Seedcamp Week 2012 is over – the teams are back home, Campus feels like a normal office again (ok, not really), and the inboxes are buzzing with follow up emails. Time to recap our biggest Seedcamp Week ever – if only to remember the craziness of two weeks ago. as every year, Klein and Sons did a great job putting together videos of all days again, make sure to have a look!
Monday – Product Day
Product Day 2012 was focused on understanding the user experience of the individual customers. An introduction to user led design was hosted by the IDEO team, followed by a Masterclass ran by Ciaran Rooney of Skimlinks, who shared his insights on building Skimlinks to scale: today, more than 14 billion API calls are served per month. Later, Des Traynor of Intercom introduced smart ways of measuring users and customers, focussing on new types of metrics. Finally, Christian Hernandez of Facebook introduced ways to use the social graph for viral growth, followed by Cat Mallet of King.com, and Mat Clayton of Mixcloud, who shared their respective views on using Facebook products to drive traffic and engagement.
Tuesday, Founders Day
Founders’ Day 2012 was focused on learning from Europe’s best entrepreneurs about how they built their businesses, scaled their teams, and live their lives in the tumultuous world of startups. Ed Spiegel, the founder of RentMineOnline walked us through his journey from his participation in Seedcamp to a recent Exit. A session on the importance of branding from Dave McClure of 500startups provoked many laughs and gasps from the audience. Finally, Errol Damelin talked about the Wonga story, and was particularly open about how the company is building its talent pool, and how culture and branding are important even to early stage startups.
Investor Day
Investor Day 2012 was focused on exposing the Seedcamp teams to Europe’s best and most active investors to get feedback on fundraising strategy and to network with the best Angels and VCs. We heard a fascinating talk from Nikolaj Nyholm of Sunstone Capital, and Jos White and Chris Tottmann of Notion Capital. The panel was focused on discussing the differences and difficulties of the relationship between founders and VCs, and the misconceptions that make it harder to work together.
Growth Day
The day started with a surprise visit from the Minister David Willett and a selection of London’s leading entrepreneurs and investors who announced the news about new regulations making it easier to take companies public. Growth Day 2012 was focused on taking the teams to the next level – with mentors from giants like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Skype or Asos, Qype, and Skyscanner. Sven Schmidt, serial entrepreneur and now venture partner at Accel, talked about scalable marketing strategies during his Masterclass. He shared insights both from his personal experience and a more theoretical view on where the industry is going. Later, Michael Acton Smith of MindCandy, the makers of Moshi Monsters, shared the trials and tribulations of building a nation wide success.
Demo Day
Demo Day 2012 was Seedcamp’s largest event ever hosted. Our rockstar teams pitched their best demo yet to investors, entrepreneurs and the general tech ecosystem in London. To end the week on a high note, we were honored to have a Masterclass given by Gery Pennell, the CIO of London Olympics 2012. After having all followed the Olympics this summer, it was incredibly informative to see how much technology was involved in delivering the games.
Here’s the recap of Friday:
Out of Seedcamp week – Simpletax joins the family
Like last year, we decided to add another team to our roster for the week to take part in the mentoring sessions, meet mentors, investors, and entrepreneurs, and of course to join us as a new member of the Family. SimpleTax, who was with us at Seedcamp Paris, is now officially a Seedcamp company. They make it easy for freelancers, the self employed, and a host of other people to claim their tax refunds. After a very successful first Tax Season in Portugal, they are now starting up in the UK.