Mindpark, Swedish superklein counterpart to the e-lab?
In September 2007 a new initiative called Mindpark was initiated by a group of Swedish newspapers. The aim being to create sort of a thinktank and a mediacompany able to act on its own as well as supporting its owners in understanding, implementing and administer projects which will take their old media companies into the new media world. As far as I remember Mindpark got SEK 40 000 000 initial funding (a bit more than EUR4 000 000, by Swedish measurements a lot of money).
The initiative was praised both by the established media companies, the grassrot internet entrepeneurs and the Swedish blogosphere. I thought it was a great step by the newspapers, thinking of the Holtzbrinck e-lab who has been quite successful here in Germany.
Mindpark opened its doors by having one of the most frequently updated blogs in Sweden with regard to writing about new media and how the internet is reshaping people’s daily habits etc, great posts almost every day. One aim of Mindpark was to be a thinktank which they have accomplished I guess. With that said they now must have spent at least SEK1 500 000 of their money, that’s quite an expensive thinktank.
Another aim of Mindpark (which I hope is the main one) was to deliver nine “projects” per year, the scope of these projects I don’t know. It is now the end of March and as far as I know there’s just one project being officially released called Rubbet. Rubbet is quite a weak software platform that should not take a decent developer any amount of time to produce with a very poorly implemented GUI (hey tags are cool right?!?). A new version is apparently in the build-up though.
Mindpark is a very loud voice in the Swedish blogosphere, but their main mission is not to be a great blog and opinionmaker. Leading and managing a great development company is not about going to every conference there is but about actually getting sh#t done, the results will catch up with you eventually.
I hope there’s something great bubbling underneath Mindpark that they are not telling us (even though they say they are aiming to be 100% transparent), but until actual results are shown I’m sad to say that Mindpark seems to become just another one of those projects initiated by larger companies where money go in and nothing comes out except talk.
I’d suggest Mindpark start doing as the e-lab, less talking more doing … and start to deliver amazing concepts. Until that happens I hope they get a nice amount of bashing on the net.
March 29th, 2008 at 2:02 am
Thanks for the spotlight. And thanks for the kick in the butt, we may all need that…
But having not just one area of focus, but four (http://mindpark.se/in-english/mindwork-our-mission/) brings a need of some further time before you can judge us. Agreed, I would have hoped for more to show after six months. But we do seem to be picking up speed now, after an inital round of anchorage within our rather large group of owners.
One effort that does not show, but has been very high on our list of priorities is to help get the drive and speed up within the companies in our organization. It’s a job that must be done as well, but one that is hard to estimate from the outside.
Also, we have had to iron out, or rather put on hold, one area that initially got a lot of time and effort. Mergers and acquisitions will hopefully be resumed after the summer. (Link, in swedish only: http://mindpark.se/2008/02/18/moratorium-ny-fart-efter-sommaren/)
Hhmm, parts of that url did not come out well in an english text…
And trust me, no matter how much bashing we get from the net - no one can hit us harder then we do ourselves.
March 29th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
I don’t think m&a is what people want to see from Mindpark, I think people want to see you first conceptualize, implement and launch a great concept that in a smart way achieves synergies with your owners (or show how you plan to do it with http://www.sourze.se/ ).
When this is shown companies that think the same synergies will drive their companies up the roofs will come to you offering Mindpark to be a stakeholder in their company not because of Mindparks cash position but because of the other deliverables you can bring to the table (much more profitable I promise).
I still think Mindpark is the most likely offspring from the dinosaurs to create something great and unique and I hope this will happen, but so far it looks a bit grey and unsecure.
Thanks for the detailed answer. /m
April 12th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
[…] negativa postningar från Hjalmar (” Don’t talk, do!”) och från Mikael Palmstedt (” Mindpark, Swedish superklein counterpart to the e-lab?”). Förutom att Mikael Pawlo, MD på Mr Green tryckte tillbaka (” Talk is Really Cheap These […]
May 31st, 2008 at 7:06 pm
[…] som Hjalmar mfl påpekar, är det utåt sett för mycket snack och för lite göra. “Don’t talk, do” är […]