“What if I told you, there is a place where VCs are not scared of risk and embrace ambitious startups?”
Ricardo’s words were intriguing, enticing even. Where could this place be? Manchester perhaps? Could these people in this wonderland handle the ambition I have for Satago? There was only one way to find out – take the red pill and go down the rabbit hole, not to Manchester (lovely place it may be), but to… America!
The investment advice in America started almost as soon as I had my boots on the ground, at the customs border, with the TSA agent helpfully telling me that if I wanted to raise investment for my company I should go where the Chinese are – “they have lots of money and want to invest it in America. Go where there is gambling and you will find them.” Sage words indeed, helpful TSA lady, but I decided to stick with Seedcamp’s itinerary of top US VC firms, rather than hang out in casinos.
Three minutes is not a long time for a VC pitch, but after two weeks I was a master of succinct-pitching. All the Seedcamp companies were. In fact, by the end of the trip we were also masters of pitching each others’ companies. Tom from Formisimo gave a convincing Satago pitch to a lawyer at the Silicon Valley Bank party, which was only let down by his rather dismal attempt at a Scottish accent. “Put the cookie down. Och aye!”
A particular benefit of the meetings for me was the opportunity to get top VCs’ opinions on a slight strategy change for Satago that I had been considering. When VCs at Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen Horowitz, and Sequoia all think that what you are considering is a good idea, it’s probably a good idea. Nice validation to have.
Seedcamper goes to America! Many VCs in America! Very big deals in America! Boots on the ground in America!
US Trip Diary: How the US and EU VC Scenes Differ
This guest post is written by Lucy Stonehill, Founder & CEO of BridgeU – who drive better higher education decisions for international students, secondary schools & universities. Lucy joined Seedcamp for the twice-yearly US Trip, meeting investors and tech companies across the USA.
Heading into the US Trip, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Although I’ve lived on both coasts of the US at one point or another, I hadn’t properly anticipated the difference in feel and attitude between the startup ecosystems in NY, Boston and San Francisco, respectively.
New York investors, like Big Applers more generally, are very honest in their feedback and direct in their delivery. Certain investors push entrepreneurs by poking holes in their investment cases and by questioning their assumptions, whereas other investors push entrepreneurs by stretching the entrepreneur’s vision in a way that tests the validity and scope of her company’s potential. Probably from an investor-vetting perspective, both of these two strategies are equally as valuable, but the latter definitely strikes me as more characteristic of west coast investors.
In Boston, we stopped at Harvard Business School to sit down with Professor Tom Nicholas for a couple of hours to speak about the venture capital industry and how it has (or hasn’t) evolved over the course of the past few decades. A few learnings stick with me a couple of weeks later…
An extraordinarily disproportionate share of the “returns” – something like 97% – produced by venture-backed companies are attributable to a few, very top tier VC funds. This implies a few important things: that success breeds success, that entrepreneurs can be picky (read: snobby), and that the right VC funds with the right VC talent can have a tremendously positive impact on a young company.
While certain individuals (like Arthur Rock, in whose “Centre for Entrepreneurship’’ our lecture took place) retrospectively appear to be brilliant investors, there is no science that can explain the art of investing. On the one hand, this should be highly disconcerting to entrepreneurs, as the lack of scientific methodology reduces the chance of achieving a meritocratic fundraising environment. On the other hand, it proves even more that raising money for entrepreneurs is a lot about luck, building a connection with a certain investor/investment team, and playing the numbers to your favour.
At HBS, we also talked about the difference in venture scenes between Europe and the US — somewhat of a hot topic as Europe’s tech-ecosystem evolves and matures. We spoke about the danger of drip-feeding investment in Europe — the phenomenon whereby government and/or private funds provide European entrepreneurs and start-ups with enough capital to subsist on for a few months, but not enough to grow fat and fast on. In the US, after all, Seed capital typically means $1-3 million, not $1-300k. Their view is that it takes big failures to see big successes.
Travelling from coast to coast, pitching investors who are truly thought leaders, receiving advice from European success stories like Y-Plan’s Rytis Vitkauskas, and basking in the Palo Alto sun was wild, amazing, inspiring, and definitely exhausting. But, it wasn’t all ra-ra-USA. Whether we realise it or not, we are uniquely positioned in Europe as we have a truly global view of what it means, and probably what it takes, to disrupt large industries.
The size of the American market is both a blessing and a curse. It means that American start-ups can and do survive by taking into consideration only the American market. In Europe, we build businesses and nurture our ideas with global expansion in mind from day one. Some investors the in US — some of the ones we spoke with on our trip — also have this view, and they’re bullish on Europe as a result. They believe that investing in the future means acknowledging that the future may look different from this side of the Atlantic.
Four times a year we host our flagship Seedcamp Week event; twice in London and twice in Berlin. It’s an opportunity for startups to meet experienced entrepreneurs, investors and product experts from across Europe and participate in an intense week of mentoring, masterclasses and presentations.
We’ve welcomed many hundreds of startups to Seedcamp Week since 2007 and have invested in over 130 of them to-date. But Seedcamp Week isn’t just an opportunity to raise investment – in fact, we believe its long-term value can far surpass any cheque we could sign.
With more startups applying every year, we wanted to find out which aspects of Seedcamp Week were most attractive to applicants. So we asked them! Here’s what they said…
A strong network is one vital ingredient in the makeup of any successful startup, and it looks like Seedcamp Week applicants agree. Let’s drill down into the top three reasons startups are so eager to attend Seedcamp Week…
With our launch in London approaching, Seedcamp’s network is a huge opportunity to tell the world we’re coming! – A Seedcamp Week startup
Access to our network can give you several advantages over your competition:
We’re incredibly proud to have developed one of the world’s strongest networks of investors, mentors and startup entrepreneurs; and we’re glad our applicants see the benefits of being part of it.
Fortunately, for those startups who haven’t participated in Seedcamp Week or aren’t otherwise part of the Seedcamp family (yet?) we interview our network of mentors and investors regularly to capture and share their advice over on our YouTube channel.
We’re at Seedcamp to hear feedback from both mentors and peers on our search engine & other product plans to tackle this space – A Seedcamp Week startup
Early and regular feedback is particularly important when trying to reach product/market fit; having early testers helps identify weaknesses in your product and can help validate your market.
At Seedcamp Week we invite a select group of mentors to look at your business and stress-test your product from every angle. The feedback can often be blunt, but it’s sure to be valuable. Sometimes it’s not the product that’s at fault though; for one startup, their product’s purpose wasn’t clear and it wasn’t until one of the mentors said, “Your messaging is wrong” that feedback on the product began to change.
We are particularly looking for mentors and advisors to guide us through these early stages of our company – A Seedcamp Week startup
It’s good to seek advice, but more important is to seek advice from the right people. Our mentors have a wealth of experience working for and with many successful startups at Board and C-level; Barry Smith (founder of Skyscanner), Mat Braddy (CMO of Just Eat) and Renaud Visage (CTO of Eventbrite) to name just a few.
Seedcamp Week presents a rare opportunity for startups to sit down with such experienced individuals and focus on key aspects of their business, from product/market-fit to marketing to finance. For the startups who do ultimately join the Seedcamp family, the learning doesn’t stop. As part of our Academy, our mentors regularly come in to lead masterclasses in their field of expertise.
And while you may think all this is great for early-stage startups and their founders, even experienced teams such as Teleport, eMoov and Mailcloud have said the experience was invaluable . When you have access to some of the world’s best mentors, there’s no limit on who can benefit.
Fortunately, there are several Seedcamp Weeks throughout the year, so if you’re an ambitious startup and want to make the most of the above opportunities make sure you view our Events page and apply to the next one! We’d love to see you there!
Greetings from Dublin! We’re back at Web Summit to take part in some discussion panels and to host our own very exciting startup pitch event – we can’t wait!
We’ve specially invited some impressive startups to pitch their companies to the Seedcamp judges on Wednesday 5th November; the most impressive of whom could be invited to Seedcamp Week Berlin! Joining us will be…
Our Partner Carlos Espinal will be joining a panel with Nick Brito (Fidelity Growth Partners), Sitar Teli (Connect Ventures), Ophelia Brown (Index Ventures), John Stokes (Real Ventures), and John Henderson (White Star Capital) to discuss investing in tech in Europe. Find them just off the Machine Summit Exhibition Area.
We’ve invited serial entrepreneur Ray Nolan (Hostelworld, Skyscanner) and the excellent Malcolm Bell (Mailcloud) to share their insights on growth and building a customer base. Join us at the Startup Workshop Studio, located off the Machine Summit Exhibition Area.
Startup founders Emer O’Daly (Love & Robots), Steven Renwick (Satago), Lucy Stonehill (Bridge-U), Malcolm Bell (Mailcloud), and Michael van Sondern (Minubo) will be sharing their Seedcamp experiences, so come along if you’d like to find out what being part of the Seedcamp family is like from insiders! We’ll be at the Startup Workshop Studio, located off the Machine Summit Exhibition Area.
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