You’re absolutely right when you say “Some of the most powerful people in the tech industry are the ones you literally never see” – a point I should have made in my piece. Great contribution, Mike.

Woman, you’re f’ing hilarious

+1

The real tragedy of all this, of course, is that we’re stuck with those hopelessly worthy windbags from the Skoll forum. Come on, powers that be: open British airspace so we can ship these parasites out of the country.

Blimey. So much hatred and jealousy! If only these guys spent as much energy on their startups as they do on bitching about genuinely successful people, they might command the same kind of respect that Alex does – respect from people in London who know him personally, unlike (I’m guessing) any of those brave/stupid enough to put their names to the comments above.

Alex is the quintessential entrepreneur. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.

+10

+1

Another epic graphic, Mike. Nice work.

I’ll do PR!

Since we’ve started down the lolcat/dog road, allow me to share with everybody the editorial policy that has kept us on our toes over the last few months:

Joking aside: Mike, thanks for being a truly fantastic editor. You rock.

He sounds… charming.

Oh, you can get those everywhere.

Awesome.

Oops. Ta.

You only pay if you are successful.

Thanks for pointing this out, Konstantinos. I wasn’t aware of your iPhone app.

News: a mobile app is confirmed as on its way by the Huddle co-founder.

News: new features added to Huddle this week.

Any other questions?

Well, anon, I guess enough of those major corporations don’t agree with you about the usability and features. And based on revisiting Huddle this morning, to be honest, neither do I.

It appears “someone” has removed them.

No, we really mean it this time. It’s on SpinVox’s official blog and everything.

Umm, like this one?

http://uk.beta.techcrunch.com/2009/08/23/nsfw-say-what-you-like-about-the-google-books-kool-aid-but-it-tastes-much-better-than-microsoft’s-sour-grapes/

Just found the correct figure in the 2007 accounts: it’s £564,000.

Previous year (2006): £249,000

A bit more than that, actually. As CEO of a start-up that doesn’t break even yet.

Oops – typo – thank you.

Is that you, Loren?

I’m not “going up against” anyone. I am concerned about the privacy of my data and I’ve seen/heard nothing from SpinVox to allay those fears.

So I’ve decided to ask the ICO to look into the matter with greater urgency than they are currently doing, and letting other people know how to register their concerns, should they choose to. That’s all.

Thanks for that clarification, John. It makes the Twitter service sound much more attractive.

Not to mention the spiffing new website…

It seems like the whole internet is borked today – I can’t even send email at the moment, and this page took over a minute to load. Will my comment appear? Who knows…

I’m in.

It’s not that they “stopped” us asking questions about the business; rather, there was no one in the room either qualified or willing to answer. We did ask a couple – for example, about investment and cash burn – but when Domecq left as quickly as she arrived it was obvious the remaining staff in the room weren’t going to go near them.

And that’s precisely what I meant when I wrote that this demo didn’t answer the big questions: it was a technical demo of the product, rather than a press conference about the business.

I can assure you that SpinVox will *not* have copy approval over anything I write.

You, Basti.

[ Cross-posted from http://yiannopoulos.net/2009/07/come-and-have-a-go-if-you-think-youre-hard-enough/#comment-135 ]

I agree with most of the above anon’ comments.

I agreed with some of the content of your original Grim up North article – not so much with the tone or lack of real evidence – really glad you are taking the time to have a closer look at the region. I felt I could not publicly agree with what you said for fear of suffering adverse consequences in the region. The region is close knit – which is a plus – but could also act against you if you dare to be critical of the key players and purse holders in the region.

We (tech start ups) are at a disadvantage in the region – there is insufficient knowledge or support available. There are few tech savvy investors. The bodies that should be supportive of companies often put up barriers in the way they set up competing offshoots/not for profits who seem to have very little accountability. Projects awarded to these offshoot bodies are hailed a great success all too readily via active PR depts – without tangible benefits to the region or businesses ever being required of them. There is a lot of waste of resources.

While there is clearly a need for a regional body such as the RDA – ONE – it needs to be looked at and “trimmed” down to refocus – and maybe with a change in government it may happen. We live in hope.

We as a company have considered moving out of the region due to these reasons – which is drastic – given most of our team are well established in the region and have personal roots here and love the region.

Dig deep Milo! – really sorry am unable to go on the record – we are hoping your investigations will wake up some of the bodies concerned and even lead to some positive changes – no pressure! Thanks for your efforts thus far.

Out of interest, why do you think Tweetmeme has “failed terribly”?

> maybe you could do the same for all the other RDA

I plan to. Where would you guys recommend I go next? Manchester? Liverpool?

If you’d like to contribute toward the research I’m doing for Part Two, please read this:

http://yiannopoulos.net/2009/07/come-and-have-a-go-if-you-think-youre-hard-enough/

Thanks, Mike. A great round-up of the debate so far.