We are just beginning to see what intriguing opportunities may be around the corner thanks to Web 2.0. I have seen many of them popping up at business plan competitions. A couple of new examples of collaborative services, which are a big part of Web 2.0 activity, have recently come across my desk.
One is called Huddle, which came to me thanks to Natalie Wozniak (an alumna from my University of St. Thomas days) via PSFK:
Huddle has been targeting freelancers, small marketing and creative agencies as well as law firms.
A really interesting fact is that they did not built the app inhouse but managed to bond with a partner and have it developed within four months which is quite unusual for a Web 2.0 startup. But we learned that it works rather well for them and they even managed to receive funding from an angel investor. Huddle now has around 1,500 users from 250 companies.
Huddle is an application that seems to fit perfectly into a business world were constantly changing teams and long-distance collaborations are getting more and more common.
The other is called PartnerUp, was just launched within the last few weeks. From Mike Anderson, Senior Information Architect:
PartnerUp is a free online service which helps entrepreneurs, small businesses, and people who have an idea or are interested in starting a business find business partners, advisors, board members, executives, and skilled professionals. And, the web site helps those who are interested in getting involved in businesses find opportunities to get involved in the above capacities.
Basically, our goal is to help people who have ideas but need people with certain skills or experience find the people they need to make their idea a success.
What excites me about start-ups in the Web 2.0 space is that many of them have the promise to have both good revenues and healthy cash flows. Plus, they require much less start-up capital than most of their Internet ancestors.