Image via Wikipedia

Exactly a year ago, Andraz and I were sitting in a cafe by the river, pondering whether we dare to test the limits of our imagination and apply for this unknown but strangely familiar beauty contest we found online. They were looking for the next Google they said, but didn’t mind if it had very rough edges. Perhaps most importantly, they were offering a lot of help and asked only the most important questions.

So we took it. Spent the next two weeks polishing the application and couldn’t sleep the night before first selection. We had no idea what was waiting for us out there, but it felt right. At that particular moment, all we had was our imagination, a prototype and courage, to close our eyes and make the first step. It turned out to be a firm one, and on the next one we were not alone anymore.

Seedcamp has helped us to focus, to steer, to experience this new world and most important, it validated our ideas. This year, we are proud to be part of Seedcamp week again, this time on the other side, encouraging new generation of killer startups in London.

So as a message to all entrepreneurs who are considering boosting their business efforts, YES, you should apply and give your best effort to stand for your ideas. Everything else will be easier.

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Image via WikipediaExactly one year ago was Zemanta’s first public presentation. That took place in Kiberpipa, the topic was an announcement of our project Strip mine, and Andraz had that famous slideshow, where his email in footer changed from previous academic one, to new @zemanta adress.

This marked an important change in lifestyles for all of us, and after a year, I am sure, that I don’t regret it. It’s been a very interesting ride so far.
We started in a garage of course. Ok, to be honest, it was actually a room in my appartenment, with a desk made of a closet sides and the first server humming in the storage room. We moved from there in September, directly to ‘luxurious’ house in Kensal Green and at the same time expanding team to 7 people. We had to multithread the team at that point, having Gasper managing Ljubljana office, while we were hacking London.

Looking back I mainly find good memories of crazy adventures, like building the final prototype that got us to Seedcamp in two nights of six guys hacking. Or squating in Gherkin offices. Or assembling the second server on the floor of a local shop in Kensal Green. Or smuggling the server and the chef’s knife wearing top hats from London via Paris back to Ljubljana in December. Or using team work on California parties to secure precious minutes from journalists in the middle of the night.
There were some frustrations, like the ‘no internet’ crisis, and also, the last morning of Seedcamp, when we were sure we blew it, was probably the worst feeling ever. We survived and with each new experience we grew stronger.

We evolved from an enterprise, tailor-made product to generalized web service, from a two-men band to a 15 people venture-funded company, from Slovenia to the World. It’s not anything near final success yet, but it’s a nice start.

I’d like to thank everyone who was part of this process. Friends, families, patient girlfriends, co-workers, TFL, Seedcamp mentors, Hellerehrman, Eden Ventures, T.A.G., Saul, Scott, Eric, Erica, and everybody else we’ve met in this time.

Image via Wikipedia

Second half of May will be quite busy for us with many conferences. We’re trying to visit as many as possible to have a chance to meet you and see what other innovative people in the industry are doing.

Here is a short list of them, in order of happening:

NT Konferenca, Portorož

Semantic Technology Conference, San Jose

Thinking Digital, Newcastle

BarCamp NorthEast, Newcastle

@Media 2008, London

BarCamp London 4, London

European Sematic Web Conference, Tenerife

(drop a note to jure@zemanta.com to arrange a meetup or follow our twitter.com/zemanta for instant notifications)

Source: WikipediaYesterday we had a splendid launch party at Zemanta HQ (with salsa dancing), now we awake into a new morning where we are excitingly waiting for reviews from around the blogosphere.

Yeah, we got it to TechCrunch!
But others are also important from Marko Mrdjenovič, Had (in Slovenian), and some more and more.

Well dear reader, where’s your review?

Oh, among other news, tomorrow (friday the 28th), we will also be present on Minibar in London, talk to us! Oh, and we would not mind people digging us up.

Source: Wikipediadisclaimer: writing @1am in the middle of zemanta launch ater party surrounded by lots of orange t-shirts and quality slovenian wines and beer.

WE ARE PUBLIC!!!

for 9 hours already, and Amazon still didn-t break. go figure. Mashery works perfect also! Web site is still online. Extension still installs without a flaw.

Sounds ghastly, doesn’t it?

on a side note, wii refuses to cooperate and salsa dancers all left half an hour ago.

After exactly two months on the Continents (old and new one) we’ve visited midlands of London again. I was surprised that walking around town felt less annoying than I remembered.
We were there for a great party, organized by our lawyers under the roof of The Gherkin Building. Since we were in town, the weather was great, and the view was absolutely fantastic!!! It was like a scene from Bladerunner or any other decent SF movie - a metropolis reaching from one horizont to the other, third and fourth. And you could hardly notice when the city lights changed to stars and Thames transformed to Milky Way. It almost felt like the centre of the Universe. Or the insides of a hollow planet with holes in the ground.

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