Seedcamp London

[akula]

http://english.martinvarsavsky.net/i...start-ups.html
http://localglobe.blogspot.com/2007/...s-growing.html

I am delighted to announce the launching of Seedcamp, an idea of my friend Saul Klein, that I think is great. Seedcamp will take place in London in September of this year and the proposal is to turn it into an annual event for young entrepreneurs in the technological world in Europe, Middle East, Latin America and Africa. The idea is to dedicate one week of work to find the most innovative and aggressive entrepreneurs to help them get venture capital and first rate connections to develop their projects.

From all signed-up entrepreneurs, 20 will be chosen to participate in the event. And at the end of the week, 5 of them will be offered an investment of €50K , which will be considered equivalent to a 10% of the company. Entrepreneurs who accept this offer will move to London for three weeks to prepare the start up of their project assisted by Seedcamp’s network of mentors. All young entrepreneurs presenting an innovative idea and the wish to develop it can, right now, sign up online!

[jasaunders]

What's with the not including North America?

[akula]

good point

US has http://ycombinator.com/, http://www.techstars.org/site/page/pg1682.html and lots of other angel/mentorship comps

i also like http://www.tandementrepreneurs.com/index.html

they're a new shop. great branding

the founder's blog: http://www.venturewoods.org/index.ph...repreneurship/

[usakos]

I like this idea; wish I can participate in as a sponsor, investor, mentor, etc.

[jasaunders]

Thanks for the resources Akula.

[funk]

I am in London - I have a business idea, can I take part?

[funk]

I took a look at this - requirements - questions your asked and stuff...and it just makes me wonder, ok it's good what your offering but basically loads of people will submit their ideas - everything about it, strengths, weakness, competition as you ask people these questions...so people are just giving you their ideas.

If it is really good, I have to say someone can steal the idea

That's why I don't think these type of things are all that - you got to it the hard way and on your own with some advice...but not just giving out your secret on a plate to Seedcamp

[akula]

I took a look at this - requirements - questions your asked and stuff...and it just makes me wonder, ok it's good what your offering but basically loads of people will submit their ideas - everything about it, strengths, weakness, competition as you ask people these questions...so people are just giving you their ideas.

If it is really good, I have to say someone can steal the idea

That's why I don't think these type of things are all that - you got to it the hard way and on your own with some advice...but not just giving out your secret on a plate to Seedcamp

sure..I can see your concerns

1. No. Financiers don't make a habit of throwing up mickey mouse competitions so they can trawl the market for new ideas. Although it's a reasonable assumption. Financiers need to differentiate their money from other people's money. They do it by promising value add. And there can be no better value add than market intelligence relevant to the entrepreneur's competitors. However, this assumption is false. The capital gains banked by financiers is not the product of their value add, but rather, it is the product of market stochastics.

2. Yes. Comps like seedcamp, and external equity in general, is far from the most common source of funding for nascent ventures

The value of these things is mostly in networking