Seed Capital Using Crowdfunding: Korstiaan Zandvliet, CEO of Symbid, Amsterdam (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What are the core benefits that your community offers to the investors?

Korstiaan Zandvliet: There are several motivations for investors to invest, so the benefits differ accordingly. What the community offers to all investors is engagement and information/updates about the plan. The entrepreneur provides the latter by answering questions, sending out emails, or placing status updates about the progress of the idea. Other than that, part of the community is mainly involved with the idea and doesn’t participate much in discussions. Other investors enjoy posing questions or information in relation to the idea they came across or answering questions that are aimed at the entrepreneur in general if they know the answer. >>>

Seed Capital Using Crowdfunding: Korstiaan Zandvliet, CEO of Symbid, Amsterdam (Part 1)

Korstiaan Zandvliet holds an MSc in New Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship and has a background in sociology and business administration. He is a frequent writer of blog articles on social media, crowdsourcing and c. After holding a position as marketing manager for a Dutch software company (www.mendix.com), he co-founded a company called Symbid, which aims to help nascent entrepreneurs to overcome financing problems for their start-up or small business. Symbid focuses on entrepreneurial finance needs up to €2.5 million by using the concept of crowdfunding in a new way. In contrast to currently available crowdfunding sites, Symbid developed a financial and legal framework, which allows crowdfunders to actually become a shareholder of the offered crowdfunding propositions. For more information, visit www.symbid.com.

Sramana Mitra: Korstiaan, welcome to the blog. To start, would you tell us more about your offering is in the domain of crowdfunding to fund startup ventures? >>>

Catching Up On Readings: Obama, Big Data, and the Science of Predictions

Not all of this election’s headlines revolved around jobs, health care and foreign policy. The work of people such as blogger, statistician, and sabermetrician Nate Silver, who correctly predicted which candidate would win all 50 states, sheds light on the use of big data to predict and analyze natural and human activity. Click on the paragraph link for the rest of this week’s posts. >>>

Jose Dominic, Kerala’s Sustainable Tourism Visionary

It’s a hot, tropical afternoon in Kumarakom, in the backwaters of Kerala. I am sitting on the verandah of a cottage in Coconut Lagoon, which is a nature resort and the brainchild of Jose Dominic, CEO of the CGH Earth Group of hotels. I am watching turtles trying to climb out of a backwater canal, biting on some plants, and falling into the water again. Boats pass by. Traditional Kerala houses dot the property, with ours being one of them. >>>

Kolkata and Kerala This October

I am heading to India today. The first event I will be at is TiECon Kerala (October 25 and 26) where on the 26th morning, I will be giving a special keynote, and on the 26th afternoon, we will have a pitch fest where six 1M/1M scholarships will be awarded to entrepreneurs in Kerala. And in Kolkata, on Nov 1, we will also have a pitch fest where six scholarships will be awarded.

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Catching Up On Readings: Spotlight On Young Social Entrepreneurs

If you’re a young social entrepreneur looking for inspiration, you may want to check out the 2012 Laureate Global Fellows, a group of hardworking entrepreneurs from around the world in fields ranging from sustainable fuel to promoting civic engagement. Click on the paragraph link for the rest of this week’s posts. >>>

Parallel Entrepreneurship: Serguei Beloussov, Founder of Parallels (Part 1)

Serguei is a founder Parallels, where he serves as the chief architect and the executive chairman of the board. Prior to his current positions he also served as the CEO of Parallels. Under Beloussov’s leadership, Parallels grew to profitability and became a market leader in desktop virtualization, OS containers, and control panel offerings. Beloussov holds a B.S. in physics, an M.S. in physics and electrical engineering with high honors, and a Ph.D. in computer science from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

Sramana: Serguei, let’s start at the beginning of your story. Where do you come from? What are the beginnings of your entrepreneurial journey?

Serguei Beloussov: I was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. At the time it was still the Soviet Union. I attended specialized schools for physics and mathematics in St. Petersburg, which is the second largest city in the country. I participated in a variety of competitions for physics and mathematics for the Soviet Union. >>>

Building a $50M Profitable Social Network Focused on Discovery: Greg Tseng, CEO of Tagged (Part 1)

Greg Tseng is the founder and CEO of Tagged, a social network site focused on helping people meet other people. Prior he co-founded Avivon Inc., which introduced the textbook comparison-shopping agent flyingchickens.com to the Harvard campus during the fall semester of 1999, and he served as COO of Limespot.com LLC. Greg holds an A.B. in chemistry, physics and mathematics from Harvard University. Greg is presently on leave from Stanford University, where he is pursuing a Ph.D. in physics on a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship.

Sramana: Greg, let’s get started by reviewing your background. Where are you from? What are the roots of your entrepreneurial journey?

Greg Tseng: I was born in Taiwan, but my parents immigrated to the U.S. when I was two and a half years old. I grew up in northern Virginia in a suburb of Washington, D.C. I grew up in an Asian household, so my parents really emphasized academics, especially math and science. Throughout high school I was in all the math and science clubs and contests. >>>