Bubble Foundry

As you can see on the side of the page, I need your votes! I submitted a SXSW panel on the European startup scene and I’d love your support so we can go to Austin next Spring and tell everyone what’s up!

I was just at Slush Helsinki, a fantastic startup conference, and I learned about some regional startup blogs:

• ArabCrunch – Arab world
• Deutsche Startups – Germany. I made a translated RSS feed for those of us who aren’t native speakers.

Plus, I hope you already know:

• ArcticStartup – Nordic and Baltic countries. My good friend Ville from ArcticStartup was one of the organizers of Slush.
• The Next Web – pan-European
• TechCrunch UK – UK and Ireland, plus occaisional posts covering the rest of Europe
• TechCrunch FR – France plus translated articles from the main TechCrunch blog. Again, here is a translated RSS feed.

If you want US startup news from outside the main tech hubs, the blogs in the Startup Blog Network/Springstage network might be useful…

So what great regional startup blogs have I missed?

I am so excited about Jailbreaking Picnic. It’s today (Thursday September 25) at the Westergasfabriek. A bunch of Amsterdam startups setting up a huge party on the public park right in front of PICNIC and showing that you don’t need money to kick ass. I hope it doesn’t sound silly to say that I’m really proud of them.

Also, I really love how Boulder, CO startups are getting together to recruit developers. The Amsterdam startups should do the same.

I am part of the Hot 100 ‘up-and-coming creative media talent of the Netherlands’ and will be at the Picnic Conference in Amsterdam on September 25. Since there’s 100 of us, I think it’s mostly just a networking event. Either way, I’m excited to be part of the day.

On October 2 I will be at the ArcticStartup birthday party in Helsinki and will talk about the startup scenes in Amsterdam, Silicon Valley, and Helsinki. I had a great time in Helsinki last May attending BarCampHelsinki (there’s a second one on September 27) and look forward to talking to all the Finnish startups.

Also, the iPhone Dev Camp was a great success and articles have popped-up all over the Dutch media. Bright.tv made a nice video on which you can hear me blabber about the event, and there were also articles at iPhone Club (1 and 2), NU.nl (and also a mention of the Bright.tv video), iPhoned.nl, MacWereld.nl and LifeHacking.nl. A few of the articles mentioned me, so that was nice publicity!

A friend doing a research project at LSE sent me some questions about the relationship to culture and entrepreneurship. I think my answers might be interesting, so I’m reposting them here.

Please describe your past or current internet projects.
Currently I make websites for startups under the moniker Bubble Foundry. I’m very passionate about improving the climate for tech startups in the Netherlands, and even Europe, and so I organize a variety of events, from Lunch 2.0 to BarCamp to iPhone Dev Camp. As for current projects, beyond my clients, i have made the should/ought series of websites with my friend Raina Kumra: www.hillaryshould.com, www.mccainshould.com, www.obamashould.com, http://[any name here].ought.to.
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This Friday sees Lunch 2.0 visiting Utrecht for the first time, where will be hosted by iDiDiD. On August 22 we have a Lunch 2.0 at Sogeti in Diemen. Finally at the end of the month, I am hosting an iPhone Dev Camp on August 30 at my office. We’ve had a huge response to the Dev Camp idea, so if anyone has any routers, tables, chairs, projectors or other gear they’d be willing to lend me for the day, it’d be much appreciated!

Finally, keep November 22 open in your calendars. Together with Joris Machielse, I am organizing a BarCamp-style event around creating startups. More information to come in early September, but if you have any people you’d like to meet or things you wished you knew before you started your business, please leave a comment below or email me at peter@bubblefoundry.com.

Yes, there are startups in the Netherlands, as proven by the many in attendance at The Next Web last week. I’ve been gathering a list over the last month, and I now how a list of almost 40 companies. I’ll admit that CrunchBase coming to Europe has also forced my hand. So please, check it out and tell me who I’ve missed!