Call it an irony, but the global recession that we have been hearing about seems to have had a paradoxical effect on entrepreneurs. Times have been really bad for the big players and many big companies have either suffered huge losses or definitely felt an impact thanks to the downturn. However, this situation has created a strange mood among those who have been planning their startups. Perhaps, these are the ones that believe that one must look for opportunities even in a crisis. That being said, world over entrepreneurs and enterprises have been seeking to start new ventures that may capitalize from an unprecedented growth which may happen in a couple of years, after the initial low swings back to normalcy. If this will hit an economic ‘mania’ is a question economists have been speculating.

A reason why the new start-ups and ventures may have a chance to sail through the economic crisis could be the fact that a company needs no initial capital or investment, what is being termed as the zero cost setup. This could be attributed to the fact that web hosting can now be done at a very low cost and one can actually do away with office space, telephones, and expensive but redundant software. Microsetups being in mode means that with practically nothing, an individual can build a business sans leases and later sell it to a larger company for profit. This also gives rise to a new found freedom among budding entrepreneurs to choose their line of interest.

Social networking, gaming, media, and even hookups online could prove to be an opportunity for a startup or for some time off from the stomach churning global recession. With this in mind, many talented people have already gone ahead in these distressing times and begun the groundwork on their dream ventures. A possible indication that this is going to be a huge trend can be seen at the LeWeb’08 which is a Start-up competition wherein 30 companies have already registered. It would be interesting to see how many of these companies stand to win the prize and how many actually survive the global crisis.

With companies from France, Bulgaria, Germany and other countries participating, there is an equal number of judges who have been selected to choose the winner of the Start-up competition. Companies would need to present their companies in 7 minutes and would be judged by eminent people in the industry. Now you may want to know who are these companies that have enlisted and who the judges are. Well, it is a long list but it sure is worth knowing who these amazing people are, to be able to go ahead and turn the crisis into an opportunity.

·    2Win-Solutions, France
·    3scale networks S. L., Spain
·    Apture, U.S.A.
·    Box.net, Inc, U.S.A.
·    Brozengo SA, France
·    Charge Ventures, UK
·    Cmune, China
·    ConTrust, Israel
·    DoctorSIM, Spain
·    Edicy, Estonia
·    Haploid, France
·    IZI-collecte, France
·    Kaltura, U.S.A.
·    MyID.is Certified, France
·    Nimbuzz, Netherlands
·    Popego Inc, U.S.A.
·    Producteev Inc, U.S.A.
·    Publing, France
·    Radionomy, Belgium
·    Samedi GmbH, Germany
·    ShoutEm Ltd, Croatia
·    Silentale SAS, France
·    SquareClock, France
·    Tellmewhere, France
·    Trendiction, Luxembourg
·    Viewdle, Inc, Ukraine
·    Westcom, s.r.o., Czech Republic
·    Zavedenia.com, Bulgaria
·    Zipipop Ltd (Zipiko)
·    Zoover Holiday Reviews, Netherlands

The judges who will pick out the coolest start-up are:

·    Ola Ahlvahrsson, Result
·    Roberto Bonanzinga, Balderton Capital
·    Mike Butcher, TechCrunchUK
·    Laurent Chiozotto, Sun Microsystems
·    Julien Codorniou, Microsoft
·    Don Dodge, Microsoft
·    David Hornik, August Capital
·    Pierre Kosciusko, Morizet, Price Minister
·    Simon Levene, Accel Partners
·    Om Malik, GigaOM
·    Dave McClure, 500Hats
·    Freddy Mini, Netvibes
·    Marc Samwer, European Founders Fund
·    Axel Schmiegelow, Sevenload
·    Gary Shainberg, British Telecom
·    Megan Smith, Google
·    Pascal Thomas, Orange
·    Martin Varsavsky, FON

In my opinion, optimism is always good, if it is calculated and realistic. It is impressive and exciting to see so much of hope among people and perhaps they are right. I only wonder how the companies can create a ripple in an international market that has almost thrown its hands up in the air and shrugged its shoulders to glory. Nevertheless, it could possibly be the step in the right direction for the market to shake its feathers off and fly into a new and brighter future that is not marred by economic downturns and is healthier, stronger and more secure than it is now.

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Via: LeWebParis/Calacanis