January "Midnight Briefs"

I am writing an unusual (what's unusual anyways?) "briefs" blog entry here on no one topic in particular. And it's currently around midnight.

1) The blog now has search (yay!). It's right there on the right-hand-side toolbar. Use it, please.

2) On the day of the Gallows God (Odin's day; Wednesday) this week I will be in Tallinn. Participating to the ArcticEvening as one of the panelists. Link to the event here:

http://www.arcticstartup.com/2009/01/14/arcticevening-event-in-tallinn-e...

Come say hi if you are around. Come extract some "evangelion" from the Chief Evangelist of Skype, Sten Tamkivi.

3) I hear there's over 200 people already signed up for the Entrepreneur Tuesday talk tomorrow. The talk will be in english. There's still room for (barely) a few more, so come around if you are at Otaniemi/Tapiola tomorrow. The link:

http://www.hmea.fi/taneli-tikka.html

4) While doing my presentation materials for tomorrow I started thinking about a way to measure the success of a serial entrepreneur; measuring the amount of financing she has received against the exit value her companies have created. Seems brutal and uncheatable enough, don't you think? I was also considering my own grand total, which is on positive side, if I did my math right...

Will have to blog more on that some day, interesting topic. They do follow Hollywood movie stars and their success in leading roles, creating lists who is "the most bankable star".. Why not entrepreneurs? Is the point of entrepreneur to make money?

I keep hearing the words of Morten Lund in my head: "You can't do this if you plan to make money, you do it because you have to do it" (not an exact quote).. and agreeing with it a lot.

5) I have a big "notes and ideas" list on what to write about. Some topics might include:

- Taxation for entrepreneurs (all aspects of it)
- The biggest problems in the surrounding structures and obstacles to succeed
- The incentives (or lack of them) in being a serial entrepreneur
- "insider" stuff on how to make money (precisely) in social networks + media.
- Future of online advertising, my views and takes on that.
- What matters the most in the behavior of your customers in social media
- The role of the COO and how it's often blown
- Sausages, the couch and adult entertainment on the telly
- War stories learned: coping with responsibility
- Faith and moments of "startup despair"
- Story on Dopplr's launch
- Some (sometimes nasty) scoop on investor behavior
- War Story: how did I survive a bankruptcy?
- Startup PR: press releases
- Financing: specific VC terms and deal structures
- How telco-companies failed in their networks building
- VCs and IPR; strange bedfellows
- Bootstrapping guide
- Outsourcing in startups
- Societal critique (politics) on things that hinder innovation and "free society"
- War stories on nasty situations that we survived
- Startup board of directors work in detail, recommendations
- Startup strategy; what to focus on?
- Guide to writing business plans that get you funded

... that's quite a load of stuff (and there's more). What sounds like the most exciting stuff for you? Anything specific you would like me to address there? Please leave a comment.