EIPP (e-invoicing) and StartUp World

This is written on flight but posted after landing as there isn’t a mechanism to post this any other way, eventhough my shiny new mac is picking up a "Free WiFi Signal". According to the list of attendees, I am accompanied by 19 exceptional individuals (so called entrepreneurs) and 27 supporters which include organisers to  media including Tom Watson, representing the UK Government. Some of them are already in the US (Stewart from Sun Microsystems, Jack Fairhall from Kwiqq, etc).

So here I am sitting next to two journalists, Ashley Noris, Founder of Shinymedia and Edie Lush of The Spectator magazine. We had a lot to speak as you do in long haul flights. Ashley is an entrepreneur who has raised venture capital funding for Shinymedia, and its a great pleasure to travel with a media startup. Whilst I cannot check his credentials and portfolio at present, I understand he has a similar product to gadgetspy run by Chris Haslam, who came on board to set-up edocr.

It was also good to catch up with Kristofer Mansson this morning, Founder of Silobreaker, whom I met at a large exhibition last year in London. We spoke about working together then and continued our discussion again today. Whilst we all have our own agendas, this mission also allows us to find ways of working with each other. And with that thought, I presented a challenge to Ashley: Write an article of how each company could work with each of the other 19 companies. Whilst we are of different sizes (some are post-funded whilst others are just thinking about it), collectively we can be larger than any one company. I am a great believer that we need to work at local level whilst nurturing global ambitions. Whilst I am at the start of the journey, I am almost thinking about the end, not just next Saturday, but in a years time and beyond. If statistics are to be believed, not all 20 companies may be live in 12 to 24 months time. But it would be great to look at the progress of the 20 companies in 12 months time, don’t you agree?

Here is the second challenge. Somebody need to take a profile of each of these 20 companies and then compare the progress each company has made in 12 months time. Who would rise to this challenge? Whilst all our profiles are on CrunchBase, a snap shot need to be taken. Would webmission08 be forgotten in 12 months time? Will there be a webmission09 next year? If so, who would represent the North next year? How would I like to see edocr in 12 months time? This is certainly a key date in edocr’s short life.

Ok. here are some targets for me to achieve by April 2009:

• Funded
• Full time team in place -
• edocr Version 3 launched (formally) - edocr has five stages: alpha, beta, launch, growth and dominate- funding will decide how quickly we can move from one stage to another.
• Revenues of GBP 75,000 (I know this is low - but remember we are web 2.0 - yes, I like to hit exponential curve in late 2009 as we enter launch and growth stages)
• Presence in Silicon Valley
• Brand equity - a well understood proposition. instant recognition.
• Traffic - not so worried - more interested in number of companies on board as customers (would edocr be hosting most of public-facing documents from HSBC? - at least lot more than we have today!)

If you are in San Francisco, I will be staying at the Clift Hotel till 25th morning. Do contact me if you are interested in:

• Building relationships with Northern UK technology startups (eveo Ltd)
• Want to know more about edocr (edocr Ltd)
• Want to know more about e-invoicing/EIPP/Supply Chain Finance in UK and Europe (evigon Ltd)
• Want to run an event in the North of England (eveo Ltd)
• Thinking about entering the UK market (evigon Ltd)

Just for clarity:

• edocr - YouTube/iTunes/Amazon/Google Search/Speed Dating for business pdfs
• eveo - one stop shop for event management (no website, but first brand is Northern StartUp 2.0)
• evigon - management consultancy and advisory services (no website yet - check this blog for competency and also my LinkedIn profile)

Lastly, this journey would have not been possible if it was not for:

• Sun Microsystems - the startups true friend (contact: Stewart Townsend)
• Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus- the only place for technology startups in the North (contact: Paul Treloar).

That will do for now! Catch you with the next post soon.

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My message posted on LinkedIn today…

As part of webmission08, I will be in San Francisco from 19th to 25th April representing www.edocr.com, as the Founder and CEO. I am free on:

• 19th Sat - 17:30 to 18:30
• 20th Sun – anytime after 14:30
• 21st Mon – 15:30 to 18:00
• 22nd Tues – 15:30 to 18:00

and appreciate meeting potential investors and users. Please let me know if you are interested in meeting or knows anyone else who might be interested.

edocr can be best described as:

• YouTube for Business Documents – document interactivity
• iTunes for Business Documents – monetise your content
• Amazon for Business Documents – monetise your old content
• Speed Dating for Business Documents – rapid Reader-Publisher collaboration
• Google Search for Business Documents – Intelligent document search

At present, edocr is self funded, but going forward, we are looking to raise about $1 million. edocr.com has been in operation since Sept 07 in public alpha mode and our focus is on enterprise and professional user. Our users include HSBC, Sun Microsystems, Crain’s Manchester Business, Ariba, Paystream Advisers, Crossgate, etc.

We are also looking for a Chairperson who could help us accelerate our growth.

Best regards and many thanks
Manoj

PS: Please take a moment to open a free account at www.edocr.com and upload your .pdfs and .docs if not done already. Also don’t forget to spread the word about edocr.

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Influenced by the inner circle, I finally ditched my laptop for a shiny Macbook Pro with 5GB of RAM and 186GB of hard disk. Since last Thursday, I have been moving files and applications from old laptop to the Mac. I also installed VMWare as I intend to use best of Mac and Windows applications. Among those I am retaining is Outlook 2002, which is vital for development of my social network as it is the only e-mail application (as far as my knowledge goes) that links with Plaxo and LinkedIn. When all three are used together, I can find the e-mail address of any executive, as long as they have a presence on either LinkedIn and/or plaxo. I am yet to explore the fun side of Mac. So far it has been a great experience.

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edocr has been on CrunchBase run by TechCrunch since we first appeared on TechCrunch UK and US in October 2007. Here is a snap shot our profile. Do leave a comment if you happen to visit our page on CrunchBase.

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CrunchBase Information

edocr

edocr allows users to upload a .doc or .pdf document and then to download, share or embed it via a Flash interface on any website. No other forms of document are allowed. Learn More

Information provided by CrunchBase

TradeVibes goes beyond simply copying the information from your website, it provides interactivity, e.g. asking your feedback on bullishness or bearishness of the company. Here is the company profile:

http://www.edocr.com/

Edocr lets you upload your document and then allow people to download, share or embed it via a Flash interface on any website.

“edocr’s mission is to bring attention to business documents through…More»

Edocr lets you upload your document and then allow people to download, share or embed it via a Flash interface on any website.

“edocr’s mission is to bring attention to business documents through interactivity. At edocr, you can open a free account and upload your documents for sharing by the professional and business community. At the same time, you can interact with the documents uploaded by like minded professionals and businesses. Once uploaded, edocr generates a visually stunning thumbnail and flash document that you could embed on to your corporate website, blog, e-zine, etc. The social network wrapper around each flash document allows edocr community to interact with your documents through commenting, ranking, tagging, book marking, e-mailing friends and colleagues, e-mailing author/publisher without having to know their e-mail address, etc. The document can also be assigned to Special Interest Groups for extending the interactivity.”
(Source : http://www.edocr.com)«Less

edocr Company Profile

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Technorati Tags: TechCrunch, CrunchBase, edocr, TradeVibes

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Here is the latest e-invoicing quarterly from Bruno Koch of Billentis.

It’s almost customary for me to review Bruno’s e-invoicing quarterly, but have decided against it this time. However, I might pick couple of stories from e-invoicing quarterly and blog about them separately.

References:

• Billentis joins the growing edocr Community
• Review of Bruno’s latest e-invoicing Quarterly…
• Copy of Bruno’s e-invoicing Quarterly
• ExPP Summit #1 - Assembly of e-invoicing community
• ExPP Summit is almost upon us
• Bruno’s ExPP Summit in London - confirming my attendance
• ExPP Summit in London - major annual European e-invoicing/EIPP event
• e-invoicing projections from Billentis
• Bruno Koch - the man behind EXPP events

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I spent most of last Friday at the US Embassy and happy to report receipt of my passport back yesterday with a new shiny US Visa. I am looking forward to my first visit across the pond. To coincide with webmission08 readiness programme, I also ordered my first Apple computer today (Macbook Pro with 4GB memory). I am looking forward to been less frustrated with my computer from tomorrow onwards. Talking about firsts, today Smith&SmithPR issued our first press release to a selected number of journalists. You can find a copy below:

This is an old picture of the US Embassy in London I picked up from the Internet. If anyone has not applied for a US Business Visa before, but plans to from the UK, here is the process you will face:

1. Phone the Embassy and secure an interview and pay the fees. Premium rate call charges apply. There is no other way.
2. Fill on-line application plus supporting application if you are male.
3. Come 10 minutes before your appointment and join the queue. You cannot queue well in advance (silly me getting there over an hour before) - don’t forget to bring supporting documents - Your mobile can be left at security check-point, but please avoid bringing laptops and large bags
4. Get a number from the first desk and submit your application when called upon. Try not giving more information than asked on the web site. This will only lead to more checks (as perhaps was in my case).
5. After a while, you will be called upon for a very short interview.
6. Pay the secure delivery service for return of your passport. No you cannot collect it from the embassy.
7. If all above goes according to plan, you should receive your passport on due date with a shiny US visa stamp.

With respect to the US Visit, here are some of the edocr actions I need to progress before 18th:

1. Transfer all my data and applications to new mac (looking forward to this experience).
2. Complete business plan - quite a lot more work than I perceived - still at modelling stage
3. Fill remaining webmission08 free time slots - Looking forward to meeting Om Malik
4. Complete edocr Version 2 - the development started on the 7th April
5. Attend DrinkTank organised by Huddle boys - the last piss up before the flight
6. Get job profile done for edocr Community Manager - ideally find someone for this role

I also realised that I have not blogged recently about e-invoicing which need correcting.

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