Jimmy Breeze's Library tagged entrepreneurship → View Popular

He tells me he is starting a peer-to-peer foreign exchange site – peepex.com – the first in the world, where buyers are lined up with sellers to cut out the middlemen. "Wow," I replied, "You mean a Zopa for the foreign exchanges, cutting out intermediaries as Zopa does with banks? Why didn't I think of that?"
stop Christian Ahlert, the German founder of MiniBar, who is passing by. "Do you know these guys? They are starting the world's first peer-to-peer market for foreign exchange transactions." "Oh," he replies, "I've just met someone outside who is doing the same." He rushes out and brings back Todd Veri, the Canadian chief executive of Midpoint & Transfer, who is indeed doing that from a London base. He asks me to name any foreign exchange companies that are publicly quoted. I can't think of any. "Do you know why?" he asks, and answers himself: "Because they are making so much money". His plan is to line up buyers with one or more sellers and price currency transactions at the middle point of the inter-bank rate. Midpoint takes a small, flat-rate commission. I move on, chatting to a man setting up a crowdsourcing site for workers in IT who can be located when someone has a problem to solve, and also a couple who will be pitching at the next MiniBar for their startup, whatschoolnext.co.uk, to help alleviate the fears of parents whose kids are changing schools.
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- Next I bump into James de Rin, whose startup crowdsourcecapital.co.uk links ideas up to the support – and share capital – of online crowds, thereby bypassing the stock exchange and other intermediaries. Wow, again. When he heard I was a journalist he told me to peer into the future of newspapers at payyattention.com, which links readers and writers in a social network of newly fashionable micro-payments.
- Standing out among a slew of interesting five-minute pitches was mendeley.com, billed as an iTunes for scientific research papers, which again prompted the ultimate compliment – why didn't someone think of that before? You can manage your own research papers from any computer and search others and link up with other researchers.
- Mendeley pitched shortly after mixcloud.com, which aims to democratise radio, and picfog.com, a fascinating Twitter-linked site that searches images in real time.

10 Jun 09

The New Nomads

www.businessweek.com/...sb20070312_467054.htm - Preview

interesting trends work entrepreneurship society

They call themselves New Nomads, and they've transformed work-at-home into work-anywhere-you-damn-well-please.
this band of mobile-preneurs has learned to communicate and support each other with virtual communities like NuNomad.com and LaptopHobo.com.
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- "Eight years ago, I trained myself as a Web site designer (I service, primarily, nonprofit organizations in California) so I may travel the world and maintain an income. You could say that I'm the original Laptop Hobo," Hamel wrote in his e-mail. Bolanos and Hamel teamed up to found NuNomad.com, which offers tips on travel and technology, product reviews, and forums for wanderlust-indulging entrepreneurs.

30 Apr 09

Giving graduate entrepreneurs a flying start - Case studies - Creative Economy - Programmes - NESTA

www.nesta.org.uk/e-entrepreneurs-a-flying-start - Preview

society innovation entrepreneurship

The sessions were based on training materials originally developed for the Starter for 6 and Insight Out training programmes, which help creative graduates to plan, launch and develop their own enterprises.

04 Apr 09

A special report on entrepreneurship: Heroic entrepreneurs | Global heroes | The Economist

www.economist.com/...displaystory.cfm - Preview

economics entrepreneurship innovation business globalization

31 Mar 09

SKOLL 09: Social entrepreneurs will emerge from credit crisis as leaders, predicts Jeff Skoll

www.socialenterprisemag.co.uk/...index.asp - Preview

entrepreneurship innovation

18 Mar 09

Pioneering Micro-Entrepreneurship Through Poultry Breeding And Distribution in Rural India

MIT Innovations article about KEGG farms and the Kuroiler super chicken...great stuff

www.mitpressjournals.org/...itgg.2008.3.1.37 - Preview

agriculture innovation entrepreneurship

12 Mar 09

Brewster Kahle, archivist and idealist | The internet's librarian | The Economist

www.economist.com/...displaystory.cfm - Preview

innovation technology entrepreneurship

But Mr Kahle is taking a very long-term view. Universal online access to all knowledge may not be “a goal that is going to be finished in our lifetime,” says Mr Kahle. “But if you pick a goal far enough out, people can align to it. I am not interested in building an empire. Our idea is to build the future.”

04 Mar 09