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The European Startup Ecosystem is Entering Puberty

30 points by theoneill 19y ago

jgrahamc 19y ago
Pity to ignore SV VCs who have London offices. I worked with Accel when I was in California and they have a well established London office: http://accel.com/people/index.php?group_id=122000 http://accel.com/people/index.php?group_id=122000
- langer 19y ago
  yep, totally agree - i coulda mentioned them (and benchmark/balderton) along with index. accel seem to be much more confident than the london-only vcs.
  - jgrahamc 19y ago
    Bruce Golden who runs the London Accel office is someone I know very well (he was on the board of one of my companies) and I think the team there does 'get it' with regards to Europe and they have a large fund and the experience of seeing what worked in SV.
madmotive 19y ago
Excellent post. I particularly hope the predication about SeedCamp comes true. It really does need to become more like YC if it's going to have as big an impact. Alternatively they could start again from scratch and keep it much simpler. It seems to me that SeedCamp's biggest problem might be that there are so many people involved. Committees of even the brightest people are good at making ok decisions but rarely take the risk of making brilliant decisions.
- apexauk 19y ago
  I was discussing Seedcamp the other night.. the issue is (and here's why I think YC has it spot-on) at the micro-seed-funding stage (which it is, exactly like YC) the most important thing is the idea/product/demo. Whereas YC has teams working flat-out under extreme pressure to actually produce something in so many weeks, Seedcamp was much more "let's cover all the bases..marketing, finance, biz-dev..". At the micro-seed level it should be at least 80% product/polishing the idea - this is what's most important to get to the next stage, after all!
  - langer 19y ago
    @madmotive: I’ve got a lot of respect for the main goal of Seedcamp, namely to inspire the next generation of Europe’s serial entrepreneurs. However, I think apexauk’s points above hit the nail on the head — more focus on openly, iteratively and rapidly building a product than worrying too much about perfecting the business model. I too hope Seedcamp embraces these principles — and if they do, they’ve got a very good chance of achieving their goal.
    - madmotive 19y ago
      Don't get me wrong. I too have a great deal of respect for the main goal of Seedcamp and the work that everyone involved is putting into it and other initiatives in Europe. But I also agree that focusing on the product at seed stage should be given a far higher priority than anything else. I think that Seedcamp not seeming to focus on the product, is a symptom of them suffering from too many cooks. These cooks probably start finding roles for themselves and end up pushing startups to put together all the elements required to build a complete restaurant rather than concentrating on perfecting a single dish. YC being directed by just a few smart, well connected people is probably better suited in it's structure to focusing on a single dish and bringing in other people only when they are really needed.
      - langer 19y ago
        sounds spot on to me :) so, next question.. almost warrants another thread, but i'll ask you it here for now: who are the best product guys in the UK/Europe? are they on the list of official "product expert" mentors? http://seedcamp.com/pages/mentors http://seedcamp.com/pages/mentors
        madmotive 19y ago
        I'd guess that they probably are on that page somewhere, not necessarily in the "product expert" list. They just need to get themselves into an environment in which they can most effectively do their thing. I'm sure they were in it or close to it when they started their own startups. :)
apexauk 19y ago
provocative..but he's right. not going to be quick nor easy, but here in Europe we're comin' atcha!
rguzman 19y ago
Could Madrid become the "valley" of Europe? Erepublik and Fon are both based in madrid. I imagine there are others? Does anybody know? http://erepublik.com http://erepublik.com http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/12/erepublik-combines-mmog-and-social-networking/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/12/erepublik-combines-mmog... http://fon.com http://fon.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FON http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FON
- mcxx 19y ago
  I don't think there will be a "valley" in Europe, ever. There will be different independent places, startup hubs, all across Europe, London being one of them.

30 points by theoneill 19y ago

Pity to ignore SV VCs who have London offices. I worked with Accel when I was in California and they have a well established London office: http://accel.com/people/index.php?group_id=122000 http://accel.com/people/index.php?group_id=122000

langer 19y ago
yep, totally agree - i coulda mentioned them (and benchmark/balderton) along with index. accel seem to be much more confident than the london-only vcs.
- jgrahamc 19y ago
  Bruce Golden who runs the London Accel office is someone I know very well (he was on the board of one of my companies) and I think the team there does 'get it' with regards to Europe and they have a large fund and the experience of seeing what worked in SV.

madmotive 19y ago

Excellent post. I particularly hope the predication about SeedCamp comes true. It really does need to become more like YC if it's going to have as big an impact. Alternatively they could start again from scratch and keep it much simpler. It seems to me that SeedCamp's biggest problem might be that there are so many people involved. Committees of even the brightest people are good at making ok decisions but rarely take the risk of making brilliant decisions.

apexauk 19y ago
I was discussing Seedcamp the other night.. the issue is (and here's why I think YC has it spot-on) at the micro-seed-funding stage (which it is, exactly like YC) the most important thing is the idea/product/demo. Whereas YC has teams working flat-out under extreme pressure to actually produce something in so many weeks, Seedcamp was much more "let's cover all the bases..marketing, finance, biz-dev..". At the micro-seed level it should be at least 80% product/polishing the idea - this is what's most important to get to the next stage, after all!
- langer 19y ago
  @madmotive: I’ve got a lot of respect for the main goal of Seedcamp, namely to inspire the next generation of Europe’s serial entrepreneurs. However, I think apexauk’s points above hit the nail on the head — more focus on openly, iteratively and rapidly building a product than worrying too much about perfecting the business model. I too hope Seedcamp embraces these principles — and if they do, they’ve got a very good chance of achieving their goal.
  - madmotive 19y ago
    Don't get me wrong. I too have a great deal of respect for the main goal of Seedcamp and the work that everyone involved is putting into it and other initiatives in Europe. But I also agree that focusing on the product at seed stage should be given a far higher priority than anything else. I think that Seedcamp not seeming to focus on the product, is a symptom of them suffering from too many cooks. These cooks probably start finding roles for themselves and end up pushing startups to put together all the elements required to build a complete restaurant rather than concentrating on perfecting a single dish. YC being directed by just a few smart, well connected people is probably better suited in it's structure to focusing on a single dish and bringing in other people only when they are really needed.
    - langer 19y ago
      sounds spot on to me :) so, next question.. almost warrants another thread, but i'll ask you it here for now: who are the best product guys in the UK/Europe? are they on the list of official "product expert" mentors? http://seedcamp.com/pages/mentors http://seedcamp.com/pages/mentors
      - madmotive 19y ago
        I'd guess that they probably are on that page somewhere, not necessarily in the "product expert" list. They just need to get themselves into an environment in which they can most effectively do their thing. I'm sure they were in it or close to it when they started their own startups. :)

apexauk 19y ago

provocative..but he's right. not going to be quick nor easy, but here in Europe we're comin' atcha!

rguzman 19y ago

Could Madrid become the "valley" of Europe? Erepublik and Fon are both based in madrid. I imagine there are others? Does anybody know? http://erepublik.com http://erepublik.com http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/12/erepublik-combines-mmog-and-social-networking/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/12/erepublik-combines-mmog... http://fon.com http://fon.com http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FON http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FON

mcxx 19y ago
I don't think there will be a "valley" in Europe, ever. There will be different independent places, startup hubs, all across Europe, London being one of them.