Here you’ll see an overview of everything you need to know to prepare for Seedcamp Week London. If you have any additional questions please let us know at group email address that you’ll be invited to. Make sure to go through this thoroughly as it covers every aspect of the event and how to get the most out of it.
Schedule
Seedcamp Week is extremely busy – events will run from the 2nd to 5th February and participating teams must attend all events:
- Monday 2nd – Seedprep, 2pm – 6pm
- Tuesday 3rd – Investor Forum, 11am – 2pm (15 min slots with the panel)
- Wednesday 4th – Product Day (9am – 6pm). Presentations, masterclass Richard Moross, lunch, mentoring sessions.
- Thursday 5th – Investor Day (9am – 6pm). Presentations, masterclass Alexander Trewby , lunch, mentoring sessions.
Location
- Monday 2nd – Campus London
- Tuesday 3rd – Campus London
- Wednesday 4th – Campus London (evening party at Runway East)
- Thursday 5th – Campus London (evening party at Second Home)
Event announcements
Please keep your participation in Seedcamp Week quiet until 11am on Tuesday 3rd February.
We’ll publish a blog post in the morning of the 3rd announcing all participating teams. Please widely distribute this post to gain the best possible exposure for the event and your company – and help the others.
We’ll contact you when it’s live so you can be first to announce the good news!
Your team
Each team is welcome to bring a maximum of two members to Seedcamp Week. The person limit is due to the tight venue space, and in our experience mentoring is optimal with two people from each startup. Feel free to rotate one person, but make sure that at least one of you is there for all four days.
Investment decisions, joining the Seedcamp Family
Investment decisions will be made during the week – not just in the investment interviews, but also based on feedback from our team, mentors, and investors.
Don’t worry too much about it – just be your natural self and show us how great your company is and how passionate you are about it. You will have an amazing week regardless of the outcome.
After Seedcamp Week (Onboarding)
Winners of Seedcamp Week London will be required to join us at HQ (Campus London) the week commencing 16th February to participate in Onboarding. Please check you have no important commitments during the week, as you’ll need to free up this week for Onboarding if you win.
Prep Call
We will host a Seedcamp Week preparation call during the noon/afternoon of Thursday 29th January for all the selected teams. During the call we’ll walk you through the complete schedule and all materials you should prepare. Don’t worry, we will answer all of your questions. We’ll send you the meeting invite shortly.
Read about the experiences from past teams
To ensure you fully benefit from the day we’ve listed a few more blogs from past Seedcamp Week startups, below:
What to cover in your presentation
Presenting your company can be a stressful experience if you’re not prepared. We will be practicing and reviewing your presentations during Seedprep on Thursday 29th, but in the mean time we suggest you:
- Work hard on creating your deck!
- Include your twitter handle on each slide
You have strictly 3 minutes to present your company. This is your chance to introduce yourselves to the mentors and let them know why you are there. DON’T use it like an investment pitch (i.e. ask for money). A beneficial tactic can be to concisely summarise what your company does in the very beginning of your presentation. We also recommend including:
- What you’ve built and what problem it solves
- Who you are and why you can build this business better than anyone else (Read our blog article on the perfect Team slide)
- Who your competitors are
- How you get your product to the masses
- How you’ll eventually make some money
A great question you may want to answer to set the tone for your mentoring session: What do you want to get out of the day? Keep the number of slides manageable and practice, practice, practice!
We will give you feedback during the training session, but don’t rely on this session alone to work on your presentation. Most of our venues have Internet available to demo your product, however, experience shows that it is prudent to have a slide backup, as there may be connectivity issues. Same goes for using sound and video during the presentation – usually a personal presentation is much more effective. Presentations will be in alphabetical order, and of course in English. If you’d like further guidance this is a good demo to watch – it’s not Seedcamp’s so ignore the 90 sec rule but it might give you inspiration.
Getting the most out of mentoring
Your startup team will participate in mentoring sessions on Wednesday and Thursday with experienced entrepreneurs, investors, product experts and developers. You should aim to get as much out of these sessions as possible. Each mentoring session lasts approximately 45 minutes and will contain your team and approximately 3-4 mentors.
Mentoring sessions are meant to give you feedback in an open and honest context, so do not pitch! Research the names and background of mentors you’ll be meeting (you will receive a list shortly) and write down potential questions you want answered. Mentors can get off topic, so asking direct questions and setting topics for individual sessions works best. Teams tend to get most out of the mentoring sessions when they take control of the discussion.
We have grouped mentors so that experts from certain fields are together, so find out what a good topic for the session could be and focus on those issues. For example, you may have a grouping of angels and VCs who you could ask for feedback on your fundraising strategy. With marketing experts, consider discussing your go-to-market strategy. In addition to open sessions where mentors choose their desired teams, breaks and the evening event provide opportunities for deeper interaction. Make sure you leverage every opportunity to interact with mentors. Form a concise description of your business and consider conveying your goals for the day during your presentation.
Take notes & follow up
Remembering the details of an initial conversation can make a huge difference when reconnecting with mentors in the future. Always exchange business cards and be sure to take notes. Some teams choose to have one member especially accountable for taking detailed notes while the other member leads the discussion. It may also be valuable to recap each discussion with your team member after the session.
Post-event, if you connected with a mentor be sure to follow up! This is the key to forming mentor relationships. Make sure you connect personally with each mentor you met – it’s easy to drop an email saying how much you enjoyed the session; this keeps the door open for future meetings and queries. Mentors are interested in what you do, so think about giving periodic updates. Mentors may also offer to make introductions they promised during the sessions – reminding them of this could be the best way to get your feet in the door. An easy yet under-utilised tactic is to publicly thank mentors for their time on Twitter.
Business Cards
You will meet a lot of new people so ensure you have a stack of business cards available; Moo is a local company that offers great quality business cards.
Finally…
Finalise your product, prototype, presentation, and get ready for Seedcamp Week London!