It’s about putting likeminded would be Sergey’s and Brin’s and Janus’ and Niklas’ in contact with one another and recognising where talented individuals can come together to create something truly worth investing in.

We can’t compete with the Valley, so we should try and take a different approach, invest less, earlier and actively create teams rather than passively wait for them to come to you.

how about web savvy angels that come in just prior to Series 1 funding? who are the european equivalents of people like, say, Dave McLure?

see http://www.linkedin.com/in/davemcclure

someone that can provide functional value, such as e-marketing, and provide a valuable link into the appropriate vc’s following proof of concept.

The talk he gave at PitchCamp at the end of last year was great. I was impressed by VC who really tries to get you to think about not needing a VC!

You can see the video of the presentation here:

http://www.archive.org/details/pitch_camp-2007-10-16-paul_fisher

And download the powerpoint here:

http://www.openbusiness.cc/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/Venture%20Capital%20101%20Paul%20Fisher%20Pitchcamp%202007%20thecoffeeshopsofmayfair.pdf

Practically speaking, you’d be flying back to EU to build the venture, but wouldn’t this be the same as the US without a VISA, but at least closer. $2 billion now available to invest: http://weeit.com/2C4

The European Ecosystem is Entering Puberty
http://davidlanger.co.uk/2008/04/12/european-ecosystem-is-entering-puberty/

1. http://www.edocr.com is one of the 20 startups off to SF next week. The company is now 1 year old, and until we got selected for Webmission08, we delayed the need to raise external investment. We built the product with less than £500 capital (due to in-house resources) and already have companies such as HSBC, Sun Microsystems, Ariba, Accountis, etc using our services. We are hoping to convert these users to customers with the Beta version being built right now. The key reason for not thinking about VC funding before are: I knew we could build without external funding and secondly did not think any VC would be interested in investing without substence.

2. One of the VCs you mentioned have already been to http://www.nwstartup20.co.uk and glad to report two of the others mentioned would soon attend forthcoming Northern StartUp 2.0 events in Manchester. My interest is to bring the startup community in Manchester and find ways to attract non-local funding to serve their needs. Lot more need to be done. And involvement of Regional Development Agencies are key if we are to achieve some traction.

I am certainly looking forward to the visit across the pond and hope to capture the experience through http://www.manojranaweera.com

Catch you later

@Jens – I totally agree that it would be very nice to have a quick and easy way to know the maturity of VC’s funds and the invested percentage. That would help picking the best firms to pitch and eventually would save all some time too.

@Paul Walsh – I feel the same about funding companies with traction. It’s definitely an important/safer rule but it would be nice to see more people (not only angels) taking the risk to invest *also* to help creating traction. It’s not about throwing millions out of the window to buy users/customers (I wonder if it’s that pre-bubble behaviour that scares investors??) because there are a million things small start ups can do with decent funding and introductions/advice in order to build traction effectively. That’s what I think is real early stage financing, an idea with potential, strong principles, passion, strong team (whatever that means, from my *biased* first-time-entrepreneur’s point of view not only serial entrepreneurs with proven track record) and the right market time. If that will happen consistently Europe could scare the hell out of ‘we-are-the-best-and-only’ Valley VCs.

Good luck to the Missioners. Show them what you got.

We got access to places which would have otherwise been out of reach for those not already part of the network there.

Ambassador Spogli is also responsible for a program for Italian Angels:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=658761

So the exposure was two-fold. I was meeting people in the Valley, and really getting to know local investors and other startups as well.

Hope it’s as fruitful for the 20 UK startups.

Good luck to all!

I also feel that europe is waking up to the fact that it is not just about revenue – during the course of thenextweb I had plenty of opportunity to get a better feel for the european VC’s and I was pleased with the vibes I was getting.

But nothing changes for me that if you have a good product, a great team and proven execution of a plan will pretty much guarantee you investment.

sent from: fav.or.it [FID255191]

We launched slowly in 2006 with our own private funds, mainly because I couldn’t see anyone who would take the risk on an unproven business plan, well not at a reasonable level. We did receive offers which were for a crazy fully controlling stakes and with so many ties it just wasn’t worth it.

I didn’t approach any VC’s when we launched because I didn’t think we were ready for that level of investment, I was probably right. After 2 years I am just starting to investigate this area so will be interesting to see how we get on now we do have proven the business model and have traction (Paying customers in over 30 countries, numerous industry awards).

The VC’s certainly seem friendlier and more willing to look at ideas today. What seems to be happening is that Europe is being seen more as one area when it comes to startups, rather than separate countries. This is great and will give startups the strength to compete with US counter-parts.

But maybe we expect too much, isn’t it better to build first and then look for funding? And with today’s technology you can build a working system fairly cheaply… does Europe need more seed & angel funds rather than more full on VC money?

Seedcamp looks like a great initiative and we could do with more like that to help get the ideas rolling.

Look forward to hearing any responses to your post from the VC’s themselves.

It’s one thing for an investor to ‘get it’. It’s another to back it. I’ve heard so many entrepreneurs complain that although the VCs to whom they’ve pitched, ‘get it’, they all expect to see ‘traction’. It’s easier to invest when a company already has traction, where’s the risk in that. We need to see more early-stage investors willing to take educated/calculated risks.

I’d consider a move to the Valley, not because I don’t feel European investors get what I’m doing. I’d consider a move because there’s an entire ecosystem in one cluster in San Francisco. I’d also consider it because to be quite frank, the numbers add up. There’s a bigger (local) customer based in the US

That said, I’ll find out for myself, exactly what The Valley is like. As I’ve posted recently, I’m heading over with The Web Mission to help with connecting/networking/introductions.

look at eric archambeau moving to wellington, roy merritt to amadeus, roberto bonanzinga joining balderton, fergal mullen of hcp moving to europe. the deckchairs are getting reshuffled at a number of funds as people get ready for the next wave of maturity in european venture.

I agree that more VCs ‘get it’, as you put it. But what would be even more interesting and useful would be a list of people who actually have the money to follow through. To be a bit controversial: A few of the firms that you list have had the first close of their most recent fund quite a while back. How shall I put it: What good is to start-ups when the VCs ‘get it’, but can’t actually do anything about it, because they have no fresh money to invest?

Maybe this would be a way in which CrunchBase could actually make some money… just a thought.

Great post Mike – lots to think about!

Not sure why you’re not including FOWA London in your list …

Ryan