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Archive for August, 2012

Four New Companies Join the Seedcamp Family

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Seedcamp Events in the past 3 months

3 months. 3 events in Zagreb, New York and London. Thousands of applications from over 65 countries. 60 passionate teams getting mentored. Hundreds of high quality mentors and 4 investments. These are the numbers that make Seedcamp stand out as the leading micro-seed investment and mentoring programme.

A recap of Seedcamp London

As always, a great calibre of entrepreneurs pitched their products to a very diverse pool of mentors – ranging from founders and product and marketing gurus, to institutional VCs and angel investors.

We opened the day with a unique masterclass hosted by Saul Klein and Chris Riley. They both shared their knowledge on the importance of storytelling, and Chris, who was the brain behind the brand strategies of Nike, Apple, and Twitter among many others, also gave insightful advice on how to engage the audience via narratives.

We have received some extraordinary feedback and wanted to share these comments as they truly capture the day:

‘Best Seedcamp I’ve ever been to. The stakes have been raised with the quality of companies and teams. It also had a great set of mentors there, which is just as important for the companies. Logistically, it was the best run Seedcamp I’ve been to, which shows the experience on the team and the energy was much higher than usual. I came away feeling hugely thankful to the Seedcamp team.’ Scott Sage, DFJ Esprit

‘Good atmosphere. Well run day. Quality of teams high. Masterclass of an excellent calibre. Having Chris remind young teams about some of the really important “brand” needs for a business chimed well with my own background and agenda. An excellent day.’ Richard Fearn, The Friday Club London

‘This was my first attendance at Seedcamp as a mentor and I thought it was a fabulous event and a great opportunity for startups to get feedback on their go to market plans and meet relevant contacts. I also thoroughly enjoyed the masterclass.’ Sarah Gunderson, Yammer

The winners

We had a record number of applications for these events, so all the teams were immensely proud to be selected. We were very impressed by their shared enthusiasm, drive and ambition – a really positive atmosphere throughout the whole day at each event.

Despite the fierce competition, three teams from Seedcamp London really won us over, as did one from our Zagreb event. In one month time – along with 15 other Seedcamp teams – they will participate in our annual week-long event: Seedcamp Week. This is a priceless opportunity to showcase their growth and build relationships with 400 individual mentors over the course of 5 days.

So, who are the winners?

BRANDiD – Winner of Seedcamp London – London, UK
What: BRANDiD is a clothing subscription service that learns what you like: built for men, not fashionistas.
Why: This is the kind of consumer company with the real potential to go viral, especially with ‘their engaging approach and depth of understanding of their market’  according to Elliot Conway, VP of Pentland Group.

poq Studio – Winner of Seedcamp Zagreb – London, UK
What: poq Studio makes it possible for SME fashion retailers to get their own mobile commerce apps.
Why: Vukašin Stojkov added that ‘the straightforwardness of both the business model and the product itself gave me the confidence that they’re capable of greatness’.

Rawstream – Winner of Seedcamp London – Malta
What: Rawstream boosts employee productivity and secures your network against internet malware, with ROI measured in days.
Why: We were impressed by the disruptive potential of this compelling product, wrapped up in a really simple proposition. ‘A relevant industry experience and a pragmatic approach makes them a truly promising startup’ according to Sanjay Kaler from GFI Software.

TRData – Winner of Seedcamp London – Kiev, Ukraine
What: TRData sells professional financial platforms for getting, collecting and analysing data from difficult financial markets.
Why: Rachel Evatt from Skyscanner underlined that ‘If TRData’s product is as good as they make out, then they could be placed to rip apart the financial data market, similar to how salesforce.com did to enterprise CRM.’

Thank you to:

Everyone who attended our three events in Zagreb, New York and London respectively.
All teams who participated in the events, eager to drive their business forward and were challenged by the mentors’ comments. We would like to thank all the mentors, who gave us their precious time during these summer months to share their expertise in order to help startups map out their future road to success.
Last but not least, we would like to extend our thanks to our generous event sponsors, who in every city hosted us like kings: 10Gen, SoftLayer, Yammer,CRANE and the CEED. And, of course, we can’t  forget the invaluable contribution of our yearly sponsors Microsoft BizSpark, QualcommPaypal and Google, who support Seedcamp on an ongoing basis.

What’s next?

If you’re a startup wanting to get involved in the Seedcamp action, then applications are currently open to:

Seedcamp Budapest taking place on October 25th. See here for further information about the event and how to apply.

Stay tuned for our coverage of our annual flagship event in September, Seedcamp Week, which will finish with a Demo Day where our companies will showcase their progress to Europe’s top VCs and angel investors. We promise, it will be bigger and better than ever!

CEO Roundup for July 2012: The Brave, The Bad and The Bonkers

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  •   Marissa Meyer has taken on the mother of all challenges aka www.yahoo.com. She is estimated to have $300m in the bank from her time at Google and her Yahoo CEO package is said to be worth another $70m – not bad. Looks like Marissa left Google after not being promoted to SVP  and I wonder if Marissa will be as big a loss as another female Googler who was also passed over for a senior position. Yahoo is going to be  an immense challenge and it will be exciting to watch – either way, Marissa’s already a winner in our eyes.

 

 

 

  • The CEO of the month is the Lenovo boss Yang Yuanqing who distributed his $3m bonus to his 10,000 junior employees. The bonus the employees will receive, which is close to an entire month’s wages, will make a lot of assistants, receptionist and production-line workers very happy. Fingers crossed this altruism catches on!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Indicted CEO of the month goes to former France Telecom boss Didier Lombard, who ran the company between 2005 and 2010.  Lombard has been indicted by a court in Paris over allegations that he led a corporate culture of bullying and harassment, which resulted in the suicide of at least 30 employees. During a two-year period 35 employees killed themselves and critics have pinpointed Lombard’s management culture and decisions as one of the reasons for this dire attrition. Lombard was the architect of the “NEXT” program, an efficiency drive and restructuring which cut more than 22,000 jobs over a short time and forced managers to change jobs every three years. Many of those who died left notes blaming pressure at work for their actions. Worst. Boss. Ever.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • Russia, home to the bravest start-up CEO’s, seems to be experiencing a backlash after imprisoning nearly three million entrepreneurs in the last 10 years. Boris Titov, who Vladimir Putin installed as ombudsman for business rights, says it is “hard to find another social group persecuted on such a large scale”. Of course Putin is concerned about the imprisoning of the entrepreneurial engine of the country. He may also be more than a little concerned by the $84bn in capital that exited the country last year, a record amount.  You definitely do not want to go to court over a business matter in Russia. Sergei Zlobin, who resigned as head of the Volgograd regional criminal board four months ago, says that in the thousands of cases he heard in the 15 years he was a judge, he only ever issued seven ‘not guilty’ verdicts – and five of them were later overturned. Issuing a not guilty verdict, he says, was not only a “waste of time”, it was risky. Not expecting a mass exodus of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to Skolkovo  just yet then…

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