OK so here’s a mash-up of my own. The top digital trends ripe for start up cash combined with the top UK start-ups that have already got it…
If you’ve got any spare cash, first up is an interesting take here from VC David Biesel on seven "uber-trends" ripe for start-up investment briefly paraphrased here (follow the link for the full text):
1. The digitalisation of the transportation experience: public and private, we are increasingly immersed in the digital when we travel. From in car entertainment, GPS and communication to more public digital signage and outdoor advertising
2. The Internet’s facilitation of Green Lifestyle: Connecting people to resources which help them make a positive change, the idea of the web providing individuals with a leveraged way of postively affecting the planet
3. Influence and Word-of-Mouth marketing: As facilitated by online social software, reaching potential customers via the source they trust the most – people they already know
4. A fundamental shift in the demographics of internet usage: more universal, international traffic and languages that will soon dwarf that of the US and English, the generation coming that has never been without the internet…
5. The proliferation of video: Obvious really. "The Long-tail of video content will be wagging".
6. The increasing personalisation of digital infomation: Not only how user control and choice is becoming more intergral to the content consumption process, but also the notion of "passive personalized discovery" becoming more important with the increasing abundance of information.
Next up The Guardian’s take on the top UK dotcoms to watch. The start-up buzz is definitely back, but this time (thankfully) based on much sounder business footings. Couple of observations:- a namecheck here for Sokratis and Walid of TrustedPlaces (pictured right) who are rapidly becoming dotcoms-to-watch list regulars. I’ve met these guys and can testify to the quality of their thinking and their ideas. And good to see Britain doing so well – of the £1.2Bn invested in start-ups across Europe in 2006, 31% went to British firms. The list focuses on services that might hit the big time in a year or two rather than those which are big in buzz terms right now, so here it is:
1. Dopplr ….social networking for frequent travellers
2. Extate …intelligent search of property websites
3. Garlik …online identity management
4. Mind Candy …alternate reality gaming
5. Moo …funky print on demand
6. OnOneMap …map based property search
7. Touchlocal …local directory services
8. Trustedplaces …social-networking driven venue recommendation
9. Zopa …peer-to-peer lending
10. Zubka …recruitment 2.0
Venture capital cartoon courtesy, photograph courtesy Felix Clay/Guardian , VC lead via
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