Well, that’s a perfect execution of the Freemium model. And this morning, I want to scream the same: let me pay for your freaking service !! I discovered Spotify when I moved back to Paris from New York, as Spotify is not available in the US. I used to use Pandora and Last.fm, with a preference for Pandora. Both are online radios: you cannot listen to a specific song, but you create a radio / playlist of neighboring artists/songs/styles. Last.fm radios are user generated. Pandora’s are created by music experts. And Pandora has, according to me, the best radio service.

But than I moved back to France, and discovered Spotify. Spotify is a mix of iTunes (interface) and Deezer (online music streaming). It’s faster than iTunes, the catalog is wider than Deezer, the streaming is immediate, the quality is amazing, the features are similar to iTunes and you get used to it quite quickly, you can link to songs, albums and playlists, and playlists databases are available online. Moreover, all this is available on their iPhone app (available for premium members).

However, the radio feature is not good - it’s a real deception. And that is the only thing keeping me from buying the premium version!

But getting back to the idea of this post, Spotify is the perfect execution of a freemium model: it’s free, the service is real good, and it brings you slowly to wanting more.

Test, love, buy. That should be a mojo for any entrepreneur.

So this is me in a nutshell over the last few months. I’ll try to get back to posting daily!!

Boom, it’s done.

I’m leaving new york. Boom, in 10 days I’m gone.

Wow, with all the troubles renting my apartment, preparing my move, my departure from Air France, my plans for the coming months and calculations reg. my budget, I guess I didn’t realize what was about to happen: I’m leaving New York, the city I love, the city I dreamed to live in as a kid, the city I’ve lived the longest time in since I work, …

5 years just flew by, and walking home tonight, I saw myself at every intersection of my life in New York. 5 years, 260 weeks, as much time coasting down Avenue A or B, Stanton, Ludlow, Allen, Rivington. As an intern, young and dumb, as an employee, heart broken, joyful, in love, sad, with a camera, with friends, with dreams, without. 5 years.

The wine might make this post sound quite tacky and cheesy, but this is my second-to-last week end in New York, and it just hit me now. This is gonna be tough…

Business ideas are a dime a dozen

Pamela Slim in this interview with Guy Kawasaki.

I said it in the past, and any accomplished entrepreneur (like Charlie O’Donnell here about YouDeparted) will say the same. It’s all about execution - and risk.

Yesterday, I took a first step in that direction. Many of my friends told me they admired the risk I’m taking, and that they would love to do the same, but have no ideas.

Imagine if someone told you “Hey! Let’s build Notre-Dame de Paris in LEGOs!”. Nothing new there. However, the result is stunning (see the picture above). And is exposed for hundreds to see at the Lego World in Cologne.

That’s execution and marketing. The idea was worthless without them.

Like everyone with an entrepreneurial spirit, I’ve had many business ideas.

The one I pushed the further until CabEasy was SubMate. Saddly, SubMate didn’t fly. It didn’t fly for many reasons, but the main one is that I didn’t commit full time on it, keeping my day job and trying to pursue my project (development, fund raising, marketing and PR, …) on evenings and week ends.

I’m not doing this mistake again.

Today, at noon, I tendered my letter of resignation. From now on and for the next few months, I will work full time on CabEasy. With the little money I have aside, I will work my a** off on three things: product, partnerships, money. In pretty much that order. Product will lead to partnerships, and partnerships will legitimate the project.

Wish me luck - I feel like jumping off a plane, without parachute, by night, over a desert, without water. But I’m confident that CabEasy has a real potential, and I’m determined to listen to my users and partners to make it a huge success. Stay tuned, big ideas coming!

And if by fall I haven’t pushed three major updates of the site for three different potential types of customers, I will update my resume and get on Path101 for some career and job hunting tips ;)

See you soon - in a cab!

[photo credits: Jumping ...., by JPhilipson]

However, half of the comments are bashing OLX and/or the founders, Fabrice Grinda and Alec Oxenfofd. And part of the substance of the negative comments was “You’re not big in the US”.

Big news guys: global internet population might be close to 1.6 billion nowadays and North America (where Craigslist is strong) only accounts for 248M users, about 15% of 1.6 billion. If something is not big in the US, if something is not covered by TechCrunch, it might be big anyways…

And in another flash news: the “World Series” aren’t really worldwide… ;)

The aim is to gather up to 100 business angels in this first fund and then invest up to €30K in early stage European startups.

The process would be similar to the YCombinator process.

If you’ve ever been tempted to invest in startups but were afraid of doing it on your own, this is a unique opportunity to join seasoned and experienced investors while keeping the risk and the entry ticket low: the minimum participation is €2.5K!

So get in touch with Jean Carl if you want to know more!

You can take a look at my miniatures set on Flickr.

Here are some amazing examples.

Here is a short movie by Keith Loutit, with the song Clementine from Washington.

Enjoy!

Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo