This year we’ve seen some of the most diverse and talented teams from all over Europe attending the Mini Seedcamps. We are therefore very excited to announce that applications are now open for our final Mini Seedcamp in London. Mini Seedcamp London will also be the final chance to apply for Seedcamp Week 2010. So, if you are an extremely talented team going after innovative and disruptive solutions in the Internet, mobile and software sectors, we encourage you to apply for the final chance at gaining a prestigious spot as one of the top 20 teams that go through to get funding and attend Seedcamp Week in September 2010. This year Mini Seedcamp London will take place on 27th July 2010 and will be held at UCL, a long-standing sponsor of Seedcamp.
It is absolutely clear to us that entrepreneurs from all across EMEA and beyond are criss-crossing the region to get to a Seedcamp that best fits their company’s needs. What an amazing difference in just 3 years! The Mini Seedcamps have accomplished exactly what we set out to do this year. They’ve been immediately beneficial to teams in connecting up with mentors and support and they’ve enabled us to get to know teams better before Seedcamp Week.
As always, 20 top quality, early stage startups will benefit from 1:1 interactive mentoring sessions and will be connected with over 60 regional and European most sought after and highly experienced entrepreneurs, product, marketing and business development experts, investors and technical gurus. With top industry players such as Richard Moross – CEO Moo, Michael Smith – CEO Mind Candy, Ian Hogarth – Co-Founder Songkick and Alastair Mitchell – CEO Huddle attending so far, we know this year’s Mini Seedcamp London is set to top the rest.
To give you a sense of what to expect in the next few months, we want to highlight achievements by Seedcampers ’09. ERPLY went on to raise $2M within 5 months from Redpoint Ventures and Index Ventures, Kukunu has closed a seed round including Seedcamp as an investor, Pearl raised seed funding from Eden Ventures, Brainient is closing a seed round and has been showing impressive customer traction, and Boxed Ice is steadily growing its customer base. It’s been a very intense 6 months for the companies.
London is fast becoming the city hub of choice for many entrepreneurs across EMEA. Most recently Plink was acquired by Google, Huddle raised over $10M in funding, TechHub and White Bear Yard along with the Silicon Roundabout are becoming places to set up office and work together with other startups in the ecosystem. Index Seed shows faith in the tech companies formed here, and the Wired map just puts this all into perspective with how much is going on.
These are certainly exciting times and we look forward to seeing your exciting ideas and teams at Mini Seedcamp London!
Please check out our resource pages that are full of advice and videos, blog posts, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook to see what we’re looking for, what teams get out of it and what you can do to improve your chances at winning a spot on one of the most prestigious and rewarding web tech programs that is helping to drive and shape the European startup scene today.
As we are expecting both the amount and quality of applications to Mini Seedcamp London to be extremely high, please make sure to put that extra bit of effort into your applications/pitch. Again, this is the last chance to get into the final Seedcamp Week in September!
Applications are now open and close at midnight on 30th June 2010. For full details, updates and how to apply go to the mini site.
On Friday 11th December Seedcamp brought together over 60 angel investors including Jeff Clavier, Martin Varsavsky, Brent Hoberman, Lukasz Gadowski, Stefan Glaenzer, Dave McClure, Andy Philips, William Reeve, Robin Klein, Jyri Engestrom and Sherry Coutu for the inaugural Seedsummit.
Seedsummit is a new event produced by Seedcamp, which aims to bring together twice a year a critical mass of our region’s most active seed investors to try and establish a stronger, more cohesive network to support entrepreneurs.
We will post soon with a follow-up but Saul wrote about the ambitions for the event shortly before it was held and so we would like to share that blog with you here.
Creating a distributed network for European startups
To succeed in creating an start-up ecosystem that can repetitively and sustainably build global leaders, Europe has to deal with the critical issue of fragmentation.
Seedcamp has spent the last few years very focused on building the beginnings of a network model for entrepreneurs. We’ve tried to lessen the constraints and isolation of geography by giving people the best possible access to a distributed network of advisors, funding and investors across our region, who can help them aim high and build ambitious global businesses.
At Seedcamp we believe we need to make our geographic distribution and cultural diversity part of our strength, so we’ve pushed the network out across the region with programs in London, Berlin, Paris, Ljubljana, Helsinborg, Tel Aviv, Warsaw, Kiev and San Francisco. In 2010 we intend to extend this to Copenhagen, Barcelona, Prague and New York.
This network model is the right focus and one that Seedcamp will deepen and maintain.
Leveraging the network for seed investors
One of the things we’ve learnt with Seedcamp is that there is a huge amount of seed investment activity across our region.
But right now it is fragmented, in pockets, shares no learnings and almost never networks. In fact, there is no dedicated regional network that brings together active seed investors in a concentrated way and these are the folks that entrepreneurs (including Seedcamp ones) often look to as their first source of capital.
So with Seedsummit, we are trying to create an informal forum where the people most actively investing in seed can get together, share best practices and dealflow.
Why is seed so important?
While micro-seed funds like Seedcamp, Techstars and YCombinator do an awesome job of helping start-ups get off the ground and traditional venture firms are great at providing early stage and growth capital, seed investing provides a vital bridge between prototype and establishing product/market fit.
Even before today’s well worn arguments about the lower cost of starting businesses, seed has always played a vital role in any vibrant and successful start-up ecosystem. In the Valley, enlightened seed investors like Mike Markkula ($250k into Apple in 1977), Andy Bechtolsheim ($100k into Google in 1998) and Peter Thiel ($500k into Facebook in 2004) have given some of today’s biggest technology players their start.
But more than just capital, the best seed investors provide critical advice, mentoring, connections and qualified access to top-tier capital when and if that becomes appropriate for start-ups.
Seed networks are developing strongly outside of Europe
While seed investing used to be the preserve of a few well intentioned individuals, seed in all key markets is becoming professionalized and there is now an incredible network of active stage investors and firms.
In the Valley there are folks like Jeff Clavier, Aydin Senkut, Mike Maples, XG Ventures, Reid Hoffman, Ron Conway and the SV Angel crew, Dave McClure, Chris Sacca, Allen Morgan, True Ventures and OATV. On the East Coast there is Union Square, First Round and the emergence of Betaworks and Founder Collective. Obviously there are also great investors in Boulder, LA, Vancouver, Boston and Seattle as well. In Israel there is Yossi Vardi of course and the TechAviv angels and across continents float Esther Dyson and Joi Ito.
In all of these markets – especially the Valley and Tel Aviv – there is enough concentration and flow that not only do startups have great choice but investors can share best practices, access more filtered dealflow and find great syndicate partners. As with any network, everyone improves by more participation and information flow.
So what about Europe?
In Europe we do have some very active seed investors and some venture firms like Index, Mangrove and Eden are institutional investors who are active at the earliest stages in the market.
People like Oliver Jung, Lukasz Gadowski, Martin Varsavsky, TAG, the Samwers, Atomico, Morten Lund, Brent Hoberman & Michael Birch, Klaus Hommels, Stefan Glaenzer, Sherry Coutu and the Cambridge angels have collectively done hundreds of deals in the last 5 years.
But the market is fragmented – syndicates which form easily in the Valley, Israel or New York often are hard to create. Sometimes it even hard to get people in London and Cambridge investing together, never mind Germany and France.
This is the goal of Seedsummit
Get these guys together – at least twice a year and make it easier for these active seed investors to work together and learn from each other, so it becomes easier for entrepreneurs to source and experience superior seed capital.
As with so much else in Europe we have a long long way to go, but like Seedcamp three years ago we have to start somehwere and that where is tomorrow when we have ove r 50 active investors from UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Nordics and the US come together to connect….
I’m really looking forward to it and seeing what happens.
After the great success of Mini Seedcamp 2009 that attracted nearly 500 applications from across Europe, we are very happy to announce open applications for Seedcamp Week 2009 being held from 21st to 25th September at UCL in central London. We have seen some great talent throughout Europe this past year and along with new teams we haven’t met yet, we want to encourage teams who attended or applied for previous Seedcamps to apply again to win a spot on one of the most rewarding and prestigious startup programmes Europe has to offer.
Seedcamp Week 2009 is a weeklong programme that connects 20 early stage web tech startups with over 400 highly experienced and sought after entrepreneurs, investors, marketers, product and developer experts. Along with current board members Saul Klein and Reshma Sohoni, the chosen teams will also have access to Seedcamp’s recently appointed board members who have been selected for their broad range of entrepreneurial experience and international background in order to help Seedcamp deliver its mission to build a world-class, sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem.
• Fred Destin, partner at Atlas Ventures
• Charles Grimsdale, co-founder of Eden Ventures
• Alex Hoye, co-founder of GoIndustry plc
• Christophe Maire, Head of Maps & Explore Unit, Nokia Services
• Dave McClure, Founders Fund
• Richard Moross, Founder and CEO, Moo.com
Through interactive panel discussions, master classes and several informal 1:1 sessions, teams will gain invaluable insight and a solid foundation to help kick-start a viable business in Europe today. Not to mention being inspired by fellow entrepreneurs and a chance to broaden their scope within the European startup ecosystem. With 99% of teams who attended the Mini Seedcamp programme recommending Seedcamp to fellow startups, teams know they’re in for the entrepreneurial ride of their lives. London based startup Lovestruck who attended Mini Seedcamp London this year says, “Let me say that I was literally taken aback by the quality of the whole set-up. It oozed quality, from the agenda to the mentors. Hats off!” You can imagine a whole weeks worth!
What do the winners get?
The 20 teams do compete for seed funding, but most importantly, garner world-class connections in the European entrepreneurial ecosystem. At the end of the week Seedcamp will invest up to €50K each in 5 teams for a small equity stake (5%-10%). On occasion, we have been known to select more than 5 teams.
The winning teams then have 3 months in London. This is where we really roll up our sleeves and begin to build a kick-ass product and company with the teams. The startups will have an opportunity to take advantage of the same ecosystem of experts that participated in the Seedcamp event through weekly dinners, topical lunches, conferences, and continued mentorship, culminating in further Demo and Investor Days. Similar to last year, we will also take the teams to the Valley to meet with companies and additional mentors who’ll be important partners and customers.
What we are looking for
We are looking for strong, quality startups that have the talent, drive and capacity to fully embrace the opportunities that participating in the Seedcamp Week programme brings. Which is receiving quality advice from top industry leaders and start building those key relationships to help drive your business. Relationships that normally take years to build, you’ll have access to in one day. Seedcamp is not an event or conference and should not be treated as a one-off. Seedcamp Week is a programme that provides an entrepreneurial ecosystem of support to strengthen and catapult your ideas into a viable business.
To really get your head around it, check out highlights from Seedcamp Week 2007/2008. Our blog posts, videos and following us on Twitter are also great way to stay connected during the run-up to Seedcamp Week and beyond.
Our own Reshma Sohoni says, “The beauty of Seedcamp is that a start-up can fill his or her Rolodex in one day with quality business contacts that it would normally take five years to build. We want to help entrepreneurs experience the whole rainbow, not just the pot of gold at the end.”
The very best of luck to all the teams applying, we can’t wait to see what you have to offer! For more information on Seedcamp Week and to apply click here.
The Mini Seedcamp mission continues with applications now open for Mini Seedcamp Ljubjana being held at the wonderful Tehnoloski Park Ljubljana on 14th May 2009. We are encouraging strong, quality startups from Slovenia, the Balkans and surrounding regions to apply, including Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia. Continuing our open door policy, any EMEA-based startup with next big web tech idea can also apply.
With local startup Zemanta being a Seedcamp Week 2007 winner, we are very excited about coming to the region and seeing what the local web tech talent has to offer. We are looking for strong, quality startups that have the talent, drive and capacity to fully embrace the opportunities that participating in a Mini Seedcamp brings. Which is receiving quality advice from top industry leaders and start building those key relationships to help drive your business. Relationships that normally take years to build, you’ll have access to in one day. Mini Seedcamps are not a conference, but an entrepreneurial ecosystem of support to strengthen and catapult your ideas into a viable business.
Check out our blog posts, videos and follow us on Twitter to see what we’re looking for, what teams get out of it and what you can do to improve your chances in winning a spot at one of the most prestigious and rewarding web tech events in Europe today. Spending the time to fill out the application comprehensively is key and communicating to us clearly your idea and strengths of your team is critical for consideration, so no skimping here!
Mini Seedcamp Ljubjana will connect 20 top quality, early stage web tech startups with over 50 regional and European esteemed, sought after and highly experienced entrepreneurs, investors and developers that will blow your socks off. From the likes of our own Saul Klein, to Ales Spetic and Andraz Tori of Zemanta and many more.
Through an interactive panel discussion and informal 1:1 sessions, teams benefit from engaging with and listening to a variety of distinguished mentors and industry leaders from PR, HR, product development, business development, marketing to name but a few. All at the top of their game – all there to help you.
You will gain invaluable insight and a solid foundation to help kick-start a viable business in Europe today. Not to mention being inspired by fellow entrepreneurs and a chance to broaden their scope within the European startup ecosystem.
Our goal is always to help as many great startups as we can to have that initial capital to kick-start their business and, of course, to make the most relevant relationships possible. As such, Seedcamp may also invest through the Mini Seedcamps or the teams may be invited to apply for the Seedcamp Week in London in September 2009, whereby 20 teams are selected from around the EMEA to attend and compete for seed funding and garner world-class connections for startups.
Applications are now open and close at midnight on Monday, 27th April 2009. For full details, updates and how to apply go to the mini site.
So much has happened with Seedcamp in the last month, thanks to you all for your energy, enthusiasm and support.
Last Sunday night we accepted the last applications for Seedcamp Week 2007 – we were thrilled to have received 268 applications from over 40 countries. Seedcamp seems to have tapped a nerve from Uruguay to the Ukraine and we’re excited to work with you all in the near future to figure out how we can best harness and continue the positive momentum.
This week is selection week. Our esteemed selection panel has been putting in serious energy into analyzing the applications and slimming that list down to a final set of interviews. By the end of the week we will have final list of 20 selected companies who’ll be coming to London to spend the week of Sept 3-7 with us.
One of the things we’ve always said about Seedcamp, is that’s its not just about the cash. Success is also about have the right context, making the right connections and gaining the right coverage.
Providing the right context
We’ve been inspired by the informal formats of unconferences and unevents like Barcamp and Opencoffee to try and create a style which is not just about people who’ve done it talking at people in an audience.
We want to provide conversation not speeches, so we have a mix of sessions where Seedcampers will hear directly from some real experts but then importantly be able to spend 1:1 time with those experts to get direct feedback on their businesses.
Seedcamp is an evolving project and this is only our first year, so we welcome any ideas and feedback you have on what topics are the most interesting to you. Please join the forums and let us know.
Making the right connections
Building a great business is partly about accessing the best and brightest talent – it can often be about knowing who to ask when you are stuck with really important questions.
We’ve said that being a part of Seedcamp should allow you to build a rolodex in a week it would take years to build otherwise.
So, to help teams making the best connections, we have lined up expert mentors across product design & development, marketing & pr, raising money, finding exits, negotiating big partnership, handling legals and accounting, team building. Hopefully, a lot of what teams need to sharpen their pitch and develop to be a successful business.
Joining our already impressive cast of characters during Seedcamp Week and beyond, some of the folks now include:
Gaining the right coverage
Rising above the noise is critical in building your business.
To help Seedcamp teams do this, we’ve already partnered with Techcrunch, FT.com and the NextWeb Conference. We’re now thrilled to announce three new partnerships with:
What’s next for Seedcamp….
These are still early days for us. We’re at the beginning of a long-term project which is focussed on building a better entrepreneurial environment in Europe for talented entrepreneurs who want to think big.
We’ve been thrilled by the response so far and the level of engagement from our fellow travelers on our blog, on our forums and on our ever growing public Facebook group. But most of all we’ve been thrilled to have as our fellow travelers everyone who has applied to Seedcamp and everyone who has become a supporter so far.
We have some exciting ideas for what’s next and we really want to hear from you all about what you think we can do to best serve and encourage great talent in Europe.
But right now we’re just so excited to move towards the next Act and meet the selected teams for Seedcamp Week 2007 and all the mentors in London from September 3-7th.
There has been an overwhelming amount of activity on the forums and in my inbox as you have awaited the shortlist of telephone interview slots. Congratulations to all the teams that have been shortlisted.
For everyone, I want to say that although there are only 20 teams able to participate in Seedcamp Week, we believe that the community being built here should benefit all of you in developing and refining your businesses. Please take every advantage of it.
Some of you have already emailed about getting feedback. We will be holding open office hours during the weeks following Seedcamp Week to give you feedback on your plans. I will blog closer to the time how to sign-up for a time and date!
Additionally, to continue to support your teams:
Again, we hope this application process was a useful experience and that you think of this as a beginning of building your first or next great business!
Nokia, ABBA, IKEA, LEGO, and saunas are just a few things the Nordics are famous for. There’s also a great pool of web tech talent mustering in the region and we can’t wait to dip into it.
Applications are now open for Mini Seedcamp Helsingborg, being held at the über cool Helsingborg SHIP on 5 May 2009, along with the help of Øresund Entrepreneurship Academy. While we are on the lookout for teams from Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway, we encourage any EMEA-based startup that is ready to wow us with your product or idea to apply.
We are looking for strong, quality startups that have the talent, drive and capacity to fully embrace the opportunities that participating in a Mini Seedcamp brings. Which is receiving quality advice from top industry leaders and start building those key relationships to help drive your business. Relationships that normally take years to build, you’ll have access to in one day. Mini Seedcamps are not a conference, but an entrepreneurial ecosystem of support to strengthen and catapult your ideas into a viable business.
Check out our blog posts, videos and follow us on Twitter to see what we’re looking for, what teams get out of it and what you can do to improve your chances in winning a spot at one of the most prestigious and rewarding web tech events in Europe today. Spending the time to fill out the application comprehensively is key and communicating to us clearly your idea and strengths of your team is critical for consideration, so no skimping here!
Mini Seedcamp Helsingborg will connect 20 top quality, early stage web tech startups with over 50 regional and European esteemed, sought after and highly experienced entrepreneurs, investors and developers that will blow your socks off. From the likes of Joachim Samuelsson of Biomain along with these notables:
Hampus Jakobsson, Co-Founder & VP Business Development, TAT
Hjalmar Winbladh, CEO, Rebtel
Martin Gren, Founder and Board Director, Axis Communications
Sam Aston,CEO, Epsilon Information Technologies
Thomas Weilby Knudsen, Manager Partner, NorthCap Partners
Through an interactive panel discussion and informal 1:1 sessions, teams benefit from engaging with and listening to a variety of distinguished mentors and industry leaders from PR, HR, product development, business development, marketing to name but a few. All at the top of their game – all there to help you.
You will gain invaluable insight and a solid foundation to help kick-start a viable business in Europe today. Not to mention being inspired by fellow entrepreneurs and a chance to broaden their scope within the European startup ecosystem.
Our goal is always to help as many great startups as we can to have that initial capital to kick-start their business and, of course, to make the most relevant relationships possible. As such, Seedcamp may also invest through the Mini Seedcamps or the teams may be invited to apply for the Seedcamp Week in London in September 2009, whereby 20 teams are selected from around the EMEA to attend and compete for seed funding and garner world-class connections for startups.
Applications are now open and close at midnight on Monday, 19 April 2009. For full details, updates and how to apply go to the mini site.
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