Postcards from the Edge : Events

European startups in Futures mag

claireoh — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 17:29:00 GMT

Good article about French and Finnish startups in the latest edition of Futures magazine and some of the latest start-ups featured on Startupzone from Europe. The Irish invaded Silicon Valley last week too, as part of our work with Enterprise Ireland - read more here.

This week sees the much-anticipated Le Web in Paris. More from there later.

Sleepless in San Fran

claireoh — Sat, 16 May 2009 01:05:38 GMT

Here I am in sunny Frisco and attempting to adapt to PST. My feet barely touched the ground in the UK after my time in Eastern Europe, before I boarded a plane bound for the West Coast. Yet again I am surviving on a few hours sleep and cramming in as much time with friends & colleagues and experiencing the highlights of the city. Dinner at COI last night and their 11-course tasting menu. Wow.

Just digesting all the goings on at the Prague event (and the 11 courses from last night). Great feedback from participants at the event and we hope that the presenting companies go on to secure funding for their ventures. Read more about the presenting companies and the news announcements.

Mike Sigal from Guidewire is trying to tempt me into running the Bay to Breakers on Sunday. Not sure I am up to that really as my exercise regime in the immediate future appears to include mostly lifting the wine glass and circling the shoe department at Barney’s.

The Art of Madrid

claireoh — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 00:45:04 GMT

EBAN threw a great conference in Madrid: BizSpark went down well with the Business Angel networks (helping save their portfolio companies money in the early years always popular) and the networking was very worthwhile.

I met some great people and we heard some fantastic stories about angel investing: for me Dr Cornelius Boersch and Prof Alan Barrell really stood out. I also love Permjot’s blog.

As a thank you for moderating the session on investing internationally (“Connecting Worlds”) I received a signed copy of Modwenna’s book on angel investing.

I enjoyed the session enormously and learnt a lot from my fellow panellists: Juan from BID Network (based in NL) told us about the opportunity for investment in LATAM (Juan thinks the best “natural born” entrepreneurs are in Columbia and you have to remember two things to succeed: wake up early and have a tan); Sharon from Astia gave some great insight into what seems a missed opportunity for female entrepreneurs and investors (3% of EBAN members are women and 7% of VC funding goes to women-led companies). Their program in the US (both coasts) and London are starting to really take off. India is next on their list.

Patrice filled us in on the dynamics of the Europe Plus Foundation helping connect companies in the US and Europe. They are hosting a World Investment Conference in France in June.

Though I felt my skills as a moderator will not be in demand in the future, I received great feedback (and great questions from the floor) from David Rose from Angelsoft and Stuart Rock, editor of Real Business and Real Deals.

While angel networks’ formation in Europe is on the increase, and co-investment between angels and VCs also seems to be a trend, some are still not convinced that the equity gap has gone away or even narrowed in the past few years. So I was pleased to see this intention by some well-known European serial entrepreneurs to invest in the next generation with the formation of a fairly substantial early stage fund.

You can see a bit more about my first day at the EBAN event here. Aside from the conference itself I managed to take in a bit of culture and would highly recommend a visit to the Museo Reina Sofia if you are in the city and like a bit of Picasso, Dali and Miro. For art of a different kind (tapas, wine and ambience) try the other Reina. Yum.

BRICin it

claireoh — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:59:00 GMT

I am engrossed in The White Tiger at the moment. Awesome read. The BRIC countries are so vast and so diverse, still growing at quite a pace: India forecasting around 5.5% growth.

In London last Wednesday the theme was India: the opportunity for UK companies in India and Indian innovation that can benefit from UK investment – great brainstorming meetings with UK Trade and Investment and Cartezia.

I am tasked with getting more involved with UK India Business Angels network (and UKIBC) and ping between a rush at the opportunity and a sigh at the size of the task, simultaneously. So much to do.

There’s a delegation of Indian companies to London in May/June courtesy of Envestors – as UK investors seek to invest in high growth companies. We are also working on a plan to take an outbound delegation to India with UKTI as more and more companies look to Asia to source skills and reduce operating costs.

At dinner last Tuesday night I received fascinating insight into business dealings in India at Tamarind as I met some great people I am now lucky to call friends: businessmen from families in India that have built empires – Gaurav the latest in seven generations of wealthy entrepreneurs and part of a self-confessed elite.

Based in Delhi, Gaurav is charming, ambitious and articulate. He is an unabashed capitalist and leader of the family business: sugar. Both he and Ajay (running a retail business with a sideline in helping entrepreneurs – he heads up the London chapter of EO) contest that wealthy businessmen in India are not doing enough to facilitate the next generation. I had thought philanthropy was more more widespread and naturally occurring but these guys set me straight. Only after some time did Gaurav mention that they have set up five schools, three girls scholarship programs, sports programs and education projects. Modesty prevails.

So what about India and tech start-ups? The guys say it will be some time yet (years) before wealthy local families invest in Venture (be it ICT, Cleantech, Hi Tech). Property and Retail dominate – like so many other countries, be they established or emerging. When in Ireland (as I am this week) they talk about apartments and land, not cool technology and spinouts from DCU and Trinity College.

The other factor is inward investment versus the desire to legislate for indigenous industry. While outsourcing continues to grow, so does the creation of start-ups and SMEs. Emerging markets seem to reach a kind of tipping point where some of the brains employed in BPO are now considering taking their idea, their IP, and turning it into a real business.

BizSpark downloads may reflect that trend and TiE India are doing a great job. I think Bangalore is the largest chapter.

I am seeing Jim O’Neill (Mr Bric) from Goldman Sachs for lunch on Thursday. He says the BRIC has emerged and now it is the turn of the next category – the N-11. From what I see, he might be right. Who am I to question? In the meantime we shall aim to prop up the economy by eating fine Italian cuisine in Mayfair on Thursday.

Innovate!Europe

claireoh — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:14:00 GMT

My good friend Mike Sigal from Guidewire Group will host a networking session (he calls it "Cocktails") for investors, entrepreneurs and other worthy people in London 5th Feb together with NESTA and partners. Worth going along if you are in town. Good way to connect to folks back in the Valley:

February 5th, 2009

18:30 - 20:30

The Long Acre

1-3 Long Acre

London WC2E

You can register on the website

Dublin do

claireoh — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:49:00 GMT

I will be speaking about BizSpark at an event in Dublin held by Microsoft Ireland if you happen to be in the area....

Ireland were one of the first countries to launch the new program on 6 November and have seen incredible demand so far. Great coverage on TV & Radio and some good articles in the newspapers. Of course none of that compares with the great piece of music that was sent to me that week as the US elections dominated our desktops.....as I recovered from completing the New York City marathon on the Sunday. Never again.

LAX

claireoh — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:05:08 GMT

Fancy finding an excuse to visit LA in a few weeks? Register for our PDC event. There is even a letter to convince your boss to let you go! Details of pre-sessions also posted on our start-up zone site.

Europe Unlimited

claireoh — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:24:00 GMT

At Microsoft we are supporting this year's European Venture Contest - with semi finals in Eindhoven, Prague, Copenhagen and Pamplona, along with a summit in Dusseldorf and finals in Barcelona in December.

If you are a start-up seeking funding, you should consider applying. For info on events take a look here. It is a great platform to connect young, early stage innovative companies with potential investors from across Europe. The contest's winner will get €90,000. Worth a look.

Flaming June

claireoh — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 14:38:08 GMT

After our Brussels summit it was time to get a bit closer to home for the BBAA conference in Brands Hatch (via Barcelona). The sun was still shining at that point. At the awards dinner the night before, I bumped into the very charismatic Richard Farleigh.

Back in London, I caught up with Ian Robertson from NCGE who told me they have 10,200 graduate entrepreneurs registered now. Flying Start helps university grads inventing products and services take them to market and start a business on the back of those ideas. We're hoping to announce a Flying Start for Software Entrepreneurs soon. We also talked about Ian's business dealings in China and I'm helping him find some partners out there.

I also spent some quality time with (Dr) Sally Ernst from Sinocode. They have 90 developers in Beijing and we are looking at ways to help more Euro-based software companies leverage their skills. They already do quite a bit of work for MCS on Sharepoint and for UK customers. Apart from doing business, Sally and I have become good friends. Sal told me about her involvement with the MIT Entrepreneurs Organisation. The EO as it's known is a club for successful ($1m+) entrepreneurs. That rules me out then. I spend too much on shoes. Sal does too but she managed to sell WebCentral in Australia when it had a turnover of $40m+ and now goes between London, China and Oz.

At the team meeting in Amsterdam last week it was time to catch up and see what everyone else was up to. My colleague Andreas just got back from China - he said the smog is really something. Andreas is very very tall. As are most Dutch people it seems. (Good blog from Matt in Beijing by the way). We talked about our team charter for the (fiscal) year ahead. We were brainstorming how to more innovative and effective! You have to constantly challenge yourself if you're going to make a difference at a corporate. That conversation reminded me to send them a copy of Tom Peters Re-Imagine Manifesto. Reading some of the entries on Change This is enlightening too. Better than reading the newspaper at the mo, which I find full of doom and gloom....

No time for that here. After stopping off in Dublin to see Enterprise Ireland again, I was back in Brussels for the JA-YE Europe Entrepreneurship Forum at the EU Parliament. What a great day. I was judging the student team entries for the JA-YE Enterprise Challenge (Microsoft Innovation) award with fellow judges Andy Reinhardt from Business Week, Brian Lang, VP at Mastercard, and Peter Baur from the Commission. Have a look at the pics here. Some of the ideas were really great. Many with an environmental angle - like the intelligent waste solution from the guys in Romania. Next Stop - California!

Brussels Sprouts II

claireoh — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:06:48 GMT

Last week we held our European Investor Summit in Brussels attended by 170+ VC and Angel investors and top tech start-ups from over 20 countries, as well as Microsoft execs.

We saw the launch of our IP Ventures company Zignals, and 45+ exhibiting companies connect with potential investors. Feedback from the start-ups from UK, France, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Sweden, Russia and Greece was really great.

We also had a very lively session moderated by the lovely June Sarpong, where five student teams pitched to a panel of investors in the Meet the Money session. You can see interviews with the Dragon’s Den panel members here.

In addition to our Investor Summit on 11 June, we also held the 4th Annual SME Day on 12 June. Have a look at the SME Day video here.

Microsoft reinforced its commitment to fostering innovation and supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs with our newly announced partnership European Business Angels Network (EBAN) and TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs). EBAN represents angel and early stage investment market and together with Microsoft will collaborate in the coming years to build capacity for innovative start-up companies. Under a global agreement, Microsoft and TiE will work closely in Europe: partnering to foster entrepreneurship and innovation globally by educating, mentoring and networking in UK and Nordics.

I'm already looking forward to the next one. We hope to replicate this in the Middle East and Asia in the coming year too. Thanks to everyone who supported this event and I hope you go on to secure funding for your ideas!

Silicon Valley to South Africa

claireoh — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 18:38:00 GMT

It's been a while since I had time to reflect and update my blog. Where did May go? After my US trip in April, things have been a little hectic.

I spent the first week of May in SA meeting Partners, Govt officials, seeing our facilities and programs and discussing our plans with the local Microsoft team - who are really something. We made some good connections while on the ground: HPV-A and Enablis both finance start-ups and are keen to work with us. Several partners are looking to grow export revenues and target markets outside SA, or raise VC funding for growth.

I was hugely impressed at what David and team have achieved thus far and in a relatively short time, with e.g. SmartXchange in Durban, JCSE in Joburg, Citi in Cape Town.

SA is a vibrant economy but, like many emerging markets, it can still be a challenging environment. The Reconstruction and Development program in 1994 set out an ambitious course for economic improvement, redressing the imbalance that existed post Apartheid, when so many were excluded, lacking access to skills and employment. SA recorded 10 years of strong economic growth since and in January 2004 the President signed the BEE Act. Actually the BEE strategy doc provides good bedtime reading. Investment in BEE is massive: in 2002 the Govt allocated R2.2bn and a further R1.3bn in loans was provided by Khula - 79% to BEE's and 56% to women-owned businesses. Enablis are funding entrepreneurs in conjunction with Khula: two funds of R50m and R100m and 300+ member entrepreneurs in their network.

Mmabatho Matiwane who leads the DTI's Gender and Women's Empowerment Unit is an impressive creature. In 2006 the Govt decided to focus on this as a jobs/wealth creation strategy. They set up SAWEN to get more women into enterprise and they now have a network of 5,000 women entrepreneurs in 9 provinces with 4 offices in the main centres already and more planned, providing walk-in centres for business advice and mentorship. They also launched a fund to support women-led companies which, from memory, is around R500m. We're discussing how to support the TWIB program which helps women-led companies embrace technology and become more successful. I'm also working on a very cool project with Trestle co-funded by VFI focused on finding more 'girl geeks'.

While presenting on a panel at the INSEAD Alumni re-union event in Paris last Friday, I pointed out how SA has such a large proportion of women in senior policy-making roles in Govt and how European country cabinets and boardrooms are not so representative. This rather lively debate was moderated beautifully by Frank Brown who tabled the notion of quotas like they have applied in SA (30% of Govt positions will be held by women) and in Norway (women should comprise 40% of public-listed companies boards). Sitting in a room on the Fountainbleu campus it really didn't seem that much of an issue - smart, successful women (and men) were everywhere. It's enough to give you an inferiority complex. Not only is Ninie Wang an INSEAD MBA grad, she's young, driven, attractive, dynamic, fun, and running her own company in Beijing which is launching a new website and platform to connect and empower senior citizens in China.

Another event, this time organised by CIDA at the British Embassy in Brussels, addressed the issue of "improving the lingua franca in Creative Industries financing" and I found myself on a panel - a rather ecclectic mix - including Wendy Malem (Centre for Fashion Enterprise), Mark Fenwick (NStar Finance) and Leon Hill (Universal Music). I thought I was out of my depth when I realised a penchant for Jimmy Choo and Christian Louboutin did not in fact qualify me to talk about investment in fashion but nevertheless it proved a fascinating event and I made some great connections. One of which was an introduction via Sydney Levinson to Kaospilot. A business school with a difference, n'est pas?

While in Brussels I also had the opportunity to meet Javier Echarri who heads up EVCA. Georges Noel is one of the panelists at the event I am busy organising in Brussels on 11/12 June. We should have 100+ investors and start-ups attending day one. From there I took off to Dublin to check in with the MS team there on proposed start-up engagement plans and meet up with Enterprise Ireland, IDA and Science Foundation Ireland. Great meeting. Much to do. Managed to squeeze in a visit to MSR in Cambridge and witness a day of awesome future technology. Then back to London to meet with PERA, NESTA and EBAN, UKIBC and TiE - with whom we are teeing up some very cool joint activities for the coming year.

Ah, so that's where May went.....

Brussels sprouts

claireoh — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 04:44:21 GMT

Entrepreneurship is alive and well in Europe. I've spent the last few days in Brussels attending the Benelux Venture Forum.

There is certainly no shortage of great technology start-ups and venture capital in the region from what I witnessed.

Investors were various and numerous - I was on a panel with Cees-Jan Koomen from Point-One and Herman De Latte who set up Big Bang Ventures and previously Solid Ventures both of whom have invested seed capital in several of the high-growth companies. Patrick Polak from Newion moderated a lively session.

I also spent time with Jenny Tooth who represents GLE in London, who in turn are involved in EASY (supported by PRO INNO) and part of EBAN. Jean-Bernard Schmidt from Sofinnova and Rene Savelsburg opened the morning session discussing where they reckon the hottest investment opportunities are.

William Stevens from the organisers Europe Unlimited presented the latest Ernst & Young statistics - European investment is flat at just over €1bn last quarter, the #1 investment sector is Biotech and Software is #2 (then IT services/Internet at #3 and Mediatech #5).

In terms of geo's, the UK represented 25% of the €1.2bn invested following by FR and GER. Then Switzerland, Netherlands, Sweden and Spain. Venture One stats show there were 353 deals in Q2/2002 as compared to 217 deals in Q4/07.

Paul Webber from Europe Unlimited released the Benelux Venture top 50 companies list.

Companies who pitched innovative propositions in the ICT track included David Schrieberg from Cinelan who have a platform for short films targeting online publishers; and online e-lending company Boober.

Scense from Rotterdam, backed by Solid Ventures, and Mirror42 also in the Netherlands, have solutions to make enterprise investment in IT more effective. Koen from Scense - an impossibly well-educated and successful serial entrepreneur and all-round nice guy - won the award for a great presentation.

Marina Tognetti showed a new online language platform and was also selected for an award.

Myngle will go forward for the European finals in December.

In the mobile / social networking space we saw Teydo with Location Based Services which is useful for tracking (in the US apparently the most popular application of this technology is 'spouse tracking'), for 'buddy finding' and for other 'peace of mind' applications e.g. child safety. In the future it will have a lot more uptake by operators as the mobile platform evolves beyond navigation. iNewit also presented as did the very entertaining ex-VP of Real Networks, Marco Menato, CEO of 24access solutions.

cellixx launched their B2B travel application last year and already have Jumeirah and Hertz as customers. Wheras cameramanager allows you to keep an eye on things while traveling.

On the subject of asset tracking, Ambient Systems are doing some interesting stuff in the field of active RFID (or Real Time Location Systems as it is also known). Apparently investment in this technology was accelerated after the the Pentagon realised they had a use for active tracking of stuff after the US Army lost the equipment en route to Kuwait during the second Gulf War. Fascinating day............

BillG says farewell to London

claireoh — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 23:53:00 GMT

Bill was in London yesterday - his last visit to the UK while he is still full-time at Microsoft. This comes at the end of a ten-day tour through the Middle East and Europe, where Bill keynoted at the Government Leader's Forum in Berlin and at the WEF in Davos; in Abu Dhabi, he witnessed the signing of a deal between Microsoft and Emirates to set up an ‘Innovation Lab’ in Dubai to develop products and services for the travel industry. Here is Bill pictured with Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Emirates.

The UK team managed a series of great meetings and events - at the Institute of Directors, “An Audience with Bill Gates” heard Bill outline his thoughts on the “Second Digital Decade”; more than 700 partners attended the Longhorn launch event; he met 45 CIO's from the largest UK enterprises; Bill met Prime Minister Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street and talked about Local Software Economy; then attended a Prince’s Trust reception at the House of Commons. Bill featured on the Money Programme and you'll see an interview with him in the Sunday Times. Over the 8 hour day Bill addressed over 2000 people. That's some itinerary!

If you haven't seen this it's worth a look. Very amusing. I'm sure we'll hear more from him soon.

Global Entrepreneurship Week

claireoh — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 11:20:00 GMT

On Tuesday entrepreneurs and policymakers from over 30 countries convened in Portman Square to plan for a worldwide enterprise week this time next year, designed to promote entrepreneurship and enterprise among young people around the globe. It is based on Enterprise Week - taking place this week across the UK with over 5000 events and forecasted to reach thousands of students.

The GEW launch event saw Gordon Brown talking passionately about our need to inspire more people to start businesses and increase UK-led innovation. Carl Schramm from Kauffman Foundation thinks enterprise and entrepreneurship is the route out of poverty and the best way to create sustainable economic growth both in developed and developing nations.

I met some inspiring folks: Charles from Uganda is committed to having the best week out of all the countries and has the full backing of the government and enterprise agencies locally. People from Spain and Italy, Russia and Ukraine, said the investor communities are keen to get involved and make a bet on more young emerging entrepreneurs. Sir Ronald Cohen is lending his support (presumably in between trips to the Middle East) and Lord Billamoria (Cobra Beer) was on fine form as always. From our perspective, as one of the global partners, we plan to get as many local and regional Microsoft offices mobilized and facilitate a great event. Technology is obviously a critical part of the mix what with the growing usage of social networks by this target audience.

I had a great chat with June Sarpong of T4 (Channel Four) fame. June was at the launch workshop to talk about ambassadors and celebrities. We got into a debate about the 'nature of celebrity' - and the lack of [m]any young 'entrepreneur celebrities' in the UK that could front the campaign. When asked to name role model young Brits, people generally come up with names of footballers, actresses, musicians - but not businesspeople - and when is the last time we saw a tech entrepreneur as a 'celebrity'? So we're on a mission to find funky young entrepreneurs to feature between now and Nov 2008 to inspire more young people to consider starting their own biz. In my job, I'm lucky enough to meet and work with some amazing young software entrepreneurs. Unfortunately they rarely find themselves in the media spotlight. With June's help we're going to make business sexy!!!! We know we've hit gold when the tabloids snap a geek leaving a nightclub at 3am. Watch this space......

Regional Innovation

claireoh — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 18:18:00 GMT

In case you haven't seen these - the East of England development agency (EEDA) - in conjunction with Library house - are hosting their Destination Growth event tomorrow with some great keynotes. Then Advantage West Midlands are holding their annual ICT conference on 22nd November. You'll find representation from Microsoft at both.

I'm off to another regional enterprise event this evening supported by SEEDA and Finance South East and addressed at women business owners and women entrepreneurs in the SE region. We all know that cash is vital to the success of any ambitious small company and we're very pleased to be working with Finance South East who were recognised this year as manager of a leading angel investor network.