Reshma Sohoni - Seedcamp - UK - Stanford Engineering - Mar 5 2012
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Reshma Sohoni is the co-founder and Partner of Seedcamp, the #1 European startup accelerator. Seedcamp provides 200 companies annually with 1,500 mentors across Europe and runs 12 events each year. Some notable portfolio companies include Kyko, Blossom.io, CROWD, EDITD, GrabCAD, and Transferwise. Seedcamp helps catalyze the European startup ecosystem by funding early-stage companies and providing them access to mentors and investors across the region.
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Reshma Sohoni - Seedcamp - UK - Stanford Engineering - Mar 5 2012
- 1. Reshma Sohoni, co-founder & Partner - Seedcamp @rsohoni [email protected] European Entrepreneurship & Innovation (ME421) Stanford Engineering School March 5 2012
- 2. About Me • Born in India • Grew up, studied and worked in the US in business and tech (M&A and incubator 1.0) • Moved to Europe for MBA, worked in Corporate, back to VC for 6 mos, started Seedcamp
- 3. So – what is Seedcamp?
- 4. Seedcamp – catalyzing Europe! • The #1 European startup accelerator – Funded (unique) by the VCs and Angels across Europe – 1.500 mentors active annually – 200 companies mentored annually (500+ total) – 20 investments made annually – 12 Events across EMEA/US annually (40+ total) – Wide reach beyond our portfolio • Active in all of Europe and beyond – Finland to Italy, Spain to Croatia, Canada to Brazil – From idea stage to great products – Awesome founders, always.
- 5. Process Preparation Application Mini Seedcamp Seedcamp Portfolio
- 6. Program Timeline • Mini Seedcamp – Monthly, one major startup city in Europe – 20 Teams, 80 Mentors from the industry – Average of 2 Investments • Monthly Seedcamp Days – In London, by topic, with experts from the network • Seedcamp Week – London, September – 500 mentors, experts, speakers – Huge Demo Day and many networking events • Seedcamp US roadshow
- 7. 22 companies in SC 1 Kyko
- 8. 33 companies in SC 2 Blossom.io CROWD
- 9. Success Stats • Growing a great group of startups – 60 portfolio companies – More than $45 million raised by companies – Employing 400+ across portfolio of companies – Several category leaders • Basekit, Boxed Ice, EDITD, ERPLY, GrabCAD, LOOKK, Mybuilder, Ubervu, Zemanta • Strong partners to grow further – Reach: Startup competitions – Support: Local partners like 500startups in Valley – Funding: Partnership with Angellist – Access: Sponsorship & support from GOOG, MS, FB
- 10. Challenges – US as one part of the arsenal • Mini Seedcamp New York – Mostly European Teams, connecting with our mentor base • Strong connections since start – Investors in SC companies, friends of Seedcamp: • Atlas, USV, IA Ventures, 500startups, Redpoint, Matrix, many angels – Partnerships with HQ, not European divisions • Seedcamp US roadshow – 3 weeks of meetings – 1 week East – 4sq, NYSE, mongoDB, USV, Betaworks, ETSY – 2 weeks West – Goog, FB, LinkedIn, Twitter, i/o, 500, etc – Rest – Microsoft, Amazon, Qualcomm, finale at SXSW
- 11. What’s up in Europe?
- 12. Exits are birthing new angels Big M&A: Small M&A: Plink US VCs have noticed
- 13. Huge numbers of events and hackathons Competitions Training Accelerators Hackathons
- 14. Several hot spots • London is number 1 in Europe, all ingredients: – Startup successes = experienced entrepreneurs and Angels – Tech ecosystem = talent, customers, partners, acquirers – Diversity = Local talent, universities, creatives – Finance ecosystem = angels, VCs, LPs, later stage finance • Berlin is catching up and has a major cool appeal – Startup successes = the much hated copycats and others – Ecosystem is growing = place to be in DE, but no industry – Diversity = lots of talent, creatives, cheap labour – Financial Ecosystem is nascent, but no place is far
- 15. Hotspots, c’td • Paris is still very local – Strong scene, great design and creativity – Few connections to outside, but starting to improve • Vienna is surprisingly active in the south – Austria, Slovenia, Turkey, Italy, etc close by • Estonia has its own Skype Mafia – 4 of 20 SC investments in the last year – Great talent & infrastructure in Baltics (Skype, Nokia, Rovio) Not Silicon Valley, but our own local color
- 17. EDITD – Bloomberg for Fashion • Big data geek & fashion designer – Large scale thinking about industry trends – Skills and insights in place • Fashion is changing – 8 seasons per year – move fast, adjust faster – Competition driven market – copy or die – Social is driver & multiplier – understand or vanish • Success – Great customers (brands, retailers, designers, agencies) – Great investors
- 18. GrabCAD – worlds biggest engineering team • Outsourcing mechanical Engineering (CAD) – Market place for 3D designers, mech. Eng. • Estonian Mafia – local talent – Former Skype engineers & design – Mechanical engineers as founding team understood issues • Worldwide market – Starts w/ smaller projects, growing in size – Competitions bring PR and great coops • Great progress and Investors – Atlas, Matrix, – now over 40K Engineers!
- 19. Vox.io – real browser telephony • Team of former Slovenian Telco engineers – Very relevant local experience – In SF at the moment – hiring! • Use social paradigms for telephone – Vox.io/albert – Linkify, short URLS, one-time codes – Think bit.ly for your phone • Industry ripe for 2nd wave – Skype huge but slow – Mobile a big item
- 20. Transferwise – p2p FX • Very European problem (GBP, EUR, CHF) – Transfers a daily issue between currencies – Currency gap because of little innovation in banking • Cut out the middle man – Virtual transfer between individuals, match and leave – FSA regulated = trust + access to mid market rates • Great team with relevant background – First non-founder employee of Skype (=currency issues) – Fin Services advisor and experts
- 21. Thanks for having me Contact me any time [email protected] @rsohoni