MSN Arabia and MSN Maghreb select ATC as major content partner

Operated by Orascom's subsidiary LINKdotNEt on behalf of Microsoft, the sites will receive ATC's text and video news in Arabic, English and French.

Leading Middle East internet destination operated by Orascom’s subsidiary LINKdotNET on behalf of Microsoft, MSN Arabia has been leading its market for many years. Content in English and Arabic are available for free for all users. With the will to expand into North Africa, MSN Maghreb was created in 2008 and proposes a mix of Arabic and French content. After some vey interesting discussion, LINKdotNET and Link Online selected AllTheContent.com to provide various services, for the technology and entertainment section. Regular video magazines and daily illustrated text newsfeed, all services will be provided in Arabic, French and English. With a strong focus on localization, ATC is one of the rare company to be really able to always give a local taste to its global services. With services running in the EMEA region since 2005, ATC firmly believes about the growth potential of those markets. In order to serve our customer with perfect quality, we created a local team in Cairo that will lead content localization for the surrounding territories. Feel free to contact us for any queries regarding Arabic content, Middle East deployment or services for web companies. ATC Newsfeed Catalogue in Arabic

This list is non-exhaustive as the booking is still not closed.

6    Nicolas    Metzke        FR

8    Frank    Boehnke    Wellington Partners GmbH    DE

36    Philippe    Herbert    Banexi Ventures Partners    FR

39    Tina    Baker    Brown Rudnick    FR

41    Roberto    Bonanzinga    Balderton Capital    GB

45    Marc    Brandsma        FR

46    Adam    Tinworth    Reed Business Information    GB

54    Nic    Brisbourne    DFJ Esprit    GB

67    Ville    Vesterinen    Arctic Startup    FI    

79    Eric    Plantier        FR

82    Rodolphe    Lilamand        FR

95    Frederic    Court        GB

121    Olivier    Sanviti    Gramond & Associés    

122    Laurent    Levy    Gramond & Associés    

125    Guillaume    Lautour    AGF    FR

155    Eric    Archambeau    Wellington Partners GmbH    DE

174    Pascal    Mercier    Aelios Finance    FR

175    Pierre    Dropsy    Aelios Finance    FR

185    Alain    Rodermann    Sofinnova Partners    FR

186    Ashish    Puri    Sofinnova Partners    FR

193    Thomas    Balland    Innoven Partners    FR

196    FrancoisXavier    dedde    credit agricole private equity    FR

197    Xavier    Brunaud    credit agricole private equity    FR

213    Frederic    Destin    Atlas Venture    FR

221    Martijn    Hamann    Van den Ende & Deitmers BV    NL

222    Olivier    Tardieu    Van den Ende & Deitmers BV    NL

223    Philippe    Collombel    Partech    FR

225    Yoni    Cheifetz    Lightspeed Venture Partners  

242    Avid    Larizadeh    Accel Partners    GB

243    Pekka    Järvinen    Nordea    FI

245    Joerg    Sievert     SAP Ventures    DE

249    Roberto    Bonanzinga    Balderton Capital    GB

253    Daniel    Cohen    Gemini Israel Funds    

271    Benoist    Grossmann    AGF Private equity 

275    Daniel    Wild    Tiburon Partners AG    

276    Francois    Tison    360 Capital Partners    FR

290    Michael    Backes    RSM    US

302    Per    Mosseby    Islanders    SE

305    Michael W.    Schwetje    Schwetje Group    DE

307    Masashi    Kobayashi    Infinity Ventures LLP    

308    Olivier    Schuepbach    Wellington Partners    

309    Daniel    Waterhouse    Wellington Partners    

315    Bertrand    Navarrete    Internet Capital Group    US

321    Sitar    Teli    Doughty Hanson    GB

336    Michel    Dahan    Bannexi Ventures Partner    FR

343    Guillaume    Aubin    Alven Capital Partners    

344    Nicolas    Celier    Alven Capital Partners    

360    Jean-Stéphane    Bonneton    Iris Capital Management    FR

373    Mark    Gracey    SEP    GB

374    Gordon    Beveridge    SEP    GB

375    Marc    Fournier    Serena capital    

382    Morten    Kamper    FDIH    

384    luis    Courtot    AThari Ventures    FR

390    Johan    Stael von Holstein    IQube    SE

393    Aurelia    Ammour    Iventures consulting    FR

397    matthieu    Baret    AGF Private equity    FR

399    Jérôme    Pujol    Rothschild & Cie Gestion    FR

415    Bruno    Rivet    Seventure partners    FR

416    Ioana    Simionescu    Seventure partners    FR

428    Henri    Verdier    Cap Digital    

443    Danny    Rimer        Index Ventures    GB

445    Frank    Bindel        Deutsche Telekom AG    DE

477    Rainer    Maerkle    Holtzbrinck Ventures    DE

478    Sven    Achter    Holtzbrinck Ventures    DE

486    Sonali    De Rycker    Accel Partners    GB

496    Arnd    Benninghoff    Holtzbrinck eLAB GmbH    DE

500    Stefan    Tirtey    Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures    DE

509    Irena    Goldenberg    Highland Capital Partners    

525    Andreas    Lazar    Allen and Company    US

549    Avid    Larizadeh    Accel Partners   

569    Maximilian    Niederhofer    Atlas Ventures   

582    Eric    Archambeau    Wellington Partners

584    Michael    Arrington    TechCrunch

588    Roberto    Bonanzinga    Balderton Capital

590    Mike    Butcher    TechCrunch

591    Jason    Calacanis    Mahalo

594    Jeff    Clavier    SoftTech VC

613    Reid    Hoffman    Founder

614    David    Hornik    August Capital

616    Joi    Ito    CEO

617    Daniel    Kaplan    CEO

622    Masashi    Kobayashi    Infinity Ventures

625    Mark D.    Kvamme    Sequoia Capital

627    Simon    Levene    Accel Partners

630    Morten    Lund    Lund XY Global Ventures

631    Om    Malik    GigaOm

635    Freddy    Mini    Netvibes

637    Ouriel    Ohayon, ISAI    .

640    Marc    Samwer    European Founders Fund

656    Yossi    Vardi    .

657    Martin    Varsavsky    Fon

658    Gary    Vaynerchuk    Wine Library TV.com

661    Fred    Wilson    Union Square Ventures

664    Pierre    Brais    Braven capital    CH

665    Chris    Caulkin    Warburg Pincus UK   

670    Benjamin    Rohé    CNM    DE

685    Oliver    Jung    Oliver Jung Ventures    CH

689    Alain    Caffi    Ventech    FR

690    Mounia    Rkha    Ventech    FR

694    Bernard    Liautaud    Balderton Capital    GB

702    Annie    Ma    Ample Luck International Capital Group Ltd.     China

711    Oliver    Fietz    T-Venture Holding GmbH    DE

739    Xavier    Lazarus    Elaia Partners    FR

740    Samantha    Jerusalmy    Elaia Partners    FR

741    Sherry    Coutu    New Energy Finance    GB

746    Jan Nils    Borgstaedt    Bertelsmann AG    DE

748    Lukas    Zinnagl    i5invest / zinnaglism    AT

752    Mark    Bivens    Truffle Capital    FR

753    Bernard-Louis    Roques    Truffle Capital    FR

755    Herbert    Allen III    Allen & Company LLC    US

768    Nathanael    Eisenberg    Milk Capital FR   

769    Carlos    Rodriguez    Milk Capital FR   

843    Megumi    Ikeda    Peacock Equity Fund    GB

846    Stephanie    Robesky    Atomico   

850    Dimitris    Kalogeropoulos    Mr   

851    Shai    Wolkomir    ConTrust    IL

854    Laurent    Haug    Lift conference   

857    Christian    Zellner    European Investment Bank   

890    Anant    Bakre    Alegro Capital    GB

898    Howard    Lindzon    Lindzon Capital Partners   

900    Marissa    Alex    Lindzon Capital Partners   

916    Richard    Muscat    Charge Ventures   

917    Jim    Sims    Charge Ventures   

947    tariq    krim , ISAI

985    Mark    Johnson    Nordic Venture Partners    SE

1018    John    Stokes    Montreal Start-Up  Piermont Ventures  CA

1030    Maureen    Timlin    IDA Ireland    IE

1033    Frank    Seehaus    Acton Capital Partners    DE

1113    Jean carl    Cohen    Capital Booster    FR 

 Capital Booster:  un portail qui va offrir prochainement des accès à une liste importante de B.A et VC

1222    Sean    Seton-Rogers    Balderton Capital    GB

1269    Kirsty    McManus    Fidelity Ventures    GB

1270    Davor    Hebel    Fidelity Ventures    GB

1279    Reshma    Sohoni    Seedcamp   

1280    Saul    Klein    Seedcamp      

1295    Nicolas    Goldstein    CAPITAL RISQUEUR TV   

Last year, I prepared a smaller review of the confirmed VC present at leweb07. I'm pleased to see that the at least 90% of those are coming back for this year.

GUY KAWASAKI OF HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD | SEPTEMBER 9TH, 2008 - 01:44 PM 
(3) SOURCE: ON OPENFORUM

Here’s how most entrepreneurs approach venture capital funding raising. I call it Plan A. It’s a plan and an outcome that no one talks about but happens all the time. I’ve been on both sides, so I should know.

• Step 1: the entrepreneur cogitates: “Let’s raise $1-2 million so we can focus on programming and marketing and not worry about raising money. We’ll hit all our milestones and then go out for another $5 million in two years and get acquired or go public soon after that.” Believe it or not, many companies raise the $1-2 million and sometimes more because venture capitalists compete for the deal.

• Step 2: the entreprenur fantasizes: “Our most conservative forecast is one million users in the first six months. We need to scale to prepare for this, and the reason why VCs gave us money is that they want us to scale and win the land grab.”

• Step 3: the product is late, and the dogs don’t eat the food. After six months, there are 10,000 users, not one million. The company has scaled up it expenses but for no reason. Money is tight, but the VCs are still clueless and accustomed to initial projections being off by orders of magnitude.

• Step 4: Unbelievably, the company is still able to raise a second round of $5 million. Life is good. The entrepreneur “knows” that things are going to pick up so she scales up some more to prepare for the “hockey-stick” growth curve that coming soon.

• Step 5: Another six months go by, and there’s still no viral explosion. (To continue the hockey analogy, the handle, not the blade, is touching the ice.) The venture capitalists that the entrepreneur thought were true believers and BFFs (best friends for life) go to Demo and see three products that do the same thing that appear to be further along.

• Step 6: Out of the blue, the lead-dog venture capitalist calls up the day after a partners meeting and says, “We just don’t see how you’re going to make it. We want to give your company a ’soft landing’ by merging it with our online dogfood company. And we’ll call some executives we know at Yahoo!, Google, and Fox Interactive to see if they’re interested. We want our money back before you burn through it because my partners think this has gone on too long.”

• Step 7: The entrepreneur hangs up the phone in a state of shock. A week ago in a board meeting, no one said anything about shutting down the company. She thought that her investors were getting a little antsy but were fundamentally still behind her. She calls the investors “stupid, arrogant bastards who don’t get it” in her staff meeting–conveniently forgetting that she’s missed three years of forecasts by 90% and has burned through $3 million.

• Step 8: The company rapidly implodes. No one wants to merge it with another dog in the venture capitalist’s portfolio, and no one at Google, Yahoo!, or Fox Interactive is interested. This is a fundamental fact of companies: they are bought not sold. That is, an entrepreneur or investor can seldom call up logical buyers and get a deal done. All an entrepreneur can do is create a good company and pick up the phone when a buyer is calling.

  The company is sold for pennies on the dollar for what little assets (intellectual or physical) that it has. Some money is returned to the investors. The management team toys with two ideas: first, buying the company from the investors, but it quickly realizes that it created a dog that’s not worth buying. Second, suing the investors for not fulfilling their fiduciary responsibility to the company, but when the lawyers laugh at this idea, the team gives it up too.

As readers of this Open Forum blog, I want you to be open to another way. I call this Plan B. In this plan, you take very little if any venture capital until you need capital to expand, not create, your product. Here’s how it works:

• Step 1: You dig, scratch, and claw yourself to $100,000 of funds from your friends and family. Maybe you work as a YCombinator company. You take no salary. You live with your parents, and you keep your day job at Microsoft. You hope your spouse doesn’t get laid off. You have no office, but work virtually and meet your co-founders at Starbucks if you have to. Everything you use is Open Source or shareware.

• Step 2: Rather than trying to boil the ocean (”the mobile sector”), you boil a tea kettle. Rather than going to Demo or TechCrunch, you hang out in the lobbies of the hotels where the events are and meet the same people for free. Rather than hiring a PR firm, you suck up to bloggers and hope they cover your product. Rather than buying booth space, you get on Twitter and use it to gain a reputation for your product.

• Step 3: You’re late with your product too (because everyone is late), but you’re not burning $250,000/month, and you don’t have to tell increasingly greater lies at monthly board meetings. Finally, you release your prototype. TechCrunch covers your release because you wrote Mike Arrington a compelling one-paragraph message that you sent on a Friday afternoon because you know he reads email on weekends.

• Step 4: This is where the miracle occurs–lo and behold, people like your product. (Truly, miracles have to occur whether you’re bootstrapping or venture-capital funded. It’s just that if you’re bootstrapping, there’s more time for the miracle to happen, and a smaller miracle suffices.) Month to month, you’re showing 10-15% growth, and monetization, praise God, has started.

• Step 5: Now you have options. First, you can contact venture capitalists with a company that’s already shipping to raise capital to expand your business. This is a very different discussion than raising capital to build a product. Second, you can continue to bootstrap and grow by using your cash flow. Three, you can pick up the phone and agree to meet with Google, Yahoo!, Fox Interactive, or any other company that has noticed you.

Many readers of this blog are not tech entrepreneurs, but the merits of Plan B are the same for almost any type of business. You can try Plan A as long as you realize that the hard work begins after you raise venture capital, and you will need a bigger, faster miracle to make everyone happy. Or, you can just believe me: “Plan B, don’t leave home without it.”

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