Philipp Moehring

Author: Philipp

  • I am addicted to my Kindle

    I bought a Kindle about a month ago, and it was the best gadget purchase in a long while. I read about a hundred pages per day on it, because I take it everywhere (and I always think “it’s awesome” when I see it lying on my table).

    I actually pre-ordered it when it was announced, but reneged on my decision to get the 3G version – which stupidly put me at the back of the waiting list when I reconsidered.

    Why is it awesome

    Reading on it is great. Period. I prefer it to a book now – here’s why:

    • It’s smaller and lighter than a book and fits in a coat pocket easily. I just have it with me all the time and take it out on every bus or tube ride.
    • It’s better to hold in one hand than a book. You can grab it at every corner and you dont have to awkwardly bend the spine by spreading your fingers.
    • The screen is perfect for text. Forget an iPad for reading a book (or lots of them, for that matter) – it will strain your eyes.
    • You have all that stuff with you – books, magazines, articles. I always travelled with at least one non fiction and one fiction book, and got the economist and some fun magazine at the airport. Lots of dead trees to lug around – not anymore.
    • I use Instapaper like a madman now. You can bookmark long articles on the web and they are automatically synced. My own personalised magazine, and givemesomethingtoread.com has great content (hat tip to Johannes).
    • Do not think iPad vs Kindle – purpose, size, weight, value, and most importantly the screen are not comparable. You buy this to read books. Think discman vs iPod.
    • Doing only one thing means you are focused, and it carries over from a paper book. You can’t do anything but read with that, either.
    • I love buying books, and paper, and the smell, and all that. I am not missing it at all. I own a ton of vinyl, but I love my iPod – you get the point.

    Features and 3G Version

    I’ve yet to put a value on a lot of features like notes, clippings, and the 3G usage. I am only reading on it, and I am already hooked. The question of 3G or not is not really important – if you can afford the extra 40 pounds, just get the 3G version, I am sure you’re only gonna miss it when travelling a lot.

    I like simplifying my life, and scratching the huge bookcase from my moving list feels great. Get your partner one for Christmas (I hope Isa doesn’t read my blog).

    Oh, and check out my case:

  • IDCEE Kiev and thoughts on Europe

    I was in Kiev last week, representing Seedcamp at the Investor Day Central and Eastern Europe. Besides seeing this beautiful city for the first time (autumn colours, wide roads, and impressive Soviet-era buildings), the trip was well worth it.

    I was to give a keynote at IDCEE about the emerging models of early stage financing (think super angels, micro seed, etc.), and I had prepared an elaborate affair of why and how to work with the individual actors. While enjoying the reception the night before, i quickly realised I needed to work on the slides again – there is no such thing as an active angel community or even seed funds in the Ukraine. That’s why I focused on a more general introduction to the topic, less on specific items such as strengths and weaknesses.

    The grass is always greener on the other side

    It is interesting to see with which kind of enthusiasm new models of funding (or rather, fair and entrepreneur-focused models of funding) are greeted in less active markets. I saw the same in South Africa, Singapore, and other places I’ve been to over the last few months. Entrepreneurs are really hungry to prove themselves and go international with outside investors, no matter where they are. Of course, that’s also the attitude we see in teams who come to our events in London from further away. Likewise, all the European teams who are blessed with an at least somewhat working funding market are more than eager to head westwards to New York and the Valley. Over the last years I saw Austrians pitching in Germany, Germans go to London, and Londonites engaging in an endless debate on why the US is a better place to start their business.

    Stop whining

    My take away from Kiev especially (as the situation is really underdeveloped and dire) was that it’s really important to build the local markets and help kickstart your own community. Sitting on a panel on “how to go to the Silicon Valley”, we agreed that the best result of all these moves across the pond would be knowledge, networks, and money coming back home to support the next generation of companies. The worst would be a brain drain that leaves Europe in the dust. To prevent this, it’s really important to network across borders to be less isolated from what is going on in Europe and build an ecosystem that works together. I could go on about all this for a while, but I think the most important point is this: it’s too easy to complain about the risk-averse investors (or the unimaginative founders) – if you don’t help changing the status quo, you shouldn’t be whining about it.

    Stuff from Kiev

    So, here are the slides I promised to put on my blog:

    IDCEE – models of early stage funding

    …And a little bit of my German accent mixed with too much coffee for your entertainment:

    I hung out in Kiev with Mike Butcher from TC Europe, who had some thoughts on the current situation – mirroring IDCEE and the excellent f.ounders event in Dublin, and Martin from The Next Web – his thoughts about IDCEE are here.

  • No longer “hide apps” in facebook?

    It seems that you can no longer hide apps in the facebook newsfeed (as in “hide all posts from this app”):

    Apps Screenshot

    Can’t say I’m a big fan of this. FB will argue they prune the newsfeed anyways (you only see about 2% of all posts from friends), but it’s a pretty obvious move towards pushing more apps and ads. Clicking “spam” will probably  influence this, but you do not have full control over it.

  • Some links – after a long long time…

    You should read these:

    I use the Postalicious plugin to sync notable bookmarks. Comments are welcome.

  • Working from home

    Easy setup

    I work quite a bit from home – both because I can and because lots of things come up during the weekend/evenings. We have a mantra of “when it gets done, it doesn’t matter where you are” at Seedcamp, so I just stay home some days to focus (and have music pumping all day).

    The key to actually get stuff done here is in my opinion a very simple question of setup – I have the same monitor, keyboard, and mouse at home as I use in the office. I just plug my laptop in and sit down, all works. Now all I need here is a nice Aeron chair, maybe I’ll find one falling off a truck.

    I feel that the resolution on the 13 inch Macbook is not really great for working on the road. Email and some light excel work is ok, but anything beyond that is annoying – it’s only 800px high, not much more than a netbook. The external 24 inch monitor only cost me a hundred pounds, and I can use it to watch movies as well. I contemplated the 15 inch Macbook with a high res display, but it’s just too big to lug around (and an expensive step up if only concerned with the display). Let’s hope for an update, because beyond that, it’s a great machine.

    My update was the 1m pine board standing on Ikea Capita kitchen shelf legs for a couple of pounds. It’s simple, cheap and very useful, as i can store lots of stuff below it and keep the desk area clean. The Monitor is not height-adjustable, so it’s also quite good for my back – i am tall sitting up. This is one for Roitsch not to miss in his quest for the ultimate desk!

  • Facebook was big before you knew it was

    Gigaom has some cool facts about Facebook from October 2005:

    Facebook by the numbers, Oct. 26, 2005:

    • 5 million users
    • 5.5 billion page views in the month of September 2005
    • The three stats Zuckerberg said he cared about: 70 percent of users come back daily, 85 percent come back weekly, 93 percent monthly
    • Over 20,000 joining per day and accelerating
    • 230 million page views per day (“We’re going to pass Google in page views a few weeks from now,” said Zuckerberg. “I was pretty surprised when I heard that.”)
    • “We have well more than $1 million a month in revenue and that way covers our expenses — and we’re not even doing anything cool yet.”

    via A Time Capsule of Mark Zuckerberg From 2005 «.

    I joined Facebook some time in 2005 while in Florida, but I can’t seem to find an exact date. Anyways, impressive.

  • The 10x problem

    Today, manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is about 166,000, lower than it was before the first PC, the MITS Altair 2800, was assembled in 1975

    via Andy Grove: How America Can Create Jobs – BusinessWeek.

    Heard about this piece on ‘this week in venture capital‘ – the best podcast I listen to – and it really is insightful. The numbers are pretty astounding.