Fruugo presentation and interview from SIME 08

It took me a while to get the video online; I'm currently here in the Finnish countryside, barely within the reach of the interwebz (and the trip isn't on my Dopplr, shame on me!). Converting the video from an "obscure digicamera format" into something that is reasonably sized and compliant with online video services took a while.

But here it is: Fruugo's presentation and interview from SIME08. Janne Waltonen of Fruugo gives a talk, and then sits down with Ola Ahlvarsson for a brief interview.

Fruugo talk in SIME by Taneli for http://tane.li from Taneli Tikka on Vimeo.

If you have read all the interviews available concerning Fruugo, then there isn't that much additional substance offered in this video. There are a few bits and pieces of stuff thou. This Arctic Startup post from before the appearance on stage has most of the info:

http://www.arcticstartup.com/fruugo-to-arcticstartup-on-tomorrows-pr-lau...

Janne Waltonen doesn't launch a product or service, but rather talks about the upcoming launch, without showing any previews at this point. Audience is being asked to participate and get in touch - always a good idea. In this context the "witness the Fruugo launch" -headline was a bit off, but I'm sure it is being placed there by the conference instead of the company itself. Janne does a good job in mentioning right at the start that they don't actually launch anything right now.

One of the funniest answers to "do you online shop?" - question is "I think it's boring" ;) highlights one part of the existing problem for sure.

Ola also brings one good point to the table in the interview by saying that if somebody is a retailer that's selling only in a few countries, then Fruugo sounds like a rather good prop in expanding the market to additional areas. Certainly sounds like an opportunity many might go after.

Fruugo seems very careful in trying hard not to oversell and hype, but instead bring the expectations down and keep a cool head. I have the feeling that it won't be easy for them to pull all of that through. As Janne says on stage; it takes a lot to come up and build anything new in online shopping.

The startup I'm currently heading, www.runtoshop.com, is also in the online shopping space, more specifically in the social shopping space. We don't consider Fruugo to be a "head-on primary competitor", but then again we haven't seen what they have got "under the hood" yet. Sounds like the business models and concepts have a supporting fit for each other.

Looks like we (the public) still don't know much about Fruugo, and will have to wait until January'09. Then again that's only about 45 days away, not much of a wait, or is it?

After seeing the video, what do you think? Did they give a good impression, or was something amiss? How does the story continue from here?