A Kindred Spirit In London
One of the things I love about the web/tech/venture business is the energy and spirit of people who work in it.
And there are certain people who take that energy and spirit to a new level, like Lucasz in Berlin last week. I spent a good part of yesterday with Saul Klein in London. I did a bunch of meetings at his office and then he hosted a dinner last night with a dozen (maybe more) entrepreneurs.
I love what Saul has done with Open Coffee and Seedcamp.
My month in europe is coming to a close soon but I can tell you that there is a great entrepreneurial scene over here. It’s like NYC was five years ago. It’s just waiting to bust out.
And when it does, it will be because certain people understood what it takes to build the infrastructure of entrepreneurship and they went and built it. Saul is certainly one of them and I was really jazzed to see what he is up to first hand and to meet a bunch of great entrepreneurs last night.
Comments (Archived):
Fred, if you are still in town on Friday morning, come to social media cafe. it runs from 10am-noonish at the Coach and Horses in Greek St. You’ll find a crowded room upstairs in an pub full of interesting people and conversations.
I wish it could but I am headed back to paris this afternoon
Good lood what would Jeff or Norman have said to a load of geeks with laptops back in the day 🙂
Glad you’re enjoying the start-up scene in London. It’s certainly buzzing at the moment. The biggest change has been the development of initiatives like Seedcamp and now, Digital Mission, which provide some more structured help on top of the myriad of networking sessions.http://digital-mission.orgWe're working with one of the UK government departments to organise Digital Mission to Web 2.0 Expo in NYC, a trade mission for UK companies looking to expand into the US market or attract US investment. The response has been fantastic, especially as the deadlines for applications are really short.The connections that these companies make on this NYC trip will no doubt be invaluable and it’ll be great to compare the experience between the NYC and London start-up scenes.
Saul rocks.
Saul is the real deal!
Fred you can find similar entrepreneurship energy in some Asian countries as well, for example, Taiwan. The entire infrastructure there is a direct replica of silicon valley and plus they have a pretty steady IPO window. I think US’s weak IPO market will one day come back to hurt venture activity. You can’t rely on trade sale for bulk of your returns forever.
Hooray for the Brits! Nothing like a good ol’ entrepreneurial meet up with a bunch of hooligans! On a serious note, however, from what I’ve read, the London entrepreneurial scene is blowing up. …www.readtheanswer.com/index.php?RTA=web2