So Ali, tell me about your new startup.

Our latest project is called BookAdopter, and it’s a website that helps students buy and sell their university textbooks. Check it out at http://bookadopter.com.

Why another textbook exchange site? Why do you think you’ll succeed where others have failed?

It just doesn’t make sense that students buy the same textbooks over and over every year. Not only does this have a significant cost for students, it also has serious consequences for the environment.

The fact that there have been so many other attempts at tackling this problem shows us that people recognise the need for a solution. It’s just that up until recently we haven’t had the right combination of tools to come up with such a solution.

Online social networks are now ubiquitous and dense enough to make such exchange platforms really work. With BookAdopter we’re trying to strike the perfect balance between simplicity and ‘network-awareness’, and that’s why we think it’ll be a success.

How have you tried to make BookAdopter distinctive?

The website is distinctive for three reasons: 1) it’s free, 2) it’s simple, and 3) it makes it easy to share listings.

BookAdopter is free for everyone. Neither sellers nor buyers pay us a penny.

BookAdopter is simple. To use the website you won’t ever have to register, sign up, or provide your bank account details.

Perhaps most importantly, BookAdopter’s integration with Facebook changes the role of students (i.e. the sellers) from a traditionally passive one to an active one. Sellers can post an individual book listing (or a list of all of their uploaded books) to Facebook with a single click. This is much easier than having to manually design, print and pin posters.

Tell me about your team.

I co-founded the website with Philippe Ducrest, a Business student at the University of Edinburgh. We share the same vision for the project, so it’s been great fun working together over the past few months.

I’m currently studying for a PhD in AI at the University of Edinburgh. I’ve worked on a number of projects like this in the past; perhaps the most successful of which has been KeepMeOut: http://keepmeout.com.

Wil Whiting, a University of Edinburgh alumni, has also recently joined our team and will be helping us to develop and promote BookAdopter across the UK.

Do you need anything from our readers?

To turn BookAdopter into a success, we need to get as many books in our database as we can. So if any of your readers have textbooks they want to get rid of, they should upload them to BookAdopter!

And if they don’t, it’d be great if they could tell their friends about our website, because almost certainly some of them will have books that they no longer need.

We’re also working on an ‘ambassador program’ to help students help us promote BookAdopter at different universities, so if any one would like to work with us, please do get in touch!

[BookAdopter.com]

What’s your startup?

Luxuryhound. We encourage people to spoil their dogs. More specifically, we design and make designer dog accessories in Scotland, mostly from leathers and tweeds, but we also have a more urban line of sparkly crystal collars.

Who/what inspired you to go down this road?

Even though I’m not a Paris Hilton type, I had a ‘handbag’ dog, and I took her everywhere with me; she really was a sort of substitute child. I then started noticing that I was part of a global trend of people anthropomophising their pets (and thereby spending more money on them) and yet, at the time, there wasn’t much out there that I thought was special. I was actually pushed to start the company when the recession carried away a lot of the design work in Scotland and I had to figure out something else to do.

What’s the next big challenge or hurdle that the company has to overcome?

I’ve been building my brand online, but in order to make the leap to larger sales I need to start selling wholesale. Shops like Harrods and Saks Fifth Avenue are in my sights, but my biggest hurdle is how shy I am about direct sales. When I talk to people about my products I know I convey passion and integrity; it’s just making the initial cold contact that terrifies me!

I’m also very interested in exporting to the BRIC countries, as they have a growing appetite for luxury goods AND their dog ownership is growing quickly, but I need to make the right contacts.

In three sentences, what’s the personal dream?

The worst thing I can think of is being bored. When I was younger I probably thought the dream life was to live in the lap of luxury and not have to work, but I now know that I have to keep busy learning and creating to be happy. I could imagine being a serial entrepreneur in completely different arenas.

If your life had a theme song, what would it be?

‘Sisters are doin’ it for themselves’…!!

What are you secretly an expert at?

Er, picking my nose? Oh, is that not a secret?

If your school friends had to pick a ‘Most Likely’ for you, what would it have been?

I’m pretty sure most people who knew me when I was in school thought I was going to be a performer — actor, singer, etc. At uni I focused on more prosaic/ intellectual pursuits, but I still love to get up and make a fool of myself in front of loads of people. I suppose that sounds bizarre after I’ve just mentioned how scared of cold-calling I am, but somehow they are quite different to me.

What lesson do you wish you’d been taught before you started all this?

I don’t you think you can be ‘taught’ lessons; you have to learn them. I read all sorts of business books, then went out and made the exact mistakes I’d told myself I wasn’t going to. Specifically: a. I should have kept a day job for a long time, and b. I should have gotten at least one product to market much sooner than I did. You can make up all sorts of excuses why you’re not ready, but until you get to market you have no idea what will sell.

I do think that one of the most under-appreciated problems of being a sole-founder start-up is loneliness: when you don’t talk to another person all day life can get a little too close to ‘Fight Club’ for comfort.

What’s the strangest advice you’ve received?

A scary guy in the New York subway yelled at me to not ever eat ice cream (note that there was no ice cream in sight at the time). He was probably right, though.

If someone wants to get on your good side, what would they need to do?

Good old-fashioned Scottish wit works well with me, but then it needs to be backed up with kindness. Or, you could just get me a deal with Harrods.

Is there anything you’d like to hear from people about?

Yeah! Two things: 1. If you have any contacts at high-end retail stores, both here and abroad, that might be likely to carry my products, let me know and 2. I’m now looking for interns to help with SEO, social media, and a-b testing the website.

Catch Luxuryhound over at www.luxuryhound.com!

What does Persuasion API do?

We have a learning algorithm that optimizes persuasion strategies per individual website visitor. [This tool was the subject of a recent feature in Wired magazine, which explained the difference between taste profiling, which is what Amazon or Netflix uses to recommend new products you might like, and persuasion profiling. While the former tries to guess what you like, the latter analyses how to pitch it so that you're most likely to buy.]

What’s your company culture in 3 words?

Fun, handsome and good-looking.

Who is your ideal/target customer?

Large e-commerce website like Amazon or M&S.

How long have you been working on this idea?

Maurits Kaptein, my co-founder: 2 years.

Me: what idea?

What stage is the company at? How will you generate revenue?

We will start beta testing this September. The business model is based on paid API calls (suggestions of persuasion strategies per individual).

What’s the next big milestone for Persuasion API?

Three big launching customers + business case = meeting with American investors.

What’s the long-term dream for the company?

Open up profiling data and becoming a clearinghouse for cookies.

What top three lessons do you have for startup companies, and how can they start being smarter about their online marketing today?

Lesson 1: Know influential people.

Lesson 2: Know a lot of easily influenced people.

Lesson 3: Make sure you know which people are which!

What’s the No. 1 reason people should come to your upcoming talk in Edinburgh?

Because you are going to learn something without being bored to death.

Who would you like to meet when you’re in Scotland in August?

We would love to meet the Pirate Bay dude. He’s cool (and handsome). [Peter Sunde of the Pirate Bay and micropayments startup Flattr, is speaking at the Turing Festival on Saturday, 27th August at the Surgeons' Hall.]

And there you have it. Arjan will be speaking about the Science of Persuasion on Sunday, 28th August, as part of the Festival’s segment entitled Science, Technology and Creativity: Open Innovation at the Bleeding Edge. Day tickets can be purchased through the Turing Festival.

Our 60 second interviews are designed as a way for people within the Edinburgh community to find out about each other.

This week’s interviewee is Bruno Panara from Tigatag. Bruno was a recent graduate from the BSc in Computer Science and AI course from the School of Informatics. With a colleague, Bruno built a located based check-in game over the summer as part of a Informatics iPhone app scholarship. Since then, they have turned the app into a business called Tigatag.

What’s your startup?
Tigatag. We get users to use their GPS phones to play games together (think treasure hunts or group games), winners get prizes!

Who/what inspired you to go down this road?
I wanted to be able to choose what I wanted to do and how I would go about doing it.

What’s the next big challenge or hurdle that the company has to overcome?
Figuring out the right market for us and how to attack it.

In one sentence, what’s the personal dream?
Being able to travel anywhere I want and to buy any gadget I’m intrigued by

If your life had a theme song, what would it be?
Any one having to do with time running out/being out of time! there’s never enough time and always more to do!

What are you secretly an expert at?
Playing with cards

If your school friends had to pick a ‘Most Likely’ for you, what would it have been?
Most likely to be a politician

What lesson do you wish you’d been taught before you started all this?
I still really wish somebody could teach me how to sort out the really important stuff from the chaff

What’s the strangest advice you’ve received?
nothing really strange, but when we were choosing names various rude and inappropriate ideas were considered!

If someone wants to get on your good side, what would they need to do?
Be friendly and not be completely wasted after the second Long Island!

Is there anything you’d like to hear from people about?
Let me know what you thing of Tigatag! How would you want to use it?

This week’s interviewee is Craig McKenna. As an experienced business developer who has in excess of 12 years top level business development behind him, Craig uses this knowledge to help other businesses grow. A highly ambitious and motivated entrepreneur he is always looking to push businesses forward.

What’s your startup? 

The Growth Academy

Who/what inspired you to go down this road?
Whilst running another company it became apparent that there was no cost effective but structured mentoring support for small businesses which aren’t funded.

What’s the next big challenge or hurdle that the company has to overcome?
Scaling up to meet my personal ambitions without compromising quality of attendee or sessions.

In one sentence, what’s the personal dream?
To achieve something which has had a positive effect on the business community

If your life had a theme song, what would it be?
It would change every week to keep up with what’s going on at that time!

What are you secretly an expert at?
Preaching what I don’t always practise

If your school friends had to pick a ‘Most Likely’ for you, what would it have been?
A salesman

What lesson do you wish you’d been taught before you started all this?
Working to targets and plans

What’s the strangest advice you’ve received?
Be a lot more selfish. It’s true though

If someone wants to get on your good side, what would they need to do?
listen and offer feedback

Is there anything you’d like to hear from people about?
I love using tech to drive business. Any new tools or apps would be great.

Given that we first met at iCUE, a junior enterprise at the University of Edinburgh, I’m not surprised that her interest in entrepeneurism and passion for startups led her to become involved in Scottish startup Van Der. This online fashion startup launched at the end of November 2010 and caught my attention as a result of some marketing activity powered by this wk’s 60 Second interviewee.

Name: Natali Chanany

Your role: Press and Social Media Marketing for Van Der

How old is Van Der? Just under a year.

What’s the next big challenge that Van Der has to overcome? We’re about to release Spring/Summer 2011 and are finalizing our Autumn/Winter collection, so I think our next challenge is to expand!

What’s the personal dream?  Happiness.

What’s the professional dream? To be happy with what I am doing, and to take pride in it.

What is your experience of the Edinburgh startup scene? There are a ton of great ideas that people have, even every day just talking to people, I think there is an environment that encompasses a lot of passion and motivation.

How do you celebrate milestones or awards? Where is the champagne? (and ice cream)

What top 2 marketing tips would you offer to startups / which 2 have you found to be most effective? Be persistent- there is a lot of noise out there so to be heard you may have to knock more than once. And the second thing, especially in marketing is make sure you have a few people you can bounce ideas around with – it is definitely not a one man job.

Your favourite ‘skint’ meal? My friend, Jeff Soares, homemade dinners.

How much support is there at university for students who wish to become entrepreneurs? I think there seems to be a few awards, scholarships, clubs etc dedicated to it, but personally they are all too scattered around.

Should graduates work for others before trying their hand at entrepreneurship? This is a great question, I’ve wondered this a lot myself. I think if you have a good idea, you are young and  probably don’t have that many responsibilities to others at this point, so if you have a good idea, then definitely go work for yourself, that is an experience. But it comes down to personal preferences, I just think once you are older it is harder to leave a steady income to go do what you want.

What’s your guilty pleasure? Oreo cereal – recipe, take a handful of Oreos, crumble them in a bowl, add milk. Enjoy.

Name a quirky fact about yourself: I’m about to get my third passport.

Give the choice, would you prefer …

i) Truth or Dare? Truth.

ii) Carrot or Stick? Carrot

iii) Tea or Coffee- Coffee for breakfast, tea at night.

To find out more about Van Der - http://www.facebook.com/vandermode

Name: Diana Proca

Your role: Events Manager at Launch48

Give us your company culture in 3 words: enthusiastic, energetic, positive

How old is Launch48? Two years

Based on your experience of startups that are formed during Launch48, what are the most common / most repeated mistakes? (List 3 max)

1. being too enthusiastic but only for a short period of time
2. bad level of communication within the team
3. sticking to the initial vision and lack of flexibility

What’s the next big challenge that Launch48 has to overcome? We’ve just announced our exciting upcoming event, The Inspire Conference. It’s a conference taking place over two days in June, 7th and 8th in Shoreditch. Since this is a new project and also our largest event, we hope our community will be as excited as we are and will support us.

What’s the personal dream? It’s actually very cliché-istic but I dream of creating something meaningful that will make a difference..

What is your experience of the Edinburgh startup scene? We’ve organised one Launch48 event in Edinburgh last year.

How does it compare with the London startup scene? Maybe the London startup scene is bigger but the Edinburgh one has very much potential. The people coming to our event were very enthusiastic about being entrepreneurs and their ideas were very innovative. I think great startups will be created there in the near future..

What would be the top 3 pieces of advice that you’d offer to startups?

1. keep a decent level of pragmatism
2. move fast and launch fast
3. always improve your product

Your favourite ‘skint’ meal? Icecream

What’s your guilty pleasure? Sleeping in

And the coolest event (business / tech related) you’ve been to? Launch48 events, of course

How do you celebrate milestones or awards? Sharing the moments with my loved ones..

What do you do for stress relief? Scream and run but not in the same time.

Give the choice, would you prefer …

i) Truth or Dare?  Dare

ii) Carrot or Stick? Carrot

iii) Tea or Coffee? Coffee

This week’s willing victim (I mean entrepreneur!) is final year student Gregor Wilson who is also the CFO and Partner of VAN DER, a small startup that will launch next week!  I posted an article about the company a couple of days ago.  If you haven’t had enough of a fix of VAN DER news then you’re in the right place to consume a wee bit more!

Name:  Gregor Wilson

Your role: CFO and Partner of VAN DER.

Give us your company culture in 3 words: Fashion-focussed, affordable, passionate

What’s the next big challenge that Van Der has to overcome? Expanding next season to include womenswear and a jeans line - (Startupcafe: I’m looking forward to the womenswear range!)

What’s the personal dream? To live a working lifestyle that I never want to give up, rather than having a ‘job’, and help others do the same -(StartupCafe: bit like us then!)

What’s the professional dream? To rival and surpass the major players on the highstreet and online.

What’s your opinion on the visibility of the Edin startup scene, and how helpful is the startup scene in Edin? I think Edinburgh is unique in its ability to allow companies to grow quickly with a lot of encouragement from other local businesses. I think, however, there has to be more emphasis on international presence as I feel many companies that would benefit from international exposure, focus solely on Edinburgh for a little too long.

How could Edin (the uni or the city) encourage entrepreneurship in its residents / student population? The city could really help by developing areas that are affordable for entrepreneurs to be based and work together. I know the uni provides lower cost office space already, which is great – it would be encouraging to see a dedicated flexible office space for entrepreneurs in Leith to develop the area as well as the businesses.

How do you celebrate milestones or awards? I’m a bit of a sucker for champagne and a good dinner with friends to follow.

What do you do for stress relief? Run as far as I can in the gym with the ipod plugged in.

Your favourite ‘skint’ meal? A Boots meal deal, I still don’t know how they manage it.

What’s your guilty pleasure? Too many, but one is watching re-runs of the OC. Ryan was such a great role model.  (StartupCafe: Mate! Come on, you can do better than that! Whisper it, we won’t tell….)

And the coolest event (business / tech related) you’ve been to? Going to Shanghai to meet with other labels and manufacturers during a week-long event to promote international co-operation.

Name a quirky fact about yourself: If I was not in fashion I’d probably be a computer programmer, I’ve designed websites since I was 12 years old.

Give the choice, would you prefer …
i) Truth or Dare? Truth

ii) Carrot or Stick? Carrot

iii) Tea or Coffee? Double shot black.

You can follow VAN DER on twitter: @LOVE_VAN_DER or become a fan on facebook.

Whats your Startup/Business?
GeordieMac Electronic Publishing

Give us your company culture in 3 words:
Focused, flexible, furry.

Whats the next big challenge or hurdle that the company has to overcome?
Persuading clients and prospects that publishing online makes sense in terms of cost, profile, responsiveness and customer service.

In one sentence, what’s the personal dream?
That my gorgeous nephews grow up healthy and happy, and take their auntie out for lunch once in a while.

What do you do for stress relief?
Walk the dog, practise yoga, swim.

Your favourite ‘skint’ meal?
Poached eggs on toast and beans on toast, on the same plate. Yum.

How to you celebrate milestones or awards?
With cake.

What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?
Never been guilty about pleasure.

And the coolest event you’ve been to?
Client party at the Kaisersaal in Berlin (used as the location for the Kit Kat Club in Cabaret).

Name a Quirky fact about yourself:
My first job (age 6) was professional singer. Been singing for my supper ever since.

Give the choice, would you prefer …

i) Truth or Dare?
Dare
ii) Carrot or Stick
Carrot
iii) Tea or Coffee?
Tea