Fleck is a service that allows you to add a note to any page, then send it to your friends or use it in your blog. Fleck was founded by Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Patrick de Laive and Arjen Schat which I have interviewed.

More details about Fleck here

As Boris was on holiday and Arjen was very busy programming the second version of Fleck, Patrick was the only one reply to all questions.

INTRODUCTION

Can you first briefly introduce yourself ?

My name is Patrick de Laive, I’m a 28 year old Internet entrepreneur and I live in Amsterdam. You can find more about me on http://linkedin.com/in/patrickdelaive

Patrick de Laive

ABOUT WEB 2.0

What is/are your personal definition(s) of Web 2.0 ? Is it more an innovation on technology, services, or on the use of the Web ?

I believe web2.0 is a mixture of things. 1. Enhanced technology making it more easy to develop social services. 2. People are realizing that sharing data is very powerful and benefits everyone. 3. Online presence is becoming more and more important. Web2.0 services help people creating and managing their online presence.

How have you developed interest in Web 2.0 ? When, and how have you discovered the word ?

I have a deep interest in the Internet. Web1.0 or 2.0 doesn’t matter. Good concepts and services have always attracted my attention. The first time I heard about the term web2.0 was about 2.5 years ago when I was googling and stumbled on web2.0 conference.

What are, for each one of you, the most representative Web 2.0 services ?

Digg ,

Linkedin,

Del.icio.us,

(Fleck ☺ )

Any favorite Web 2.0 website ? Why ?

Not particularly

You are based in the Netherlands. What do you think of the activity of Dutch companies in the Web 2.0 field, compared to the American giants ? Anything that distinguish the Dutch Web 2.0 culture from the one of other countries ? Do you think at a larger scale that Europe can balance the USA, who seems to be more active ?

I think the Netherlands and Europe can do a lot better, but changes can be seen nowadays and the gap between Europe and the US is becoming smaller. Recently we started an OpenCoffe Meetup in Amsterdam, where entrepreneurs get together to have a chat, demo new stuff and get in touch with interesting people.

We’ve got talent, a great infrastructure (over 70% has a broadband connection here), good ideas /concepts, but most Dutch web2.0 companies lacks an international view. Web2.0 is not limited to the Netherlands (The Netherlands is to small for web2.0 initiatives) and companies have to introduce their services for an international market, not only the Dutch market. So there is a lot to learn, but we will get there.

LET’S TALK ABOUT FLECK

When has started the Fleck adventure ? How did you meet and decided to launch a startup for Fleck ?

The idea started after reading an article in the Wired Magazine : We are the web (Kevin Kelly). It stated that the web was so popular because it was so democratic. Boris told me : well, that is not totally true, the web is not more democratic than a tv.. you can zap if you don’t like the content, but the possibilities to add your own stuff to any website was not available.

So we started thinking on how the web could become a democratic place. We did some research and found some companies in the nineties who tried to make it more democratic (we call that our 100 million dollar research pool, because in total the companies raised a 100 million, and all went broke, but the reasons were very well described by journalists). We found their flaws and turned them into strengths in our fleck idea.

How long was the development of Fleck ? You are still in beta testing version, when do you plan to go gold ?

Well the very first edition of Fleck was something totally different. We noticed that the way to reach your goal can be done in multiple ways. The first version had a lot of technical problems (it only worked on 70% of the sites), so we decided to turn things around and start from scratch. Then it took about 4 months to develop the first beta version for firefox.

At the moment we are working on a new version of Fleck. We will open up the database (to make it more social), we will have group support (to make it easy to work in groups) and some other features of which I cannot talk about yet.

It will be very cool ! We aim to fully release the second version during The Next Web Conference (on June 1, Amsterdam)

Why do you feel that Fleck is different from other webpages annotation services (Trailfire.com, Stickis.com, Diigo.com, Dashnote.com …) ?

First of all, Fleck is European. That is a big difference. Most of the companies you mention above have between 1 and 3 million in Venture Funding. We don’t have that much money to spend so we have to stay creative (something that seems to lack the American companies).

I do believe that Trailfire and Diigo are aiming at the same goal as Fleck : to create a second layer on top of the web, owned by the users. But all three have a different way to get there.

All three have their benefits and disadvantages. I believe that Fleck is doing a very good job to keep it as simple and clean as possible. That is our strength.

Without Web 2.0 technology, would you have done Fleck ?

Some things would have been a lot more difficult, but not unfeasible, so yes I believe so.

What are your main plans fort he upcoming months on Fleck, new features ?

As I briefly mentioned above we will launch new features. The next months we will launch a search feature (so you can search through all notes and pages), we will enhance the personal page (delete flecks, edit flecks, share them, etc.), come up with group support (use the collective mind within your company, group of friends or with all fleckers) and we will release at least one new update on the plugin.

What do you consider to be the most difficult in launching Fleck ?

Two years ago it was pretty easy to find a crowd for your service, nowadays so many new services pop up that it is hard for startups to get some real attention. I think almost any startup will have this problem. Also, the VC market in The Netherlands still sucks, financing fleck took a lot of energy and time.

THE FUTURE

Do you think that the 2.0 Web has reached maturity, or it is still in a period of definition ?

No, web2.0 is only at the beginning. Although I do believe that in 2007 all big players will be known (for the next 2-3 years). After this year it will be even harder to find a crowd and as web2.0 services need a critical mass to become interesting….

Any catastrophic scenario according to you for the Web 2.0 ?

I think a lot of companies eventually will go to the deadpool, but that is not a real problem in my view. The big difference with the web1.0 bubble is that during that period a lot of companies went public, so in the end when the bubble crashed a lot of people got hurt by it. A lot of web2.0 companies are not even companies, but are projects of some programmers who give it a try. If they decide to quit… no one gets hurt, there will always be jobs for them.

What are, according to you, the next evolution, on short and middle term, of Web 2.0 ? And on long term, any Web 3.0 ?

Wow, well I expect the seemingly impossible.

What is your vision of the Internet in 10 years ?

It will be everywhere ! Isn’t that great !!!

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Do you think that Web 2.0 changes the rules of the game ? Is it nowadays more risky to invest in a Web 2.0 startup than in a « tradional » Web startup ?

If you’re an investor you know that investing in startups is a risky business. I don’t see why investing in a web2.0 startup should be more risky then a traditional web startup (Who’s investing in traditional startup nowadays ☺ ).

The great thing for entrepreneurs right now is that little money is needed to start a company. In that sense the rules of the game has changed in comparison with the nineties.

Has Web 2.0 brought completely new business models ?

I believe ASS (advertisement, subscription, service) models have been around for a while, so…. no, I don’t think so. Although I do believe web2.0 will be able to create new models.

Do you have some tips to give to freshly graduated engineers that would like to start the adventure of entrepreneurship in Web 2.0 ?

Gather some people you trust around you and have fun!

Can you tell us more about The Next Web Conference (www.thenextweb.org) , since you are one of the co-initiator of this event ? What do you expect for 2007 ?

The Next Web Conference was a huge success last year and will be even better this year. The conference is focussing on the future of the web. We invite speakers with a vision and they share their vision with the audience. So no marketing talks about, look how cool my company is, but interesting people telling inspiring and interesting stories.

We just launched (today) The Next Web™ Awards. These are the only worldwide awards that will be handed out to companies and people on the basis of their future accomplishments. The conference will be a great and inspiring event where the whole web2.0 scene gets together.

END OF INTERVIEW

Any new projects under preparation ?

Fleck, the ultimate version ☺

Your last words for this interview ?

Thank you.

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Thank you all for according me some minutes of your precious time. I will keep following the Fleck adventure and wish you all the best !Interview by BORGET Sebastien