A VC - Latest Comments in Seedcamp 2009

Re: Seedcamp 2009

Ronald — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:30:49 -0000

Good to know that actions like this take place and that same values are promoted all over the world. At least we all play the game by the same rules and we become aware of the worldwide situation and we are less ignorant. See more good news at http://www.vcgate.com/Ventu...

Re: Seedcamp 2009

Sandy Mckinnon — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 06:17:55 -0000

The energy and momentum of Seedcamp can't be faulted - other great grass roots progs like springboard led by the Camb redgate guys (http://springboard.red-gate... + all the ****camp initiatives + real-time media are all creating faster feedback HAS to be good for startups, transparency and (dare I mention it) innovation distribution...

Re: Seedcamp 2009

valto — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 01:52:28 -0000

Something else. It's amazing to me, that those helping to build global businesses could be acting much more global with their own business on daily activities. The same way as building a local ecosystem, there needs to be one for global as well (on top of internet).

Re: Seedcamp 2009

fredwilson — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 08:10:19 -0000

It says something loudly and clearly

Re: Seedcamp 2009

fredwilson — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 08:09:03 -0000

Where as in what geolocation or something else?

Re: Seedcamp 2009

fredwilson — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 08:05:14 -0000

Do you think its a fad?

Re: Seedcamp 2009

ivospigel — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:18:29 -0000

That may very well depend on whether you are looking or not, and in which direction. Not many US VC's are actively participating in the European scene so Fred and USV are a very welcome exception.
Just for the record - out of 21 finalists of www.seedcamp.com 12 were from UK and 6 - the next largest group - from Eastern Europe. Of the 6 winners, 3 were Eastern Europe (Czech, Estonia, Romania), 2 UK and one Middle East.
Hopefully that says something.

Re: Seedcamp 2009

ivospigel — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:15:13 -0000

Almost right, Fred, but more precisely it's "Shout 'Em" - www.shoutem.com.

Re: Seedcamp 2009

valto — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 13:23:13 -0000

Ok. We have Y-combinator and techstars. Then we have the official and unofficial copies of there + several other normal incubators etc. everyone aiming their startups to go global. My question is, where is that next level? "going global, but where exactly is it?

Re: Seedcamp 2009

valto — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 13:18:06 -0000

I think in general, when we talk about VC level startup and internet in the same comment, we should just forget these borders. Just makes no sense to me.

Re: Seedcamp 2009

valto — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 09:00:17 -0000

And it's not just eastern europe, it's pretty much everywhere, other than few locations in the globe, mainly US.

Re: Seedcamp 2009

valto — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 08:56:12 -0000

As we are building an global internet based model for the early stages funding, if it would have been possible, we would have registered our company to "united states of internet" :) (who knows, maybe internet could declare independence some day... Sure would make the international legal issues whole lot easier). But instead, since trying to look into future, Asia will continue to have ever greater meaning as well, so for now we have chosen HK to our "home", just like HSBC.

HSBC has decided to relocate their CEO (and his team) from London to Hong Kong. They and analysts have commented this that Asia is getting so important role in the finance world and this crisis is one turning point that Asia will in many ways be a leading finance market after the crisis.

Re: Seedcamp 2009

gwong — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:40:53 -0000

thks.
;)

btw, some semi-heated discussion going on about seedcamp.

might be interesting to hear your thoughts on this Fred.

http://blog.crowdstorm.co.u...

am looking at this closely and hope to be able to pull some cross EU/Asia transparent C-combinator, given the above post though, seems like it might be more complicated than I imagined.

BR
@GarethWong

Re: Seedcamp 2009

ShanaC — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:20:05 -0000

Is it a Fad or A trend? I'm not so fluent in all things Europe. I think if it does become a trend over a fad, it will be good for the tech scene overall. It is good when you have different sets of values permeating the tech marketplace. Europe is not the US, and they have different thoughts to offer us. Sometimes you have to choose. It's a marketplace, and I'm hoping long term for consumer choice on the matter. Not everyone needs the same sort of solutions when it comes to what makes something valuable.

Re: Seedcamp 2009

ShanaC — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:16:52 -0000

And it will be true of the future ones, of course. Time has an interesting way of shaping us.

Re: Seedcamp 2009

fredwilson — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:20:43 -0000

Never say never but our firm are strong believers in a small team working out of a single office

Re: Seedcamp 2009

fredwilson — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:19:44 -0000

I am very bullish on india for the reasons you cite and others although we don't invest there

Re: Seedcamp 2009

fredwilson — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:19:29 -0000

The great VCs of 20 yrs ago are different from the great VCs of 10 yrs ago and they are different from the great VCs of today

What we have to hope for is some of the great VCs of tomorrow will work in europe and asia. There are some now but we need more

Re: Seedcamp 2009

fredwilson — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:19:23 -0000

That is critical. Role models are so important

Re: Seedcamp 2009

fredwilson — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:19:21 -0000

I think we will see a real VC firm get formed in Berlin sometime in the next few years. It has to happen

Re: Seedcamp 2009

fredwilson — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:19:13 -0000

Well first of all we have an investment in a company out of slovenia called zemanta. They don't do 'nothing'

Second, this is not hype. This is based on observations I've made over the past couple years

You can disagree with those observations but its a bit much to accuse me of hyping things

Re: Seedcamp 2009

fredwilson — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:18:41 -0000

I think all of eastern europe suffers from a lack of early stage venture capital

Re: Seedcamp 2009

fredwilson — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:18:34 -0000

I met one from zagreb. I think they are called Shout Me. I'll track them down

Re: Seedcamp 2009

howardlindzon — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 11:19:01 -0000

amazing how far this whole fad has come...

Re: Seedcamp 2009

Farhan Lalji — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:20:24 -0000

Fred have you given any thought to getting a EU partner, perhaps launching a Trafalgar Square fund?