We ran a story earlier about moves by the Berlin state government to set up a more modest, version of London’s Tech City. We spoke to several Berlin-based entrepreneurs about what they wanted. Here are their edited responses.
TechEurope is coming up for its second birthday.
At the same time, The Wall Street Journal is hosting a number of free events in the heart of London’s Tech City (or Silicon Roundabout, if you prefer). This is your chance to talk to the Journal, and for us to bring together some of the key figures in the U.K.’s tech scene for you to quiz.
We are opening a pop-up café that will host a number of talks, panels and chats at The Book Club in Shoreditch over three days (Wednesday, Sept. 12, to Friday, Sept. 14).
The events will be hosted by Alan Murray, executive editor of The Wall Street Journal Online; Neil McIntosh, deputy editor of The Wall Street Journal Europe; and me.
A few days ago a fairly small UK market research company, Intersperience, put out a press release with the headline: “Majority of Brits feel ‘upset’ without Internet connection.”
It has sparked dozens of articles in publications throughout the world.
At the heart of the research company’s study was to challenge a group of people to get through a day without technology.
Many participants found it extremely hard to resist the temptation to go online, especially those for whom online communication represents a large part of their social interaction. A total of 40% of people felt ‘lonely’ when not engaging in activities such as social networking, emails, texting or watching their favorite television channels.
Is that strange? People who are denied their favorite means of communication feel lonely if they cannot use it. Perhaps they should get out more. But how do you plan social activities these days?
Seesmic founder Loic Le Meur and WSJ Tech Europe Editor Ben Rooney fielded reader questions live on the technology challenges ahead for business leaders. The chat was on June 29. Replay the event.
Loic Le Meur, founder of LeWeb, caught up with Tech Europe on the eve of the 2010 gathering. We asked him for his thoughts on the prospects of the European tech sector and what you need to be a successful start-up or entrepreneur and attract angel investors and venture capital.
1. Do you see the next Google or Facebook coming out of Europe?
Europe can create world-class Internet services: Skype is coming out of Europe. I started LeWeb with my wife, Geraldine, to help European entrepreneurs create the next Google or Facebook. But let’s be honest, Europe isn’t Silicon Valley quite yet, so it’s unlikely. With successful entrepreneurs becoming investors — such as Skype founder Niklas Zennstrom or Meetic founder Marc Simoncini — Europe is changing and becoming more competitive, although it is still easier if you are in Silicon Valley.
2. What are the most exciting companies you have seen here at LeWeb?
I am very excited to see how the 16 start-ups we selected for the competition perform — all but one are European. In the past, we’ve not had an awesome number of start-ups to choose from but this year we’ve received an amazing 400 candidates, which is a sign that the European start-up scene is alive and kicking. I am particularly excited by some of the speakers we have on stage: We will open the conference with Carlos Ghosn of Nissan Renault and entrepreneurs love him; Solar Impulses’s Bertrand Piccard, who invented a solar plane and Julio Alonso of Weblogs SL, who is challenging the established media in Spain with his huge blog network.
Europe’s largest internet conference starts in Paris tomorrow, bringing together some 2,500 entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, industry leaders, journalists and bloggers to focus on the key issues and opportunities on and around the web.
Most of Silicon Valley also appears to have flown east; speakers at this years event include Google’s Marissa Meyer, Evernote’s Phil Libin and Foursquare’s Dennis Crowley.
“Everyone who’s anyone is at LeWeb, and there’s a few more too. It’s probably the best place to see, meet and hear from such a huge cross section of Europe’s web and tech community,” said Daire Hickey from Dublin’s F.ounders conference.
However, according to Loic Le Meur, the founder of LeWeb, while the European technology industry has recently become far more vibrant and dynamic, it still lags behind the U.S., and Europe is still a harder place to do business.
“Europe can create world class Internet services: Skype came out of Europe. We have started LeWeb with my wife Geraldine to help European entrepreneurs create the next Google or Facebook, but let’s be honest, Europe isn’t Silicon Valley quite yet, ” he said.
Reid Hoffman is one of the most successful tech innovators and investors of the last decade. He has co-founded numerous Silicon Valley success-stories such as LinkedIn and PayPal. He will be speaking at the Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford forum in the U.K., and he has written this exclusive guest blog post for Tech Europe. The theme of his post is: A decade of entrepreneurship and investing — five lessons learned and advice for entrepreneurs and innovators in the coming decade.
Over the past decade, tech entrepreneurs and innovators have scaled some of the industry’s highest peaks and struggled through its lowest valleys.
There is uncertainty in the variables that make for successful enterprises: size of market, strength of competition, ability to grow on reasonable or efficient capital, etc. I’ve seen this play out in many ways over the past 10 years and have learned five key business lessons that could also serve to help entrepreneurs and other innovators as they look to the coming decade:
1. Look for disruptive change.
As you are about to start a new venture, ask yourself these questions: What is becoming possible or necessary that wasn’t possible before? Is a new product or service able to take over an existing market or create a new market? When I co-founded LinkedIn in 2003, the tech industry was in a deep depression. I looked at all the opportunities created by the Internet and had the idea that eventually everyone would need a professional profile online. This profile would enable them to connect with similar professionals and share news, tips and other information. The development of online professional profiles that people could create and control themselves led to an enormous, disruptive change in the recruiting industry. It provided a way for people to directly reach the best candidates rather than hoping for responses from a listing in the paper.
2. Aim big.
Tech Europe covers Europe’s technology leaders, their companies, and the people and industries that support them — and their ideas. The blog is edited by Ben Rooney, with contributions from The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires.