The business plan
As we might have mentioned we are currently developing 2 web applications and for the last few weeks we have been mastering the business plan. It was always there but now it is as close to perfect as it is going to get. It can be really frustrating writing a business plan; basically you sit in front of your computer for days brainstorming clever ways to make your idea look brilliant. But an idea is only a fraction of the process of making a company a successful one, the execution is 99% of the whole process.
Last night I started reading a book that a fellow entrepreneur lent to me called “Founders at work” it is about founders of startups such as 37 signals, Hotmail and many more. The first chapter is about how PayPal became successful and eventually was acquired by eBay for 1.5 billion dollars. The initial idea was making a Palm Pilot payments and cryptography company (whatever that is). But soon after they got investment from Nokia Ventures, they changed their business model completely. Max Levchin PayPal’s co-founder claims that the main reason the investor didn’t freak out was because they belived in the team and saw that it was obvious that they were able to adapt to different circumstances.
What I take from the PayPal story is that innovation isn’t only one idea that you develop and hope that will become a success. It is series of innovative ideas that might sculpt your idea into a successful business. So even if our business looks solid according to the plan, I am keeping the option open that in the near future we might change it completely.


Public relations are an art. An art I have been a fan of for a while. But good PR takes a lot of creative work and thinking outside the box. A year ago one of the most brilliant campaigns ever was launched titled “

When asked why he dined so frequently at the restaurant in Paris’s Eiffel Tower, novelist Guy de Maupassant answered that it was the only place in Paris where he could not see the structure. He wasn’t alone in his dislike for the tower which faced much critisicm when it was built in 1889. If it hadn’t proven so useful for radio communications it would have been torn down in 1909. Many Parisians still hate it.
One of the most controversial recent brand launches was undoubtedly when the London 2012 brand was introduced to the world. Within a week from its launch the logo sparked a nationwide debate, hostile questions in the house of commons and apparently, an epileptic fit (do I smell urban myth?).
The brand identity was designed by a London consultancy called 
In 1977, during the deepest recession New York had seen in decades, the state launched what would turn out be one of the most successful “Place Branding” campaigns in history.

