Pixmac Founder Interview

Founded in September 2008, Pixmac is a fast-growing microstock site with a database of more than 10 million photos available for sale. The small team is based in Prague led by founder Vita Valka, a designer turned tech entrepreneur. Besides their flagship site, Pixmac also recently launched a stock photo site for people as well as vector illustrations. I had the chance to ask Vita a few questions about running his company…
Why did you start Pixmac?
There was a huge opportunity in the market. Traditional stock photos were declining, microstock was a rising star. I’m a designer and I was using sites like Pixmac for years. That was a great challenge for me.

Can you give me a brief overview of where the firm is today?
Pixmac is one of the Top 10 agencies in microstock worldwide. We have the best technology inside and we still refine it again and again to [...]

Hey Gary Vaynerchuk, It’s Just Not That Easy

I like Gary Vaynerchuk and give the guy a ton of credit. He’s full of energy, very passionate and good at inspiring people to get off their ass and do something. But (and a BIG but) I have to be critical because what he preaches is seldom reality for most people and usually just doesn’t work.
His story is something like this: 1) Follow your passion 2) Build a business around it 3) Cash in. To this, he adds stuff like “look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself ‘what do I want to do every day for the rest of my life?’… do that. I promise you can monetize that shit” Well, guess what? That shit doesn’t usually work.
I completely support the notion of following your passion (in anything you do in life). But building a business around it and, more importantly, trying to cash in is not [...]

Link Love – the movers and shakers

I’ve been traveling quite a bit these past several weeks and have had a chance to discover some pretty stellar startup projects and the people behind them. Here are a few that I especially like:
ChaCha – ChaCha is like having a smart friend you can call or text for answers on your cell phone anytime for free!
PocketFuzz – PocketFuzz allows you to sell any of your songs as ring tones.
jovoto – jovoto is a worldwide community for creative talent and a fair and fun way of connecting those who have ideas with those who need ideas.
3scale – 3scale’s products and services provide critical infrastructure for the emerging Web Services (Web API) market
Indaba Music – Indaba Music is an international community of musicians, music professionals, and fans exploring the creative possibilities of making music with people in different places.
MeetingWave.com – free business and social networking tool that helps you connect offline [...]

Jason Fried of 37 Signals Shares His Knowledge at Web 2.0 Expo NYC

Jason Fried of 37 Signals presented a great talk at the Web 2.0 Expo today entitled “10 Things We’ve Learned at 37 Signals”.  Inspiring stuff if you’re a small company, but a lot of it probably is not applicable to medium-larger size organizations, especially the notion of “work less”. Although, I dig the enthusiasm and can appreciate this concept.
Here’s the rundown:
Momentum – “break big projects into smaller projects that can be completed in ~2 weeks”
Planning is overrated – “we don’t do roadmaps”
Decisions are temporary – “optimize for now, don’t plan for what might happen”
Red flag words – “need, can’t, easy, everyone, nobody”
Interruption is the enemy of productivity – “we [colleagues] don’t see each other”
Focus on what doesn’t change – “what matters today and 10 years from now”
Worrying about things that don’t matter yet – “the longer it takes to develop something the less likely you’ll launch it”
Underdo – “target non-consumers”
Find [...]

StartUp 2.0 Recap

Yesterday, I attended StartUp 2.0 in Barcelona to check out some of the up-and-coming entrepreneurs in Europe. A total of ten web 2.0 startups had a chance to present their business plans among a room of VCs, entrepreneurs, and internet enthusiasts. Among the presenters, nothing really blew my socks off although it was nice to meet some new faces.
Highlights:

UnLtdWorld – these guys are creating a platform to connect socially-minded people, encouraging entrepreneurs (and other users) to make a ‘positive impact’ on the world. I like the concept and there is something to be said for any startup trying to create social and environmental value, instead of developing another cookie-cutter SN and hounding for traffic.
iFoods.tv – online video site for cooking food. Yeah, there’s already a lot of niche ‘how-to’ video sites around (including a few for cooking) but what I like about these guys is that they are focusing on [...]