FlorianDargel

Travel eCommerce

 I’m impressed. Th German web-site of the nightrain from Paris to Munich wouldn’t let me book a one-way ticket from Paris, but who needs them when you can achieve the same via the French SNCF site, and cheaper. The French, they even speak German ;-)

Also a good find is that you can book European Flights as a European customer via Expedia.com. What's so special about that, you say? I reckon the prices are regularly up to 20% less than on European sites, and sometimes combinations are available you cant even find on the airlines sites. That way even I can afford a trip to Les Blogs. I'm just waiting for an email saying "sorry, just kidding -you have to book through our high-price spin-offs in Europe".

Influence of locusts on the German economy

The German private equity association BVK and PwC published a study about how companies performed if they are PE-backed.There are 5.500 PE and VC financed companies in Germany, accounting for 5,2% of GDP, not bad. Growth-rates are also significant: 10% pa on average over  the whole sample (No Cagr?)

What I’d like to know is how much of a survivorship bias is built into these figures – per definition this survey only looked at those companies that remained active since the survey was last carried out in 2001… Odd picture for the title as well – are we replacing the infamous locusts with an ice-breaker steaming through the German pack-ice?

Quote of the day

Sometimes a few words is all you need:

Is Web 2.0 Just a Google Affiliates Program?

Via Haloscan

Life in the old enterprise software dog yet?

Just spoke to a VC that invests primarily in enabling and enterprise software, and he felt there was no shortage of dealflow (except in Germany ;-) and opportunities if you know where to look. The same argument is being made here. Think open source, SaaS, focusing on verticals and innovation to be successful, and not necessarily with huge amounts of capital either.

Breed your own ringtones

WolframTones – very cool concept. Wolfram calls it «mining the computational universe», but in effect it’s just breeding. Actually, what this really needs in being paired with a threadless type engine where the coolest productions of others rise to the top. Customisation is cool, but it might take a while for average mortals to come up with a cool ringtone that they like – but there will be plenty of people who have the imagination _and_ time in spades…

 

EDI-MUC direct flights

YAY! Now book-able on the BMI site – direct flights from Edinburgh to Munich. I do hope that will become an institution. Plus, the times are decent: Morning and evening flights.

Only makes you wonder: what took them so long – Munich and Edinburgh are twinned, there should be plenty of business opportunities and the traditional hub-and-spoke model is so broken. Please all book flights to make sure this route survives.

Via Schottland.de

Update: The route has been more or less confirmed by Lufthansa's UK Manager in this Herald article. It also says they retained the larger 737s on the EDI-FRA route due to demand and are looking at opening a Glasgow route. Cool.

Running a marathon? look here first

Top 10 reasons not to run a marathon

via the always thought-provoking Marginal Revolution.

The Million Dollar Homepage

Under the category «why didn’t I think of that»!

The Million Dollar Homepage

Neat fundraising idea to finance your studies. I guess before too long the novelty value will be arbitraged away and it will cease to work. Perhaps a riff on that would be to sell pixel sized stakes in the future success of the student.

Medical Data Startups

"I've seen the movie before and it's a good one."

Quote on medical data opportunities from always interesting A VC.

When I left the Army I insisted on getting a copy of my medical records. They thought I was crazy to ask for it but at some point that will become a natural process I hope.

test

Re-testing BlogJet. In FRA without wifi. The last call to Vilnius included the exhortation «passenger xy, you have 10 seconds to present yourself to the gate»…