Waiting to board the plane back to London from San Francisco, my reflections mirror the pattern of aircraft taking off and landing in front of us.
We’ve been on the road since late Feb on the 2012 Seedcamp USA trip. It has been an exhausting but enjoyable journey which yielded its share of pleasant surprises.
We met amazing people in New York, Boston and the San Francisco Bay area and were privileged to visit with some top notch names in global tech. Other blog posts go into detail on many of the fantastic VCs, companies, mentors and product, bizdev and ecosystem people we met. It’s going to take some time to process all the ideas and inspiration we accumulated on the journey. Not to mention the exercise needed to work off all the junk food I ate! Thankfully, the abundance of Japanese and Thai food in the Bay Area dampened BurgerFest 2012!
However, lessons learned, muses met, labs visited and inspiration drawn are only part of what I bring back with me. If I sum up in a few words, 4 main themes rise to the top:
Relationships
We took the view that the trip was about starting relationships. Whether with a top tier investor down the line, a product enabler in a global technology company, an advisor/mentor, connector, prospective customers or fellow entrepreneurs. And importantly, the Seedcamp posse with many of whom I see long term friendships developing.
Appreciation
We are so used to defending our own ideas and business plans, that anything outside of our frame of reference tends to be less meaningful. Hence, to someone in social media, working capital is boring, while coding in a browser may not be as relevant to someone who wants to help gardeners find work. But spend a few weeks hearing each other talk to mentors and investors and you come to appreciate the depth of the venture. And its true that listening to fellow Seedcampers tell their stories sinks in: by our last week in SF, we were able to recite each other’s pitches and add our own flavour effortlessly. Of course, the later in the evening, the funnier the recital…
Perspective
Sure, telling your story between 10 –20 times a day and then fielding questions, critiques and suggestions builds up your resolve. And the story feeds off the feedback, becoming clearer as does the delivery and Q&A.
Towards the end of the trip, we were looking for the unencountered questions, an angle we had missed, off the wall questions, or anything to avoid us being lulled into a false sense of security.
And if we got fewer questions, we had to work out whether the audience ‘got it’ and really had no questions, or if they did not understand (nor cared), or if we had simply failed to convince them of how big a problem we were solving.
What was amazing was how fellow Seedcampers freely offered their own perspectives – whether in the car, bar or chat-based advice, critiques and positive reinforcement abounded.
Pride & Teamwork
With enough presentations, meetings, and Q&A sessions under our belts, we started to realise that every start-up in our group was impressive in its own way, and could hold its own among its US peers. Europe may have a less developed eco-system, and certainly less adventurous cash, but it will churn out some good companies who will attract resources.
And we started to take an interest in how the others in the group fared. People who were good at design offered their help, business development and marketing types offered hints, and when the practical conversation was done, the comedians sometimes just lifted the mood and diffused the tension.
Being able to strip down your business to a 1 minute pitch is tricky but seriously helps one focus on the most important messages. And this format worked well, with surprising and pleasing results. Hearing a top tier VC, US accelerator or product lead genuinely offer praise was uplifting, and a proud moment for us all. Hearing them recommend your product to others is absolutely elating! Hats off to Seedcamp.
By the end of this week, we get back to work and make it happen(except for those going on to Austin for more fun). For some, that is the next round of financing. For others, it’s beta or commercial launch, new partnerships, new plans, new hires. Judging by the way the presentations evolved, by and large, the teams have their compasses set.
Hopefully this time next year, we’ll all be around to tell our stories to the next batch of companies starting out on their tour.
Judging by the reception to my SoMA poetic rapping earlier in the week, I have might just put together a few rhyming lines to capture the poetry of the trip in another post.