At the end of each month, all our investors get this email called “Brainient PPPs (September, 2011)”. PPP stands for Progress, Plans and Problems. For each category, I write the most important five items. Under Problems, I also ask for help directly (eg. Dave, Suster hasn’t replied yet – can you give him a nudge?).

Besides writing the PPPs, I also attached a one-pager with our KPIs (key performance indicators) for that month. It gives investors a quick overview of how the company’s progressing.

A typical email would look like this:

Hello everyone,

Here’s what we’ve been up to this month. As usual, I’ve bolded the most important stuff in case you just want to skim through:

Progress:
1. Item 1
2. Item 2
3. Item 3
4. Item 4
5. Item 5

Plans:
1. Item 1
2. Item 2
3. Item 3
4. Item 4
5. Item 5

Problems:
1. Problem 1 – Dave, I need your help on this one
2. Problem 2 – Sherry, could use an intro to X (will send a separate email that you can forward)
3. Problem 3
4. Problem 4
5. Problem 5

I’m also attaching our one-page KPI sheet. Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.

Cheers,
Emi

We also use the same system within Brainient. Each Friday, every member of the team sends out PPPs to inform their team leader what they’ve been up to, what they’re planning to do and what problems they have. It works great because it keeps everyone in the team informed.

One of the components that makes Seedcamp unique is the Mini Seedcamp Events that happen around the world over the course of the year. I like attending these events whenever possible, so on October 20th I’m going to Mini Seedcamp Prague. There will be some fantastic mentors and investors there, and you can still apply to pitch your startup, here.

For me, the decision to move to London happened after I met Alex Van Someren at a Mini Seedcamp Event in Paris. So don’t miss out, wear good shoes and you might just end up in Europe’s technology capital as well. If not, at least the post-event parties are always good.

But recently I’ve come to think about networking in the context of a similar activity, but one that people give a lot more forethought to: flirting. Flirting is fun. Partly that’s because the objective is clear. For some, it’s phone numbers; for others, it’s not heading home alone. It also makes you think creatively. So I’m thinking: if you can flirt your way into a marriage, can’t you flirt your way to a term sheet?

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not much of an expert at flirting. But let me share a few tips I’ve picked up over the last few years. Basically, it all boils down to this: you need to stop talking, and start listening.

It starts with identifying your prospective targets. You can either work the room, or you can subtly encourage people to come to you. Some of my friends call this “peacocking” (not a reference to my sadly undeveloped genitalia), and I find that the easiest way to do it is with clothing. For example, I often wear red shoes. You could, I dunno, wear a pink tie. I’m willing to bet you that people will come and compliment your tie. It’s a good ice breaker, and it brings them to you. That’s what you want.

If you get peacocking right, you’ll get a lot of attention. They’ll come to you and start a conversation. That’s good. But it’s also bad. It’s good because you don’t have to work the floor. It’s bad because you will only have about eight seconds to make them stay. Of course, they won’t leave after eight seconds, but their eyes will be after someone with a better, more colourful tie. Have some ice-breakers ready. Tell them something interesting. Something funny. Talk about how you spilled coffee on your trousers right before the pitch.

Once they feel comfortable around you, they’ll start to actually listen. They might even ask you a question about you. It’s important to recognise that IT’S A TRAP. Don’t start talking about yourself just yet. Instead, ask them about themselves. Listen carefully. Don’t say anything or think about what you’re going to say. Just listen. Ask more questions. One of two things will happen. They’ll either be boring, self-involved and dull, in which case you’ll feel like running away, and so you should. (But that’s not nice, so here’s a trick: look around the room and eye one of the other boring people you’ve met. Say “Dan, I’m so sorry to interrupt, but let me introduce you to X, I think you’d have a lot to talk about”. Then run to the loo, grab a drink or feed the meter. Dan will notice you’ve cut him off but will appreciate the effort of finding someone for him to rant at.)

If, on the other hand, Dan is both interesting and fun, the conversation will flow naturally. You’ll end up speaking about yourself – and hell, maybe you’ll even exchange business cards. Don’t just stop there. Make Dan remember you. One way to do this is by saying something memorable, albeit stupid, like, “I just realised, you look a lot like my dad”, which will likely make him laugh. You can then follow-up with an email saying “Hey Dan, I’m the guy with the red shoes who said you look a lot like his dad”. My mates in the pub call this anchoring, and it works like a charm.

Last but not least, you get a lot of Nos when you flirt. Blunt, direct, aggressive Nos. In networking, you get a lot of passive nods or endless speeches. They’re essentially the same thing. When that happens, it’s time to move. Introduce her to someone else and move on. Flirting is a numbers game, and so is networking.

While we all appreciate how your startup will disintermediate videocasting folksonomies by leveraging back-end users, I simply don’t care. It’s not interesting, entertaining, funny or useful. So rather than banging on endlessly, how about you stop and listen for a change. Listen to many, speak to a few, as Shakespeare would say.

Without further ado, I wish best of luck to all participants and I hope this presentation will help you make the most out of Mini Seedcamp London 2011. Or at least help you make sure people don’t start yawning in the middle of your pitch.

Today, Seedcamp also announced that Carlos Espinal from Doughty Hanson has joined Seedcamp as a Partner, and that they’ve increased the number of companies they will invest in to 10 / yr. Twelve, actually – in good Seedcamp spirit. I am incredibly happy for Reshma, Saul & co for getting Carlos on board, and I think he will bring tremendous value to the team.

On a slightly different note but on the same subject, I strongly believe Reshma & co are building THE European tech ecosystem, something we very much need if we want to see European companies become successful. And in order to build this ecosystem, Reshma, Saul, Carlos & Philipp need all support they can get. Plus – I find it very rewarding to give back to the community and help others succeed. Do you?

I think I still hold the record for the entrepreneur with the most Seedcamps under his belt, having won Mini Seedcamp Paris 2009, attended Mini Seedcamp London 2009 and won Seedcamp Week 2009, so I’d like to share some tips to the 23 entrepeneurs that will be on stage on Monday.

1. All you have to do when you’re up there is win people’s trust. That’s it. Really. You can try to explain how your product disintermediates rich-client social media APIs, but seriously: nobody cares. All they care about is YOU (and your co-founders, if there’s more than one presenting)

2. When you’re asked why you’re there, don’t say you’re there for funding. Of course you want money – everybody does. But there’s a saying in town: ‘Ask an investor for money and he’ll give you advice. Ask him for advice and he’ll give you money’.

3. Shut down your laptop and keep it shut. You are here to meet people, that’s it, full stop. Everything in this world happens because you knew the right people at the right time, so the best way to increase your chances of success is by meeting as many people as possible.

4. Follow-up heavily. If you’re very active, you will probably have around 40-50 business cards after each day. Follow-up while your memory is still fresh, ideally in the night, on the same day. Personalize each email. Because I have a terrible memory, I usually write how I met the person and what I discussed with her / him on the business card, after the discussion.

5. Most people laugh when I say this, but: wear good shoes. That’s the first thing everyone will notice about you. For example – I know everybody will notice me next week, because my going-out-to-events shoes are a very, very, very RED.

So, keep in mind: your chances to win Seedcamp Week will increase exponentially with every person you meet and “win” to your side. I hope these tips will help you. Good luck, and get some rest this weekend, you will need it.

It was my third time in Prague, none of which was long enough to allow me to get the real feel of the city, unfortunately. What I could grasp each time though was the wonderful contrast between the beautiful, almost parisian buildings like the National Theatre and the terrible, terrible, matchbox style communist buildings like the University of Economics. One would argue you’d prefer not to have any matchbox buildings in such a beautiful city, but I think it’s what makes Prague so special.

Mini Seedcamp Prague was a real success, I think. Some of the companies have amazing technology & teams behind, so I’m sure we’ll see more of them in the near future. Czech Republic has a pretty interesting tech scene, and with people like Ondrej Bartos and Tom Newbold around, it’ll probably keep going up.

I enjoyed spending time with all the selected teams and I encourage every startup out there to apply to one of the Mini Seedcamps. As for me, I hope to be able to test my carry-on’s wheels again in Prague, soon. Na zdravi!

For those of you who don’t know, Jonathan Klein founded Getty Images together with Mark Getty, back in 1993. Getty Images is the leading stock photo business in the world.

Last week, thanks to Saul Klein and Seedcamp, I had the priviledge to listen to him for two hours, speaking about how he built a business that makes hundreds of millions of dollars in profit every year.

What struck me the most was how “normal” Mr. Klein was. Extremely friendly and patient with all our questions, some of which were rather stupid, I think . Then, I was amazed at the fact he had a set of ‘principles’ for every aspect of the business, whether it’s hiring people, scaling the business or creating sustainability. And last but definitely not least, I loved the fact that he was fun, easy going and had a constant smile on his face.

Besides talking about how he built a billion dollar company in 15 years, he gave us 10 tips that can help us do it as well. And I want to share that wisdom with you:

1. Raise more money than you think you need. If you’re on to build a large business, dilution doesn’t matter anyway. You’re in the business of minimizing risk.

2. Cash is the only thing that matters. That should be your focus. Create an automated, scalable business model that will generate cash.

3. Invest in your company’s culture. It works as a filter for making small, easy or complex and tough decisions.

4. The two most important things in your company are: your employees and your customers.

5. Be honest, transparent & realistic. Especially with yourself.

6. Decide fast. It’s better to be wrong and fix it than sit around for 3 months and miss on opportunities.

7. Wrong decisions are OK. As long as you’re wrong really fast!

8. Focus, focus, focus. Say NO to stuff. Constantly.

9. LEAD. People are crying out for leadership. Know where you’re going, and they’ll follow. You can find Jonathan’s leadership principles here.

10. Have fun every day. “Sometimes it’s even black humor“, he said.

Besides the “10 rules for building a business”, he constantly showered us with other various bits of advice, like: be unglamorous, make it easy to use, be accessible, understand your market and be relevant, speak the same language as your customer, do a lot of research, explore, and my personal favorite – make the customer look good.

With that said, I’d like to thank Jonathan for inspiring me to try and be better, work harder, lead thoroughly and have fun while doing it. Oh, and I finally understood that building a great business will take at least 10 years. I’m up for that.

We started off in New York, which was fun and entertaining, especially the day we met Jonathan Klein, founder & CEO of Getty Images (I’m going to blog about that as well, soon ). We also met the wonderful people at Union Square Ventures and had fun with New York’s tech scene at the NY Tech Meet-up. If I’d have to summarize NY in 3 words, I’d say: the shops, the taxis and the girls .

We spent the second half of our trip in Silicon Valley, and I am still mesmerized at the amount of brain per square meter that I encountered there. Whenever I looked left, there was someone running an interesting startup. Whenever I looked right, there was a VC or an angel investor looking for new opportunities. Wherever I looked, there was someone that could help me or that I could help, one way or another. And if I were to summarize my experience in Silicon Valley in just three words, I’d say: Wow, just wow!

I can’t stress enough how valuable Seedcamp has been for Brainient. I am awed and astonished when I look back and see how much we’ve accomplished in the past four months. I’ve written about the Seedcamp Experience before, but if I were to summarize it in just three words, I’d say: YOU. NEED. IT.

And btw, Mini Seedcamp Zagreb is coming up and you still have a few days to apply .