Planting the Seed

July 6, 2007 | Spark Clients

One thing I’ve noticed since moving to London about three weeks ago, other than the fact that it rains EVERY day, is that there is a tangible excitement in the air among techies and entrepreneurs. It is a city poised for explosive growth and many would argue that growth is already well underway.

You’ve all heard that Europe had more IPOs than the US last year and is now producing some high profile exits (the most well-known being Last.fm and Skype), but what you may not know is how hard people on the ground here are working to spur this on. They feel that one of Silicon Valley’s strengths is in its tight network and in London, the beginnings of this network are just now forming. To ignite this process, ensure the entrepreneurial community continues to expand, and support the development of creative ideas in places other than Silicon Valley, an amazing group of people have gotten together to start Seedcamp.

At a high level, Seedcamp is a way for entrepreneurs and developers to meet a top-tier network of people who help start successful businesses (VCs, marketers, lawyers, HR people, etc). They can also receive funding, but that’s a secondary benefit compared with the caliber of people they will be in front of. A few details:

Submissions are accepted until Aug 12 on the Seedcamp website
The top 20 teams will be selected and invited to London for a week of intensive mentoring and networking with the industry top experts in fields like HR, law, marketing, product development, etc
At the end of that week (Sept 3-7), the top 5 teams will be announced and they’ll receive 50,000 euros in funding and an additional 3 months of mentorship

Please spread the word about this great event. Donna and I will be attending the Seedcamp week as PR mentors, and we’re really excited to meet Europe’s next generation of entrepreneurs. Thanks to Saul and team for getting this going.

-Rachel

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