day packed with best practices […]
Portfolio
Today we announced our investment in Indochino, a website that helps people to buy a tailor-made suit directly from a professional tailor in China. Together with a few other angels, I had been invested in the company since last summer and was very impressed what the founders Kyle and Heikal built up with very little […]
Entrepreneurship
Carrie & Danielle’s vision is to inspire authenticity – understanding who you are, what’s working in your life and what’s not, and turning that understanding into action. The two founder ladies (by the name of Carrie and Danielle, who would have thought?) have been hugely successful in the past few years with their style statement […]
Version One
Vancouver-based Communicate.com announced today that I will be joining their board effective immediately. Since taking over as CEO and Chairman a few months ago, Geoff Hampson (who is also my business partner in Techvibes.com) has assembled a really strong management team led by Jonathan Ehrlich (one of the digital media people to watch in BC […]
Entrepreneurship
This past week I attended TED 2008 in Monterey (last time in this location as TED moves to Long Beach) and – as usual – brought back tons of ideas and inspiration (good coverage here). TED is definitely one of the best conferences one can attend, full of energy, interesting people and new discoveries. This […]
Portfolio
International expansion is part of almost every business plan of an ambitious start-up but few ever get around to it: strong existing competition in international markets, a lack of understanding of the local culture or not enough international expertise in the management team often keep start-ups in their domestic market. At AbeBooks, we learned very […]
Portfolio
Today we announced our investment in Nexopia.com, Canada’s largest social networking site for youth. At the same time we also announced that I will be joining the company as CEO. A new (and very exciting) investment for Burda Digital Ventures / W Media Ventures and at the same time an additional job for me! Nexopia […]
Entrepreneurship
Just came back from 3 incredible days at DLD. The conference (hosted by our friends from Burda) is getting better each year and has definitely become the premier European conference for digital media. The first day was a bit slow but day 2 and 3 had a range of highlights: a social networking panel with […]