March 22, 2007

  • Euro Trash

    In what can only be called infinite
    lack of wisdom, I was brought to Europe on KLM. Three times in 2007 I
    have been on KLM flights, three times they have been delayed. I am
    not sure what the K or M stands for, but the L must stand for "Late".
    The new company paid for my trip over to Europe, Cathay Pacific
    taking me the first 500 miles to Hong Kong, followed by a long stop
    over before my delayed flight to Amsterdam, then another 5 hours wait
    before my connection to Venice.

    I woke up at 4, jumped in the shower
    and made myself handsome, said goodbye to the kitty, and packed the
    last few things I needed before going downstairs to the taxi that was
    waiting to take me to the airport. So far, so smooth.

    I arrived in Venice after a 26 hour
    journey, where my business partner was waiting for me to drive me to
    Slovenia – a country I had never been to before. Talking in the car
    I was tired, but excited to be finally making a move on the new
    company. Having used the last three weeks to do some preparation for
    our products in Taiwan, it is nice to finally meet up with the guys
    who are actually funding the whole project. And one of the great
    things is that they have agreed to pay for me to fly Cathay Pacific
    all the way next time. That's what I like to hear.

    So what is this new company? I hear you
    ask. Well grab yourselves a coffee or tea, and I will tell you.

    When I was working for Macbollox, we
    accidentally fell in to a new product market when a client asked us
    to make some modifications to the existing device. It was a media
    player, and he wanted some changes in the software so that it could
    be used in an entry-level digital signage environment.

    Digital Signage? I hear you ask. WTF is
    that?

    Go to any shopping mall, airport, rail
    station, tourist spot...and you will find a big TV screen showing
    adverts with some CNN-esque scrolling text on the bottom, and maybe
    some information that is relevant to the environment in which it is
    placed. Maybe you will see split screens, with live television feed
    and adverts and so on...THAT is digital signage.

    After having developed the product, I
    found out that there is a huge market for this kind of product, with
    most competitive products costing around $600 +. So it got me
    thinking – wouldn't it be good if there was a good quality product
    out in the market which cost less, but offered great performance? So
    I followed up this thought/idea, and spoke with many other clients
    who all seemed to say the same thing – it's a great idea. Two of my
    existing clients – at the time – needed exactly the product I was
    proposing, one of them a software developer, the other in hardware.

    I invited them both to a meeting in
    November (see posts passim) in Korea where we all agreed on the idea
    as great in principle, and decided to talk some more and think more
    through the proposal, and see how feasible it could be. Just four
    months down the road, the project has become a reality, even though
    the role of the Korean partner is not yet defined. We have capital
    investment, we have started on the software, we have borrowed a
    design for an enclosure from someone (I have no idea who might have
    done that!) and we are now treading the exxciting path to introduce a
    new brand, a new product range, and a new company to the
    international market.

    But we will not just stick to the
    aforementioned products – we have plans to introduce a whole range
    of other semi-related products, and a very exciting plan with
    partners who can and do make things happen.

    This morning I woke up a couple of
    kilometres away from the Italian border, the sun shining and
    mountains in the not too distant horizon. I need to get a mountain
    bike here for the weekends – those mountains are MINE! The hotel I
    am staying in is also a casino, with almost 200 slot machines -
    apparently this kind of thing is commonplace in this area. Although
    being right next to a railway track, I had a good night's sleep. I
    was so tired last night, I could have slept through the end of the
    world, but now – after a nice breakfast with two cappucinos – I
    am refreshed and ready to rock and roll.