I will be attending my third Seedcamp event tomorrow as a mentor. Seedcamp is without a doubt the main event for any budding tech entrepreneur team in Europe, and it is getting bigger each year attracting companies from all over the world.
For those who are not familiar with Seedcamp, it was first introduced in 2007 by none other than Saul Klien. Reshma Sohoni joined from 3i to run the day to day operations. In 2008, Mini Seedcamps were introduced in four cities to short list companies. The number of Mini Seedcamp events have gradually increased to 9 with Johannesburg added to the calendar in 2010. The finalists of Mini Seedcamps will enter into Seedcamp week held in September each year.
This year, there will be 21 teams pitching on 27th July at UCL in London. I will be catching the first train out of Stockport tomorrow morning to take part. Unfortunately, no single tech startup from the north west has qualified this year. It would be good to find out how many companies applied this year from the north west. The company I persuaded to apply, did not qualify. Both Midlands and Scotland are represented in addition to London and the South.
The criteria for selection is getting stronger each year, as Seedcamp is no longer restricted to UK, and even the Mini Seedcamp London is opened to teams from anywhere in the world.
Based on the information at my disposal, I prepared following two mindmaps to help me get through tomorrow.
First one shows approximately 25 venture capital firms confirmed to take part as mentors, and the second mindmap shows the tech companies taking part. My mentoring team includes two familiar faces, one of whom is an alum of webmission08. The teams allocated for us are highlighted with number one on the second mindmap.
Let’s hope we could organise something similar to Seedcamp or Difference Engine in the north west sooner rather than later.