as for the conference:
there was limited food!!! NO INTERNET, and I actually had no internet during both the days.
it was VERY COLD there.

VCs were not really interested in what was going on, and had very low representation.

there were SELLERS no BUYERS.

it was EXPENSIVE.

Only good thing was the Finish Sauna.

I will not go there next year, nor recommend it to others.

All the three selected “startups” were no real startups at all.
One got 25 million funding, the over one was a 10 person company which exists already 5 years, the travel site is just a clone op tripadvisor and also already exists for over 2 years. Nothing new, nothing innovative, really.

But as a jury member pointed out, one of the key points to select the 3 finalists was profitabilty. Yes, sure. These are success stories, no startups. How can we other startups be profitable if we just started? That doesn’t work. I thought the main criteria would be innovative new things, and not recylcing old concepts again (website building, community site etc..).

If you make up rules (like at most 5-7 slides, must say why you are qualified, etc…), why not stick to these and punish those breaknig the rules? Also that you required a live demo, and that the internet did never work was a joke.

1) Total detachtment from the VCs in the panels and Startups presenting in the competition… Fred Wilson (can’t remember his company) complained about not having access to enough good startups to put in his 30 million yearly…. Ironically there were 30 startups presenting next door and he knew nothing about them….nor did any of the VCs really care about finding our about them…

2) Voting systems was disastrous. Peoples choice award only worked for the last 24 companies, but non existent for the 1st 6…(it wasn’t properly explained)

3) Judges did not show up for two of the major sets (divided into 6 companies)…and it is obviously not the same to have a panel with Scobble and 3 VCs, than one with 4 Bloggers (No offence to bloggers, but we’re here for a specific reason…Money and Connections….!

4) Please profile and group companies accordingly. Don’t include a company with Military based technology from Kiev, with one with great idea but limited cash, and with one with 25 MIllion funding. Doesn’t make sense.

5) Voting was grouped in panels of 6. 1 mediocre company in one panel got more votes than 1 great company in anohter, simply because judges we comparing 1 vs the remaning 5…not the global 30.

6) If you invite 30 startups to LeWeb, PLEASE really INVITE them, don’t make them PAY half the price of 1,500 Eur!! Ironically VC speakers DO NOT PAY (At least not all)…but cash hungry startups looking for a chance to find cash have to SPEND cash….What kind of a message are we sending to VCs??

7) Tech…this is general, but projector was late for mobile demos, internet NON EXISTENT throughout BOTH days, Organization in General for the startup competition was really bad..

This is a whining post, but everything in it is completely TRUE. Please ask any of the 30 Startups how they feel things were handled…

Honestly, It feels like Le Web looked for a way to Sell 60 additional tickets and decided to come up with the “competition”.

Judges and Panel we’re not compromised at all…showing up late, or not even showing..

Anyway…my true hope is that this is taken into account, and next year, people think twice about taking up this “invitation”….

You’ve been advised.

Sad.
Cheers…

@Juan, and yes, we need a designer

Congrats to the Viewdle Team!!!!

Quick correction though: ROO no longer exists. It was re-branded/renamed to KIT digital (changed stock ticker to KITD).

We are very proactive about rolling out the KIT digital brand so the change in your text (and the Crunchbase url) would be much appreciated

Thanks!!!

But what an awesome tool. It’s been in cameras for a little while, but great to have it online now.