Two new voices in the Valley
All roads and internet routes lead to Silicon Valley - or so it appears in the case of new European communications companies and their entrepreneur founders.
While the Skype Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service - based in London, Luxembourg and Tallinn, Estonia - was being bought by the Valley's Ebay a year ago for up to $3.9bn, US venture capitalists were scouring central Europe for the next big thing.
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Michael Moritz, a partner at Sequoia Capital, the original backer of Google, Yahoo, and YouTube among others, came across Jajah, a VoIP company founded by two young Austrians.
But his interest came as a surprise to the start-up's founders: "When we came out with this new approach to VoIP, we thought we wanted to go with European venture capitalists," says Daniel Mattes, one of the two co-founders. "We signed a term sheet with the largest one and then, all of a sudden, Michael Moritz found us and approached us."
But there was a condition attached: "If he invested in Europe - it was the first-ever investment by Sequoia Capital in Europe - we had to relocate to California. It took us two seconds to decide because it was a once in a lifetime opportunity."
In May, Jajah moved its headquarters to Mountain View, a few hundred metres from Google, while maintaining offices, like Skype, in Luxembourg, and also carrying out research and development at a centre in Israel.
While Sequoia's demand may at first have appeared unnecessary, the founders can see and appreciate all the advantages Valley start-ups have over their European counterparts.
"The venture capitalists here have a completely different approach. In Europe, they are acting more like a bank institution - they are giving you small portions of money based on milestones and if you don't reach the milestone you don't get it and all the time you have a money problem," says Mr Mattes.
"In the US, they ask what are the expenses for the next two years and this is the money we will give you. They say you should concentrate on the business and not on raising money allthe time and that is a big difference."
Jajah was also helped by Sequoia's gilt-edged connections in the Valley built up over 25 years and has won introductions to the "Web 2.0" social networking start-ups it hopes will incorporate its technology.
Mr Mattes and his co-founderRoman Scharf seem to fit in well with the Valley's culture and are a good double act reminiscent of Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google.
"Roman and I are some kind of aliens in Europe - we are not the usual Europeans, this is at least what Sequoia told us," Mr Mattes says. "It is a very good match, we fit perfectly together.
"He is the creative guy responsible for marketing and I'm the one concentrating on figures and technical stuff and financials, so everything boring is coming from me and everything exciting is coming from Roman."
The two met each other through a mutual friend. Mr Scharf had sold a German software company he was running and Mr Mattes had sold out of a media business and e-government solutions business.
They were fascinated by the possibilities of VoIP and started Jajah only last year - taking the name from F. Jajah Watamba, supposedly an eccentric aboriginal Australian who had posted a manifesto calling for free global communications at Watamba.com.
They saw a survey that suggested only 2 to 3 per cent of internet users were using VoIP, while nearly all users seemed comfortable typing in queries on a search engine like Google.
The key as far as they were concerned was tore-duce the VoIP proposition to typing a keyword or number into a search box and remove the technology aspect that put off most users.
This meant eliminating the need for broadband, the requirement to download and install software or to fit a microphone and headset, and even the need to sit at a computer.
So, at its simplest, users go to the Jajah.com website, type in their own phone number in a box, type in the number they want to call and then click on a call button. A moment later, their own phone rings and when they pick up they are connected to the person they wanted to call. Charges are around 2.5 cents a minute for calls from the US to Europe and free if they are made to another registered Jajah user.
Jajah carries the calls over the internet for the bulk of the distance, leasing fibre at cheap rates from companies such as Level 3 and Global Crossing. Then it uses two of the 200 termination points it has established around the world to establish the final links between the twoparties on their public telephone networks, paying the incumbents for these essentially local calls.
Despite its low charges, Jajah expects to break even in the next six months andreach 1m registered users by the end of the year. It says its users are spending $10 a month on average with the service and doubling in number every month along with revenues.
Such a simple idea should be easy to copy, but Mr Mattes does not see any immediate threat of this because it is really only easy at the point of use. "Simplicity is the key success factor, but it is not so easy to get 200 termination points - we spent a lot of money over one year to establish the back end and to ensure quality. If we det-ected weakness in one of the termination points, we would switch to another. None of this is easy."
Jajah has continued to add features since its global launch in March, including conference calls, textmessaging and scheduled calling.
This week, it made its most significant advance so far - incorporating theservice on to a range of mobile phones.
In the most seamless version, designed for phones based on the Symbian operating system, Jajah uploads to the phone software that allows users to automatically be routed through Jajah for all their international calls, meaning calls that can cost more than $1.50 on some US mobile plans will cost users just 2.5 cents and may even be free.
This is not likely to please the cellphone companies, who have already taken action to block some VoIP services in other countries.
But Mr Scharf says Jajah's modus operandi makes it immuneto this since the initial call to its servers is not a VoiP call. His strategy is to argue that Jajah is complementary to the incumbents, as users still need regular phone services, whether fixed or mobile, in order to use Jajah.
"Jajah is designed to be everybody's second phone company - we want to be the first true global communications company," he says.
The company’s development reminds one board member of an instant-messaging service that established a social network in the web’s younger days. ICQ had 12m users in 1998 when the internet was much smaller and before the company was bought by AOL.
“We changed the way people communicated and we made it simple,” says Yair Goldfinger, co-founder of ICQ, who became a Jajah director in February.
“Jajah can actually do what we did and take it to the masses, but with VoIP.
“I really really like them, it’s a great technology and a great team and I believe it can be a huge company.”
创业案例：与美国风投打交道
所
有道路和互联网路径都指向美国硅谷――或者说对于欧洲新成立的通信公司及其创始人来说，情况似乎如此。
一年前，硅谷的eBay以高达39亿美元的价格收购了Skype的VoIP服务（位于伦敦、卢森堡和爱沙尼亚的塔林），但美国的风险资本家们又开始在中欧地区网罗下一个大目标。
红杉资本(Sequoia Capital)合伙人迈克尔?莫里茨(Michael Moritz)无意中发现了由两位奥地利青年创建的VoIP公司――Jajah。红杉资本是谷歌(Google)、雅虎(Yahoo)和YouTube最初的投资者之一。
但他的兴趣令这家新创企业的创始人感到惊讶：“当我们推出这种新型VoIP服务时，我们认为自己希望与欧洲的风险资本家合作，”丹尼尔?马特斯(Daniel Mattes)表示。“我们与规模最大的一家签署了框架协议，之后很突然的，迈克尔?莫里茨找到了我们，与我们接洽。”马特斯是Jajah的两位创始人之一。
条件：搬到加州
但有一个附加条件：“如果他在欧洲投资――这是红杉资本有史以来首次在欧洲投资――我们就必须迁址到加州。我们迅速做出了决定，因为这是个一生中难得有一次的机会。”
5月份，Jajah将总部迁往山景城(Mountain View)，距谷歌总部仅数百米之遥，同时像Skype那样，在卢森堡保留办公室，并在以色列一个中心进行研发工作。
乍看之下，红杉的要求似乎没有必要，但两位创始人能够发现和理解硅谷初创企业相比欧洲同行们的所有优势。
马特斯表示：“在这里，风险资本家的做法完全不同。在欧洲，他们表现得更像是一个银行机构――他们根据设定的进度标志，给你提供一小部分资金，如果你没有达到规定进度，你就得不到这笔钱。从始至终你都会面临资金问题。”
“慷慨”的美国风险资本
“而在美国，他们会问，未来两年有哪些开支，然后把这笔钱给你。他们说，你始终应该将重点放在业务上，而不是筹集资金上，这一点上有很大的区别。”
红杉25年来在硅谷打造出极佳的关系网络，对Jajah也有帮助，该公司已结识Web 2.0社交网络的新创公司，希望藉此将其技术整合进这些网络。
马特斯和另一位创始人罗曼?沙夫(Roman Scharf)似乎非常适应硅谷文化，两人合作默契，令人想到了谷歌的谢尔盖?布林(Sergey Brin)和拉里?佩奇(Larry page)。
“罗曼和我在欧洲有些异类――我们不是常见的那种欧洲人，至少红杉是这么告诉我们的，”马特斯表示。“我们配合地很好，是完美的搭档。”
“他是个有创造力的家伙，负责市场营销，而我则把精力集中在数据、技术和财务方面，因此所有枯燥的东西都出自我手，所有令人兴奋的东西都来自于罗曼。”
他们两人是通过一个共同的朋友而结识的。沙夫卖掉了自己当时正经营的一家德国软件公司，而马特斯则出售了一家传媒业务及电子政府解决方案业务。
创建Jajah
他们痴迷于VoIP的种种可能性，在去年才创建了Jajah――这个名字来自F.?贾贾哈?瓦塔巴(F.Jajah Watamba)。据信，这位行为古怪的澳大利亚原住民曾在Watamba.com网站上发布一份宣言，呼吁实现全球自由通信。
他们看到一份调查显示，只有2%至3%的互联网用户使用VoIP，而几乎所有的用户似乎都习惯于在谷歌等搜索引擎上输入查询问题。
对于他们而言，关键是简化VoIP的使用，使其达到在搜索框内键入一个关键词或数字的程度，并且摘掉VoIP令多数用户却步的技术面纱。
这意味着取消对宽带的要求、对下载及安装软件的要求，或者对耳麦规格的要求，甚至对使用电脑的要求。
收费：每分钟2.5美分
简而言之，用户只要登陆Jajah.com网站，在框内键入自己的电话号码，以及他们希望呼叫的号码，然后点击呼叫按钮。过一会儿，他们自己的电话铃声就会响起，而当他们拿起听筒时，就接通了自己想要呼叫的人。如果从美国给欧洲打电话，费用约为每分钟2.5美分，如果呼叫的对方也是Jajah注册用户，那么通话就是免费的。
在传输通话的大部分距离上，Jajah通过互联网进行，并从Level 3和Global Crossing等公司以便宜的费率租赁光纤。然后它利用在全球各地建立的200个终接点中的两个点，在通话双方的公共电话网络上建立起他们之间的最终连接，并为这些基本上属于本地通话的呼叫向电信公司付费。
尽管收费很低，但Jajah预期在未来6个月内能实现收支平衡，到今年底，注册用户将达到100万人。它表示，其用户在此项服务上平均每月的支出为10美元，人数与公司收入一道，每月增长一倍。
使用简单，后台操作不简单
这样一个简单创意应该很容易复制，但马特斯并不认为眼下存在任何威胁，因为它只是在使用方面非常简单。“简单是成功的关键因素，但要建立200个终接点并非易事――我们历时一年时间投入大量资金，建立后台服务，并确保通话质量。如果我们监测出其中某个终接点出现问题，我们会迅速切换到另一个终接点。所有这些事情都不容易。”
自3月份面向全球推出以来，Jajah一直在增加功能，包括电话会议、文本信息和预约呼叫。
最近，该公司取得了迄今最为重要的进展――将VoIP服务整合到一系列手机中。
Jajah推出的无缝连接程度最高的VoIP版本，是为运行Symbian操作系统的手机而设计，它可向手机上传一种软件，允许用户通过Jajah线路自动发送所有国际呼叫，这意味着，美国一些手机资费方案本来要收1.50美元以上的通话，用户将仅需花费2.5美分，或许甚至免费。
这种服务可能会令移动通信公司感到不快。后者已经采取行动，在一些国家封锁某些VoIP服务。
但沙夫表示，Jajah的操作方法使其不会受此影响，因为最初连接到服务器的呼叫并非VoIP电话。他的策略是，主张VoIP对现有电信公司是一种补充，因为用户为了使用Jajah，仍然需要常规的电话服务，无论是固话还是手机。
目标：成为第二家电话公司
他表示：“Jajah旨在成为大家的第二个电话公司――我们希望成为首家真正意义上的全球通信公司。”
Jajah的发展，使该公司一位董事亚伊尔?戈德芬格(Yair Goldfinger)，想起一项即时讯息服务。她在互联网诞生初期建立起一个社交网络，她就是ICQ的创始人之一。在1998年互联网规模比现在小得多的时候，该社交网站就已拥有1200万用户，后来该公司被美国在线(AOL)收购。
她表示：“Jajah实际上能够做到我们当初做到的事，并把它带给大众，只不过是通过VoIP而已。”
