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Interview: The Invaluable Network of Seedcamp Advisers and Investors
Seedcamp, the commercial incubator program for ambitious start-up entrepreneurs has announced its European Program for 2010. In 2010 Seedcamp will organize mentor programs, Mini Seedcamps, in Zagreb, Prague, Barcelona, Paris, Tel Aviv, Copenhagen and Berlin, culminating into the final Seedcamp Week in London.
Entrepreneurs in the program are able to obtain first class advice from legal, strategy and marketing mentors and connections with investors, while the top teams will receive seed funding. Successful Seedcamp companies are Basekit, Zemanta, MyBuilder and Ubervu.
Seedcamp is a commercial fund with a social mind and a for profit purpose, however, it mainly relies on its 1000 unpaid advisors who provide the mentoring for free. Nonetheless, the model works extremely well.
Katy Turner, Eden Ventures
Investors in Seedfund are Nesta and Eden Ventures. The NextWomen spoke with Katy Turner, associate at Eden Ventures, ‘European Technology Forum’s ‘Early Stage Investor of the Year 2007 ‘about the benefit of Seedcamp, female founders and investment criteria.
What is the benefit for entrepreneurs of the Seedcamp Program?
That’s very clear: the access to the network of advisers and investors.
The money aspect is the least important aspect for an entrepreneur. The most value comes from the Seedcamp week itself and from the ongoing relationships that you build there.
Also, Seedcamp is a great PR platform for entrepreneurs to market one’s start-up company and product, and lastly, for entrepreneurs it’s invaluable that you get together with other entrepreneurs who all go through the same challenges.
What is the benefit for the investors involved in the Seedcamp program?
We appreciate very much that we are able to cultivate a great network with all those incredible advisers through Seedcamp. Also, the visibility that we get by investing through Seedcamp is invaluable. We invested in Basekit (alongside Nesta) and Ubervu, directly as a consequence of the deal flow coming through Seedcamp. It’s really a great source to identify investor ready companies.
We are also involved in the judging process of all the companies submitting to Seedcamp and realistically we wouldn’t have known about a lot of these companies, hadn’t it be for Seedcamp.
Of course there is the top 20 finalists in Seedcamp, but a lot of the companies who don’t make it to the top 20 are still very interesting to keep track off and we look to them for direct investments.
What are the characteristics of a Seedcamp company?
These are technology driven and minded companies. They have strong ideas about technology and that aspect drives the business and the business model. Most of the time the entrepreneurs of Seedcamp companies are also pretty savvy commercially. However, the realisation about how to market the business and to gain customers comes often later.
The value of the Seedcamp circle is the focus on the marketing, sales and business development. Many advisors know how to take the product to market and to drive traction. Solving of a problem is one thing but reaching customers is the ultimate goal, whether it is B2B or B2C.
The seed funding of the program is really meant to get the product of the ground and to get the team ready and to technically figure it out. Once that is done, most companies need some sort of series A funding of around 250K, which we, as Eden Ventures, prefer to be involved in as well.
And if Seedcamp gives a stamp of approval to a company by an initial investment, then it’s easier to secure a follow up investment.
Any female founders Eden has invested in or came across? Read more
The NextWomen Announce Their 2010 Strategy Day for Female Entrepreneurs
The NextWomen Networking at Sun
The CBC Centre at Sun Microsystems is set to host its second event in partnership with The NextWomen on Wednesday January, 27th 2010. Female entrepreneurs, managers, consultants and investors in the internet industry will welcome in the New Year with a day devoted to Strategy, including top web trends, and the key priorities and challenges entrepreneurs will face in the 21st century.
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BOOK NOW for tickets.
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The event, that is split into two constituent parts (a Strategy workshop and the evening event) includes:
Full-Day Program (3pm-10pm)
- Welcome to workshop attendees
- Blue Ocean Strategy Workshop from Natalie Turner of Entheo (4 Hands-On Modules)
- Evening Program (see below)
Evening Program (6pm-10pm)
- Welcome to evening cocktail reception attendees
- Web Marketing & Social Media Strategies
- Funding Strategies by Reshma Sohoni, CEO of Seedcamp
- Growth, Scalability and Consumer Strategy by panel of Entrepreneurs, including Wendy Tan-White, Founder and CEO of Moonfruit
- Networking with drinks and sushi
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The Details
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Evening Program
Enjoy a cocktail reception of drinks and sushi with your fellow female internet heroes, investors, business leaders and service providers while watching keynotes – on web marketing, social media, funding, growth, scalability and consumer strategies – and a panel of entrepreneurs.
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Reshma Sohoni |
Wendy Tan White |
Reshma Sohoni, who joined Seedcamp as CEO from the Venture team at 3i, previously worked on the commercial strategy team of Vodafone where she worked across Europe and Japan developing marketing strategies and pricing functions. Wendy Tan White, founder, CEO and serial entrepreneur of Moonfruit and Gandi.net, has a degree in Computer Sciences and comes from a family steeped in IT history. Not only did both her parents work within the industry, but at 64 her mother still does.
Full-Day Program
As well as the ‘Strategy Workshop – Focus on Value’ delivered by Natalie Turner of Entheo, the full-day program also includes full access to the evening’s events (see above). Read more
Are Women Networks solving the ‘Problem’ of the Lack of Women starting Technology Companies?
How is the situation for Women in IT? Or for Women in Mobile? And are there female role models starting technology companies? We are not talking Sillicon Valley but the UK. Sarah Blow, founder of Girl Geek Dinner with around 40 chapters worldwide, a .net developer and having her own ‘geek credentials’ and Helen Keegan, organiser of Mobile Heroes have taken part in a video, compiled by journalist Leilla Makki, discussing the women in IT issue in the UK. Networks via Facebook and Twitter relating to women in internet are starting to increase, and what is following is of course women starting technology companies or not?
Marion Bernard, a female VC in the North of the UK, who just launched a new tech fund, Northstar Equity Investors for technology companies, is hopeful, particularly for women who have the confidence, the networks and the belief that they will be able to raise funds and the commitment as an entrepreneur.
Question raised is whether women only networks are positive to the development of women-led technology companies.
Watch the full video:
Participants in the video are: Read more
Female Internet Hero: Audio Interview with Eileen Gittins of Blurb
As part of their Female Internet Heroes series, and in conjunction with NCWIT (the National Center for Women & Information Technology), The NextWomen will be publishing audio interviews highlighting a diverse group of women innovators from small companies, larger corporations, and non-profits, whose ideas and products are changing the way we think, work, play, and communicate. Listen as these women discuss how they first became involved with tech, why they chose to be entrepreneurs and what advice they would give to young people interested in IT or entrepreneurship.
Eileen Gittins – Founder, President and CEO of Blurb
Listen to the NCWIT Entrepreneurial Interview with Eileen Gittins.
Eileen Gittins of Blurb
Throughout her career, Eileen Gittins has been at the intersection of the Internet, consumer and enterprise software, imaging systems, search, and digital photography. A passionate advocate for enabling technologies that offer new ways to do valuable things, Eileen is now democratising publishing for the rest of us with her company, Blurb, a software and services company that passionately believes in the power of books: making, reading, sharing and selling them.
Eileen has served as CEO of several pre-IPO venture-backed companies in Silicon Valley, including Personify, an e-commerce data mining and analytics company; and Verb, a context-based search engine company. Each was acquired by Accrue and Attenza, respectively. At Qbiquity, a viral marketing platform company, Eileen served as Board Chairman and interim CEO, where she was instrumental in negotiating the merger of Qbiquity into Collabrys. Read more
TNW Spotlight on Female Founders: Fiona Price and her Community for Horse Lovers
The NextWomen are always looking to make female founders and leaders notable and quotable. In our new series – ‘TNW Spotlight on Female Founders’ we look at ventures that are making waves online and the women that are leading them. Here we look at Horse Hero – Paradise for Horse Lovers on film – and its founder Fiona Price.
‘I thought I was the Only MBA Graduate Who Couldn’t Read a Balance Sheet’
I started out in the financial sector, having graduated with a degree in Psychology and an MBA. It was a shock to find myself in the City as I believed I was the only MBA graduate who couldn’t read a balance sheet! However, having begun my career at the same time as the first women’s networks were starting, I felt drawn to pioneer the concept of financial advice for women, something which was unheard of at the time. In fact, Harpers & Queen described me as “The first woman of finance”. I set up my own business at the age of 28 and sold it 18 years later with a staff of around 35.
It had been amazing creating something from scratch with no business experience and no finance, I’d won a lot of awards which I’m sure were due to the novelty value, but for someone with a short attention span, it was way too long a chapter! For the next few years, I had a more varied career as a non-executive director on a variety of Boards which gave me a new perspective on business. I felt I was finally being paid for turning up – a long term career aspiration! But it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be and again, I felt it was time to do my own thing, even though I had said I would never set up another business. It’s amazing how time erases pain from your memory!
Fiona Price – The ‘Financial Expert’
Media was where I wanted to be, especially TV or video. In my years in the financial sector, I have done all the PR myself and latterly, it occupied a large part of my work doing TV and radio interviews each week, from the Today Programme and News at 10 to Women’s Hour! The term financial ‘expert’ was not one I was ever comfortable with. Maybe that’s a woman’s thing?
The Human Nature of Business Read more
TechCrunch Xmas: Women are Pitching their Companies more and more!
This is a guest post in 2 parts by Misae Richwoods, a previous Golden Web Award winnerhelps start ups, SMEs and independent professionals market themselves via MRMedia Group. This is part 2.
At TechCrunch Xmas 2009, after all the visionary talks, as discussed in part 1, it was time for some pitching of companies, and even there a trend emerged: Women are Pitching their Companies more and more!
AffectLabs, Worldeka, Techfluff, Audiobook, Globrix and…
A lot of female internet heroes were present, such as Affect Labs, co-founded by Jennie Lees, who pitched at The Next Women’s Darwinian Business event in October. She represents one of a growing number of start ups adding colour and depth to the eco-system. Karen Barber, who also pitched at The NextWomen’s event earlier, was as well put together as Gok Wan show while Mark Rock spoke of how Audioboo fitted in. Sophie Cox of WorldEka, Hermione Way of Techfluff.tv, Emily Marchant of The Funding Partnership and Poppy Dinsey of Globrix all brought the glamour stakes a little higher with some beautiful outfits, yet the award for Queen of Fashion for the night had to be graced upon Helen Brown who brought out a stunning little number that quite simple was nothing other than CatwalkGenius.com!
CatwalkGenius, crowd funding for fashion designers
Helen Brown, co-founder of Catwalkgenius
Helen’s pitch showcased her crowd funding innovation to help budding designers and style hungry fashionistas come together and create new fashion. In a nutshell, fashionistas back up and coming designers by buying shares in the production of new designs. When enough shares are sold to make production viable, the designer creates the garment and the backer gets a percentage of all sales relative to the number of shares in it they own.
With the investment starting at just £11, it’s inclusive enough to cater for all whether you’re Miss Prada Purse or New Look. You pay through PayPal and should the designer fail to attract sufficient funding to make that garment a reality then your money gets returned or you can invest it into another project. I’ll certainly be looking forward to seeing CatwalkGenius.com’s events for new designers when I’m at London Fashion Week next year.
Tech Crunch Xmas Crunch: The Best Ideas Sharing with A-list IT Innovators
Techcrunch Xmas (photo: violetblue)
This is a guest post in 2 parts by Misae Richwoods, a previous Golden Web Award winner who helps start ups, SMEs and independent professionals market themselves via MRMedia Group. This is part 1.
Tech Crunch conferences always promise to be star studded gala affairs with the A-list of IT innovators coming together to share ideas across a diverse range of industries. This year’s Xmas Crunch was held at a suitably decadent location – Gilgamesh in Camden. Call me Miss Marple of the Fashion world if you will, I had sneaking suspicion I’d walked onto the set of Vogue advert. A chat with some of the staff confirmed my thoughts – Gilgamesh is home to many fashion shoots outside of the seasonal boom.
High fashion in tech today is the Real Time web. It’s been as revolutionary for many industries as the invention of nylon was for fashion. Yet with many online business models looking as laddered as long weekend’s lingerie, being involved and informed on the changes reshaping the economy have never been more important. As Daniel Tenner of Woobius eloquently articulated of the threat ‘we need to pay attention because who knows if the Google Wave will turn into a tsunami that sweeps away many businesses?‘
So what was discussed at Tech Crunch Xmas Crunch?
The Demise of Google Pagerank: Nick Halstead of tweetmeme.com got his visionary tweezers out and started to pluck out those emerging hairs that are starting to make the internet as we know it a mess. Google’s famous Page Rank system enables it to weigh the internet into a hierarchy. However Page Rank has become increasingly well understood and exploited by others which now erodes its ability to deliver the best results. Think Demand Media, AOL and Mahalo, all of whose strategies degrade Page Rank’s strength.
No more use of Content by Google: We’re also now seeing publishers headed by Rupert Murdoch make moves against Google’s use of their content. Whilst 25% of their traffic comes direct from Google, will it be internet suicide to close off Google’s free use of publisher’s content? Technical means are already freely available to all publishers who want to limit indexing by search engines; the current legal posturing by Murdoch indicates it’s not so much keeping Google out he’s set his eyes on, it’s much more about setting precedent as to how money flows through the net ecosystem.
Twitter is still a Messy Solution: Both these points show that Google’s dominance of the internet as we know it, still has many challenges to contend with and that “the internet high street” of established search results may no longer be the source of all things profitable. Yet what Google had done well with the internet is what the real time web is still struggling with. How do we determine who is a reliable and trustworthy authority amongst the noise of our Twitter stream? I’m sure I speak for everyone with over 200 friends when I say I second Nick’s opinion that using Twitter to stay on top of what’s going on is at best a messy solution.
Curation of Content is Key: The future of publishing will therefore mean that curation will be a key development. Taking the latest information out of the background noise and presenting it will be built with the technologies emerging in semantics, location and authority. I don’t think I’m being overstated when I say that the Twitter stream we have today is still very much a diamond in the rough. As the real time ecosystem develops better ways to polish it, we’ll see it shine and reflect many facets. We’ll also be unlocking its true value.
When will our little baby, the real time internet, start to grow up? Is it still busily throwing it toys about and having upset tummies or is it starting to crawl to its mummy?
Entertainment will find the Real Time Internet: Outside of publishing, other industries have been savaged by digital demands and few as much as the entertainment industry. Read more
Jobortunity: A Sustainable Way of Educating Young People in Tanzania
This is a guest article by Kamilla Hensema, one of the supporters of Jobortunity, the project of the 1% Club that is promoted by The NextWomen during the 24 hours campaign on December17, 2009.
The 1%Club 24 Hours Campaign takes place today, where 24 known Dutch bloggers, entrepreneurs, and others will call upon their network for 24 hours to fund 24 1%Club projects. The campaign starts December 16, 2009 7.00pm and ends December 17, 2009 7.00pm.
The NextWomen have chosen to support the following project: The Jobortunity Training Institute in Tanzania that trains vulnerable youth aged between 15 and 23 from the slums in Arusha to get a job and to keep it. Its about giving practical training through mentors. The project is set up by Kim Groeneweg and in her team are a lot of local people.
Jobortunity needs all the support it can get to start and build a top quality training institute! It needs €4.775,- in order to train 14 mentors to educate these young people, to buy 5 computers for the life skill program and to buy bikes. If you want to donate CLICK on JOBORTUNITY
In Jobortunity business professionals Mentor Young People in Tanzania. Why?
Kim Groeneweg, a Dutch trainer with broad experience in developing countries, is the initiator of the traininginstitute Jobortunity in Tanzania. After having trained farmers all over the world, she felt the need to settle down in Tanzania and to build up a training facility that would teach young people to think and act independently and become self reliant.
After two years of preparation in the Netherlands, Kim moved to Tanzania in August 2009. Jobortunity opened its doors and started training its first 40 students in October. These youngsters live in the slums of Arusha, Tanzania, and don’t have access to regular education to prepare themselves for a job. Mostly they don’t have parents or caretakers who would normally pass on the minimal skills to find a job and be self-reliant. That’s why it is important to get business professional to teach these teens.
Girls need Help with Education in Tanzania
Especially for girls it is still hard in Tanzania to educate themselves properly. Read more
Poverty Reduction 2.0: The 1%Club 24 Hours Campaign starts December 16, 7.00pm
The essence of Poverty Reduction 2.0 is self-organization. You participate not by doing what you are told to do, but by doing what you can and want to.
1% Club Actie
Anna Chojnacka and Bart Lacroix are the founders of the Dutch 1%CLUB, an online marketplace where projects aimed at poverty reduction and those willing to support them with 1% of their expertise, time or money, can find each other. We interviewed Anna in March 2009 on Internet tv Blueshots.
The 1%Club has achieved great results since 2008; through its members base it has funded more than 50 small scale entrepreneurial projects in developing countries, from buying bikes in Africa to setting up ICT resource centers in India. They are about to start the…
1%Club 24 Hours Campaign: and The NextWomen promotes the Jobortunity Project: Donate and Retweet!
This week, on December 16th, the 1%Club 24 Hours Campaign takes place, where 24 known Dutch bloggers, entrepreneurs, and others will call upon their network for 24 hours to fund 24 1%Club projects. The campaign starts December 16, 2009 7.00pm and ends December 17, 2009 7.00pm.
The NextWomen have chosen to support the following project: The Jobortunity Training Institute in Tanzania that trains vulnerable youth aged between 15 and 23 from the slums in Arusha to get a job and to keep it. Its about giving practical training through mentors. The project is set up by Kim Groeneweg and in her team are a lot of local people.
Jobortunity needs all the support it can get to start and build a top quality training institute! It needs €4.775,- in order to train 14 mentors to educate these young people, to buy 5 computers for the life skill program and to buy bikes.
We call upon our dear Next Women supporters and network to donate £ 25 pound to our chosen project as follows:
People with a Dutch account: Through the Jobortunity Project at the 1%Club
People with foreign account: through the website of Jobortunity
Interview Marissa Mayer, The Female Face of Google
Marissa Mayer is one the most prominent female faces of Google. As VP of Search Product and User Experience she has an important role at all recent developments of Google, including its new browser Chrome and Google’s agreement with Twitter. Also, she deals with the current discussion on paying for content. At LeWeb she was interviewed by Mike Arrington, founder and editor of Techcrunch. About old school media publishers she says:
On old school media:
We think like this: if you reinvented news and the business model in the industry, how would you go about it? And we have to conclude a lot needs to change.
We already help publishers with some of their monetization problems, just look at the 5 billion we paid out to publishers around the world thanks to Google AdSense.
About personalized news she says:
[.] a very compelling product; [is] what I call a hyper-personalized news stream.
On old school news publishers, like New York Times she says:
[The New York Times] really want to learn how they can reinvent themselves.
Here is the full 20 minutes interview:
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