Guest blog by Anette Nørgaard

The Kingdom of Denmark: the Southernmost of the Nordic countries, bordered by Germany, Sweden and Norway.  Its governance comprises three countries: Denmark itself, the Faroe Islands and Greenland.  Original birthplace of the legendary Vikings, it also happens to home to a vibrant entrepreneur community.  I’ve been mentoring and working with startups in Denmark for many years and I can definitely say that despite economic challenges, we’re seeing a lot great business ideas developing here.

And, like those warriors of old, many Denmark’s startups are setting their sights on global roll-out.  This is hardly surprising – like lots of European countries, the size of the domestic market limits potential growth and so, pushing beyond national boundaries is imperative to long-term survival (as well as being good news for the local economy of course).

It’s easier said than done, but here are a couple of examples from the BizSpark community where that Viking spirit is working.  MailTalk™ has created an ingenious platform for “digital dialogue”. This cloud-based solution addresses the growing trend towards engagement marketing, where organizations want to have rich, more tailored contact with audiences, but in a controlled and integrated way.  It overcomes the challenge of  having multiple data and communication tools or platforms (ERP, CRM, CMS, email, etc). Although this is a very young company (it only launched its platform in late 2011) it is already attracting a lot of interest from some big organizations.

Further down the track is Pixel Pandemic, whose ‘Zombie Pandemic’ game has been a huge hit.  This is a classic start-up that spotted a gap in the market. It has tapped into the interest in browser-based games  - particularly the explosion of game applications on Facebook -  and has created a feature-rich gaming platform that appeals to more ‘serious’ players of massive multiplayer online role playing games (MMORPG).   Once again, being on the cloud has helped the company accelerate: the “the Azure model means we can build a global business without investing in our own IT infrastructure,” said CEO Thomas B. Krogh-Jacobsen.

Last but not least is Little Beacon, which has successfully launched mobile solutions aimed at productivity (for instance, ERP).  Once again, this is a company based on the Azure platform, which has made it easier for the company to scale and build expand into other countries.  Little Beacon is already doing very well in the US.

Of course, it’s hard to be successful without a helping hand, which is why working with our local BizSpark Network Partners is so important.  Take startup City (also one of the first partners for our Windows Azure for BizSpark Special Offer), based in Århus, providing office space, mentoring and all kinds of support for local startups within the BizSpark community.

Another example is SCALEit is a Silicon Valley based organization promoting Danish entrepreneurship.  It has big ambitions: to engage more than 1,000 entrepreneurs in Denmark, bring +75 startups to Silicon Valley for a one-week SCALEit camp, put +30 companies through a 3 months accelerator program in Silicon Valley and ultimately help these companies explore their full growth potential.  We look forward to sending more BizSpark start-ups in their direction.

These companies are just the tip of the iceberg.  Denmark is definitely a country to watch, especially those startups who have global ambitions.  So watch out for the Vikings!

Today the BizSpark team is pleased to announce BizSpark Plus, an extension of the Microsoft BizSpark Program. BizSpark Plus will provide exceptional Microsoft offers to high-potential startups through a global network of BizSpark Plus Partners selected from leading incubators and accelerators.

BizSpark Plus Partners are chosen from local markets based on their track record of attracting and working with world-class startups. Here are just of few partners who have already joined as BizSpark Plus Partners:

• TechStars (Global)
• Startup Weekend (Global)
• SeedCamp (Global)
• Founder Institute (Global)
• Fumec (Global)
• Springboard (UK)
• TechCity (UK)
• Eura Technologies (France)
• DojoBoost (France)
• Cietec (Brazil)

There will be several offers from Microsoft through this program, the first being  Windows Azure for BizSpark Plus, that allows our partners to provide up to $60,000 of Windows Azure compute and storage per startup over two years.

Our goal is to help startups grow their business and by offsetting startups’ cloud computing costs, this enables startups to spend time and money elsewhere – focusing on solving their business challenges, learning from their users, hiring more developers, investing in marketing and promoting their business or getting new customers.

Over time, we will be extending additional offers through our BizSpark Plus Partners. For more information about the program, visit http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/plus.

By Ruud De Jonge

Look at the glass – what do you see?  Is it half full?  Is it half empty?  To a lot of start-ups, neither matter because they see a third way. Maybe they can do something totally different with the glass and on a big scale.  And it is this ‘out of the box’ thinking that is behind a whole new generation of start-ups, who if we give them a chance, could bring revenue into Europe and create jobs.

Despite economic conditions, we are in the midst of an unprecedented period of technology innovation.  Technology is revolutionising the way that consumers and businesses innovate, work, play, learn, think and communicate on a massive scale.

And that is proving to be a big catalyst for European start-ups to launch use the latest technologies, clever business models and to make an impact.  In fact, small businesses are arguably in a stronger position, because they can be more agile and flexible, whereas big established companies may be hindered by legacy processes, technologies and thinking. 

For example, all the time I’m seeing small businesses build solutions in the cloud that disrupt the status quo.  Using cloud, these start-ups can ‘dream big’ from day one and can go from idea to global launch and revenue generation in a much shorter time period than previously possible.  Take for instance the two BizSpark start-ups at our CIC Conference:  Atomblock’s Electronic Software Distribution platform means that even small games publishers can sell online, without big up-front investment.  MailTalk’s clever solution overcomes the problem of having lots of separate communications tools by integrating them in one place.

But innovative technology doesn’t make business easy.  We have a collective responsibility to help new entrepreneurs to build tomorrow’s economies.   We need to foster innovation by giving start-ups easy access to technology and support, plus help them find funding and customers.

That’s why I’m passionate about some of the initiatives within Microsoft, such as DreamSpark and Imagine Cup, which are both aimed at students.  Our BizSpark program gives start-ups free access to technology, support and visibility for up to three years.

Of course we are not alone and some other technology companies, plus governments and academia are increasingly waking up to the need to nurture those people who have the vision and courage to start their own companies.

It is often said that some of the most successful companies of the past three decades were started during a period of recession.  Whether or not that is true, there is no doubt that Europe’s economy needs to help today’s bright sparks to become tomorrow’s technology leaders.

By Sharon Koshy

Over the past few weeks, here’s a sampling of news highlights of members of the BizSpark One program, identifying a small number of the best companies in BizSpark, which is now comprised of over 45,000 startups.

Week of January 1-7, 8-14 and 15-21:

• ClickDimensions, providing a 5-star rated email marketing and marketing automation solution for Microsoft Dynamics CRM , created a 60+ page Microsoft CRM Marketing Idea eBook for free download which includes articles on creating and publishing great newsletters, easily tracking the effectiveness of online advertisements and more.

• Digital Folio, a multi-channel, real-time shopping platform, was highlighted in the Windows Azure ISV Blog Series, discussing how Digital Folio is using Windows Azure to deliver their online shopping service.

• Exceedra, focused on commercial and supply chain planning, announced that Aspall, a cider and vinegar producer, has implemented Exceedra’s Demand planning solution. With Exceedra’s demand forecasting solution, Aspall notes that it has enabled them to manage demand more effectively and support their continuing business growth.

• BizSpark One alum Gradatim, creating solutions to help bank and insurance companies manage opportunities in the growing microfinance market, was featured in a Windows Azure case study. By using Windows Azure to host its offerings, Gradatim has experienced increased global scalability, savings in operating expenses and shortened customer deployment cycles.

• Mark Gilbreath, Co-Founder and CEO of LiquidSpace, a mobile application that helps people find and share available workspace, authored an article in GigaOm focused on how doing business in real-time will be a critical component as sharing economies continue to mature.

• News360, a next-generation news personalization and aggregation service, was featured in the Financial Times in an article highlighting a new wave of news aggregation services bringing a rich and more personalized news experience.

• BizSpark One alum NextPage, providing information governance solutions, announced that it has been acquired by ProofPoint, a security-as-a-service provider. Based in Draper, Utah, NextPage was named a ‘Cool Vendor in Content Management’ by Gartner last year.

• Soundtracker, geosocial internet radio, was featured by Nokia’s developer program in this video and on developer.nokia.com where founder and CEO of Soundtracker, Daniele Calabrese talks about their multi-platform mobile music service and their work with Nokia and Microsoft.