WE ARE NOT LAUNCHING IN MAY, AS STATED TODAY BY THE NORWEGIAN NEWSPAPER

Another great story in a big Norwegian newspaper, but with one piece of wrong information: We are NOT launching in May as stated in the article. During the summer months will be more like it!

Today we got another great story out in Norway. Well written, spreading across two pages, great PR. Everything was really good except for one minor thing. It states “will be launched in May”.

Let me just tell you straight now that we are not launching in May! Personally I would love to launch Bipper in May, but to deliver a safety solution for kids, it really has to be properly tested before it is commercialized. First in-house and then with real families. This is a process we have started now. 

When will we launch? As soon as we can say that “Bipper is 100 % safe and bugfree”. I have never developed software before myself, but I am learning that it is quite a time consuming process. One thing is developing the websites and codes. Another thing is testing the solution. Not once, but multiple times and on more and more phones. We cannot deliver a safety solution to parents and children that is not completely safe. If we did, how could we then claim to “make mobile kids safer and parents’ lives easier?”. So if there is a bug somewhere or an issue that cannot be fixed when Bipper is run on a specific phone model for example, we need to know everything about it before we launch - and not after.   

Nothing would have made me happier than if we were able to launch right now, and - I promise you - as soon as Bipper is thoroughly tested we will be out and available where you are!

If you would like to participate in testing, contact Ann Elida Eide (ann.elida(at)bipper.com). If you want to receive special offers when we launch, sign up for our newsletter at www.bipper.com.

Rome on Monday?

I love Saturdays! The only day of the week when I almost for certain will be at home with my family. Early Monday morning I’m supposed to fly down to Rome for Simposium 2010 to compete for the 1st prize in SIMagine. With the volcanic ash affecting the airspace in Northern Europe it doesn’t look good...

My husband is a geologist, and for years he has been telling me about the coming volcanic eruption on Iceland. That a massive eruption is already over-time and about all the previous eruption from both Katla and Hekla. Over-due in a geology timeframe, though, can be 100 years...

But perhaps it really is now? I hadn’t heard about Eyjafjallajökull before, but now this (I’ve been told) very small volcano is causing chaos all over Europe. And more worrying, there is a huge possibility that Katla will have an eruption. A big one! It might not happen now, but is supposedly due within two years. Here’s on of the articles I read  in norwegian and english(google translate). 

When Eyjafjallajökull is causing this much trouble now, imagine the trouble Katla will cause! Let’s hope the volcano(s) will calm down very soon. Iceland has had some rough years lately. First the financial crises and now this. And what is this doing to the planet? I must admit that I haven’t had the time to study the articles about the environmental impact of the eruptions, but it surely does make you worry when the empty white bucket a fellow Bergenser (i.e. a person from Bergen) placed an empty white bucket outside and an hour later it was filled with dirty water and small sharp stones...

Right now though I’m simply enjoying spending some time with my kids. And if the volcanos so wish, my time spent in Bergen will be a bit longer than planned for...

Will I make it to Rome on Monday? And if not, will SIMagine come up with another way of allowing us to present in front of the jury? A video conference on Skype perhaps? I was just really hoping to go to Rome and bring home another prestigious award...

Alvin and I enjoying PhotoBooth on my orange Mac. 

Great fun!

Back where it all started...

Three years ago I won the regional finals in the business plan competition Venture Cup. With the cash prize I won I started the company. Today I was back where it all started to try to inspire this years finalists...

Three years ago I had just finished (my first) business plan! 

Eight months prior to that day my daughter Oda had started school. Four months later I had concluded that there was a great need for a safe mobile solution for kids. And another month later I entered Venture Cup. I was in maternity leave and had read about Venture Cup in a student newspaper. There was a cash prize of 100 000 kroners (about $ 20 000), and I knew I needed that money if I was going to be able to take the risk on starting my own company.

Mid April (or was it May?) I knew I had reached the regional finals with my business plan, all written while breastfeeding my baby boy and renovating our first house, and I was sitting at the club Metro waiting for the verdict together with a couple of friends. I was so nervous! I was so excited! But I really had no clue that this day would take me to where I am now...

Today I was given the great honor of speaking at the regional finals in Venture Cup. I really felt very humble to be back. A bit nervous as well actually. Guess I remembered the butterflies in my stomach from three years ago way too well.... But it felt good to be there and speak about Bipper and my journey for a few minutes. My one mission was to show them that it’s possible! 

I started this journey three years ago, and in April 2007 Bipper was only me and a business plan. I wasn’t even certain that it was possible to develop the solution I had envisioned in my head. But today Bipper has grown into a company with global visions and have just signed a hugely prestigious deal with Motorola. I also made a big point of letting them know that it will demand a lot of work. Tons! But if they want it enough, they can do it!

Three years ago I was the one sitting nervous 

waiting for the jury’s decision. Today I was the speaker!

Team Bipper looooves Innovation Norway, and I truly do 

believe that they love us too! This was actually the first time 

I met Rolf Sørland (Ass. Director), and was happy to learn 

that the whole staff knows about Bipper. Makes me even 

more eager to prove that we will be a success!

 

SPRING IS (FINALLY) HERE!

Three weeks ago I left Norway covered in snow and headed for the US. When I got back 10 days later spring had arrived. Can you imagine? All the snow had melted, the grass is getting green, the trees are blossoming. It’s such a great feeling!

Don’t get me wrong - I’ve really enjoyed the winter. This winter has been special. We’ve had snow for longer than I can remember, and the kids have had the chance to go skiing or snow sledging every day. If you thought that white winters were normal in Norway, I must disappoint you. In some parts of Norway snow  for weeks and weeks is definitely the norm, yes, but on the west coast the normal winters consist of a few rainy days, a couple of colder days, great white snow for a few days, rain again (resulting in terribly wet snow), a few days without snow - but still rain, a couple of great cold and sunny days. And just about then the cycle starts over again. I would say that the great white beautiful winter days people think of when they hear about Norway are experienced 10-15 days a year on the west coast.

But this year we had a terrific winter with white snow, cold days and sun or falling snow for weeks and weeks in a row, and I loooved it! Now though, I looove that spring has arrived!

After work today my kids and I had a picnic on the balcony. My mom had made us an apple cake on Sunday, and today we enjoyed the left overs and a sweet melon in the sun. Such a good feeling! I love spending time with my kids, and unfortunately I’m not able to do that as much as I would have liked to due to traveling and busy time schedules. 

Once the testing is all over and the commercial phase has started, I hope to be able to bring my kids with me on business travels now and again. I remember the business trips my father took me along with him on when I was a kid with great pleasure, and I believe my kids will enjoy it too. I know I will enjoy having them there! 

Bergen - the most beautiful city I know! Enjoy!

. . . have to admit to that rainy days - well - are quite common!

Want to become an entrepreneur?

One thing I’m passionate about is inspiring more young people - especially women - to start their own businesses. Today I held a lecture at The Norwegian School of Entrepreneurship (Gründerskolen)!

I did not attend Gründerskolen myself, although I really wanted to when I was a student. With two young children at home it wasn’t possible though as a three month trainee period abroad is part of the program. Seeing how much I travel today (now with three kids at home...), I realize that I might have been wrong.

However, being able to speak about entrepreneurship to young students using my own journey as an example, is really a lot of fun. Norway needs more entrepreneurs! The world needs more entrepreneurs! Especially there is a need for more female entrepreneurs as still only around 30 % of those starting their own businesses are women. I really do hope that my story can inspire some people to enroll on the same journey I’m on. I felt a feed myself, had a vision about a solution but no knowledge within the field of industry (technology), but still went for it. 

It really is possible to start from scratch, but it demands your complete focus. It you think that starting up your own business will be fun, you’re absolutely right! If you think it will be fun all the time, you couldn’t be more wrong. Being an entrepreneur is like a constant roller-coaster ride with ups and downs constantly. I have never cried as much previously as I have for the past three years, but I’ve never been more excited either. It’s a thrill! And to survive the constant ups and downs a start-up phase involves, you have to be a stayer. Bite your teeth together and fight for survival. It won’t be easy, but it will be the most exciting journey you’ve ever been on.

I was very open with the students about both the ups and the downs and all my worries and dilemmas. Including that running a start-up means that the business will run your life. When I started Bipper, I really wasn’t prepared for the amount of hours and traveling needed to create a success. And we’re not even there yet that we can say “we did it!”.  Soon we will be though (I hope!), but very few people will be able to understand how rough the journey has been. Nor the thrill of it! You have to try it yourself :-)

1. 
   
   1.DO NOT RUN YOUR BUSINESS AS A HOBBY PROJECT No investor will invest capital in a person that is not 100 % in him/herself. Would you?

2. 
   
   2.THE TEAM IS EVERYTHINGIn a start-up phase the team is 80 % and the idea is 20 %. At the most. Great people can create successes out of mediocre ideas, while bad people can destroy the best projects. Focus on building a strong team!

3. 
   
   3.KEEPING EVERYTHING A SECRET WILL NOT OPEN ANY DOORS (people will want to help you!)
   Should you tell everyone the details of what you’re doing? Of course not! But business and partnerships arise from mutual interests. Everyone will have a lot of ideas, 10 % of us all might write the ideas down and start working on them, while only 1 % will try to commercialize their ideas. There is little reason to be afraid! And be surprised by how many people that will want to help you!
   
   
   
   
   

Today is the day we announce that...

we have just signed a huge contract with Motorola. We have been working together learning to know each other for a while, but now - finally - the contract is signed and we can announce our partnership.

Our contract with Motorola is extremely important for us. Not only is it extremely valuably financially, but more importantly it means that we have secured a highly professional multinational company with a trusted reputation as our partner.

To tell you the truth I really can’t believe it! Three years ago it was only the idealistic me with a vision about a safe mobile solution for kids. Less than two years ago I secured my first investors. One year ago we were struggling to survive the credit crunch and were nearly bankrupt. Now we both win a prestigious award and sign an important deal with one of the largest companies in the world. I feel so small and inexperienced in the middle of all this. I’m just a mom of three with a dream and a stubbornness that helps me never give up. Somehow I’ve managed to take it all from nothing to where we are now, but I can’t really explain it. I have just followed my heart...

The deal with Motorola is truly of great importance to us. I remember my first meeting with representatives from Motorola. Five men in a suit and tie, and the blond idealistic mother-of-three from Norway wanting to create the best safety solution for kids in the world. Somehow they took me very seriously and started working immediately to be able to deliver what I needed - a tiny simcard that would let parents control how mobile phones could be used from an online administration portal. Motorola already had a similar card launched in China for banking services, but quickly established that the same client could be used for Bipper. 

I’ve had a great relationship with my contacts in Motorola for several months, and when we got close to the signing of the contract I requested that we did it in person so that I could have a photo to distribute with a norwegian press release. That tiny Bipper from Norway signs a deal with a multinational company should surely be of interest to at least the local press in Norway? I was told that a photographer was arranged, but what I was met by took me by surprise. In the meeting room both PR advisors, a photographer and a camera man was waiting. We did both a photo shoot and a video interview, and Motorola informed me that they were planning an international press release that would not only include text, but images, videos and comments. It quickly became obvious to me that Bipper is known in Motorola not only by the team I have been working with, but managers presidents all the way to the top. This makes me both humble, excited and extremely proud. 

We are about to set out on a long lasting journey together. I can’t wait!

Watch the interview Motorola did with me here.

After 6 months of working closely together and learning 

to know each other well, the contract is finally signed. 

Little Bipper and multinational Motorola are now partners!

VP Navin Mehta and other representatives from Motorola 

took Bipper out for a wonderful meal in Barcelona. 

Amazing seafood and great drinks. Think we left at around 2 am! 

Can’t wait for our get together in Boston in May!

This service will organize my business life and save me tons of time

37 Signals - I think I love this company already! They have style. They have humor. And they have four great services that I believe will make it so much easier to run Bipper.

Ok - it might be too early to tell as I have only been playing with the services for less than a week, but I am IN LOVE. I have been searching for good - no great - web based international services too organize business life both internally and and outwards for months, and by coincidence (actually when I was only two clicks away from purchasing a subscription to www.projectplace.com but decided to watch a how-to video first, by the help of YouTube listed several related videos among them a 37 Signal one! Thank you Google and Projectplace).

So far I am extremely happy and believe that these services will “save my life”. What I love even more is that 37 Signals have enabled other developers to build onto their system. This has already resulted in several apps. Can’t wait to try some of these too!

Great project planner. Even better that the API is open 

so that other developers can create apps

Organize all your contacts and share them with your team. 

This is just the beginning....

Your internal manager for your team or business. 

Can’t wait to get this going to save me time!

Ok - I love Skype. But I do think that this can be really good 

as we can sort all chats on topics. And through the 

open API various apps are developed,

 among them an integrated customer support system.