Rose Cantine

An entrepreneur’s honest assessment of what went wrong
Apple has 66 percent of market for $1000-plus computers

Sphere It

There is a fascinating article in the Canadian Financial Post on Geosign, a company that took in $160M in venture capital funding in March 2007 only to fall apart a year later because their business model consisted of gaming the search engines, known as “search arbitrage” which is nothing more than sending people who click [...]

Not exactly a business you can do in your pajamas and quite hazardous but fascinating and rewarding if you are up to it: opening a restaurant in Kabul (Afghanistan). A number of foreign women have opened restaurants in Kabul according to Women’s eNews, offering Thai, Mexican, Filipino, Indian and other kinds of cuisines to residents. [...]

Blyk has finally launched in the UK, with service coming to other European countries in 2008. I’ve been waiting for Blyk to begin its service because the model is totally different from that of other operators:

only 16-24 year olds can get the service
they get 43 minutes and 217 text messages free every month
they agree to [...]

The Silicon Valley Business Journal reports: “Investors directed at least $464.2 million into 101 Web 2.0 deals worldwide in the first half of the year, according to a report released Monday . . . Overall, the number of global Web 2.0 deals climbed 14 percent in the first half, the report said — but [...]

It’s 2007 and by now, things should have changed, especially in this part of the world - “progressive” Europe that likes to look down on those backward Americans and unwashed Third Worlders with weird ideologies. But check out this video and the Financial Times stories about Seedcamp. Who do you see? Men, men and more [...]

(1) UK telecom company Noodle pays you when you use your phone (from the Times UK):
“Some customers are already making up to £100 a week, more than enough to cover a phone’s running costs, according to Noodle, the telecom firm providing the service. Noodle customers make 2p a minute if they make or receive a [...]