Andrew Ive has a new venture underway:  Advisor Garage

I think the idea – connecting entrepreneurs with advisors, who can help with fundraising or operations – fills a valuable niche. The formation of an advisor group is a key activity for any start-up, so increased efficiencies would be welcome.  However,it is also a very intimate process.  My suspicion is that Advisor Garage will be most effective in creating introductions.

Andrew says that the service is primarily for Engllish-speaking countries, but I am sure people eveywhere will sign up. There may be quite a bit of value for entrepreneurs in geographies where the start-up path is less defined that the US or the UK.

The service is free for advisors, and attains reveneues by selling a premium membership to entrepreneurs.

Aydin has a post discussing the fact that as soon as a business makes its mark as a success, there are immediately similar ventures that jump in to the arena.  He concludes:

Intensely competing for similar customers with undifferentiated revenue models doesn’t seem like a recipe for success.

Of course, there are exceptions.  When one looks at Bebo as a latecomer copycat trying to replicate what MySpace has pulled off, she has to remember MySpace jumped into Friendster’s model.  (Ironically, at least in the social networking world, there seems to be constant room for newcomers.  Case in point is Bebo, which has evolved into a success itself).  However, I do agree with Aydin’s premise.

For me, it’s also interesting to observe the localization of successful models – copycats in new markets.  Turkey has seen a few, and there are new ones entering the realm.  Izlesene.com is a recent entry into video sharing here, and while it’s still brand new, we get TrTube, a blatant YouTube copycat.  Is there room?

The second half of the Interactive Marketing Summit was stronger.  The hightlights included:
– Fatos Karahasan‘s discussion on interactive marketing principles (although I found some of the generalizations, well, too general)
– a presentation by Alemsah that provided a sampling of Web 2.0 successes around the world
– a walk-through by Bulent Boytorun of Zap Medya, on web advertising arithmetic

I am at the Interactive Marketing Summit 2.0 (Etkilesimli Pazarlama Zirvesi 2.0, link in Turkish), organized by Marketing Turkiye.  The morning’s highlight was a  presentation by Martijn Daalder.

For me, the entire morning was about emulating work, as we traditionally understand it (go to a seminar, have coffee and network, sit and listen to a few good speakers, and perhaps a bad one – usually the sponsor, have coffee and network, etc.), organized around a concept that is thinly understood by everyone in the room. 

One early presenter shared videos of people on the street being asked what they understand from concepts including, interactive and marketing. As you can imagine, the answers were skewed towards the clueless. The problem is, in an effort to tag and brand ideas, these concepts are floated around without much digestion.  As a person in the middle of the Web2.0 discussion since the beginning, I’d have a hard time articulating it.

Daalder made one remark that caught my attention. He mentioned that the revenue mix of media companies have moved from 95% advertising, to 50%, and that this is a trend that will continue.  When asked about the fact that Google, the most successful media company of the last decade makes almost all of its revenues from advertising, he countered by saying google doesn’t represent significant media revenues (as opposed to Disney and Viacom, for instance) and that even Google may go towards subscription-type revenues.

I could not disagree more.  As the price of attention goes up, the per capita spending on goods and services increases, the cost of content will shift towards those who’d like to command that attention.  I’d love to see my cable company try to charge me for premium channels in 10 years.

My bet will be with those who strip content to smaller pieces (microchunking, in Umair‘s words) and float it on the edge.

NY-based search start up Hakia has closed an $11m round of funding from a diverse set of investors:

Poland’s Prokom Investments, an investment group active in the oil, real estate, IT, financial and biotech sectors.

Turkey’s KVK, distributes mobile telecom services and products in Turkey.

Also from Turkey, angel investor Murat Vargi pitched in some funding. He is one of the founding shareholders in Turkcell, a mobile operator and the only Turkish company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

In Malaysia, Hakia secured funding from angel investor Lu Pat Ng, who represented his family, which has substantial investments in companies worldwide.

From Finland, Hakia turned to Dr. Pentti Kouri, an economist and VC who was a member of the Nokia board in the 1980s.

In the United States, Hakia received funding from Alexandra Investment Management, an investment advisory firm that manages a global hedge fund.

Also from the U.S., former Senator and New York Knicks basketball player Bill Bradley has joined the company’s board, along with Dr. Kouri, Mr. Vargi, Anuj Mathur of Alexandra Investment Management, and Hakia CEO Riza Berkan.

Hakia’s line on not having top tier VCs in the round is:

Dr.
Berkan resisted VC firms because he worried they would demand too much
control and push development too fast to get the technology to the
product phase so they could earn back their investment.

I understand his line of thinking and agree that aggressive VC pressure has hurt many ventures.  However, the buzz and network effect that rides in with a top-tier VC could be a valuable weapon when going up against Google.

One side note on this story is that Murat Vargi’s investment in Hakia earned him a cover story on Forbes Turkey (unbelievably, with no website!, thus no link), with the caption "Vargi investing in the next Google".  Just that coverage for Murat Vargi, who usually keeps a low profile, is a nice dividend for his investment.

I keep rooting for Hakia.
 

IAB and PWC report that Q3 2006 online ad revenues were $4.2 billion. This represents a 33% 3Q05/3Q06 growth.

My guess for the Turkish market is about $20m, excluding Google, including gambling.