Annually, we travel the US with 15-20 of the Seedcamp startups. This trip gives us unique insights into the thinking and trends in the US venture and startup ecosystem.

1. Learnings from our US trip
Saturday, 25 May 13

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The Seedcamp program
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3. Quarterly onboarding
Setting the scene and focusing on product
Monthly learning days
Focused topics - some of the best speakers and mentors
The Seedcamp US trip
Twice per year - 3 weeks
Ongoing support
Through office hours, dashboard.io, and the EIR program
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Year-round program for startups
Saturday, 25 May 13

4. Our 5th US trip - Feb & March 2013
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New York
Boston
San Francisco
Silicon Valley
Austin / SXSW
Saturday, 25 May 13

5. Things we do on the US trip
Connect
- Seedcamp Events
- Local Meetups
- Office Visits
Fundraise
- Angels and VCs at our events
- Pitch sessions at VC offices
Learn
- Masterclasses
- Platform Sessions
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6. Who we meet
NYC Boston San Fran Valley
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Learnings from the US trip
for investors
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What are local differences?
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9. Open to European companies
Zemanta, Campalyst, Checkthis, Teleportd, ERPLY
Emerging as an engineering hub
Etsy, Tumblr, Google engineering, Foursquare, 10gen
Very theme driven investors
USV with “large networks” thesis, Lerer with local approach, iA
with data approach, Betaworks as a local company builder
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New York
Saturday, 25 May 13

10. Love European companies
UberVU, Codeship, GrabCAD, Psykopaint
Very active early stage investors
NextView, Atlas, Flybridge, Spark, Matrix
Big Data is big
hack/reduce space, proximity to MIT, strong research teams,
lots of spin outs
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Boston
Saturday, 25 May 13

11. You need to get local
Incredible early stage activity
VCs very active in early stage
All big VCs have a seed program - lots of party rounds
Ecommerce, payment, SaaS are in
More transactional business models, consumer/app startups
need serious traction, network lock in a must
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San Francisco/Valley
Saturday, 25 May 13

12. Go & have fun
Don’t expect to do much business.
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SXSW
Saturday, 25 May 13

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Trends across the US venture/
startup ecosystem
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The war for talent
A LOT of intercompany exchange
Crazy salaries and benefits.
Acqui hires are the usual outcome
This makes a lot of the angel funds work out well
“It’s easier to raise seed & exit
than to be rich with a job at Google. That’s why I’m a founder”
Saturday, 25 May 13

15. Facebook, Twitter, Google
All focus on in app installs. Massive revenue driver
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Mobile app advertising & distribution
Saturday, 25 May 13

16. Facebook
Growing up post-IPO - scaling platform and international
Microsoft
Reinventing products and the company - a strong effort
Google
Actively seeking out massive new markets - Cars, Glass, X and Y
Twitter
Growing into a networked media company of the future
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A different corporate approach
Saturday, 25 May 13

17. “10 million users for Series A”
Chris Dixon, A16Z
Massive early stage rounds
Result in skewed market
Tough competition for underfunded
Europeans
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Be born with traction
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18. Very operational investors
As a result of early cash out and IPOs
Wide variety of dealflow
This makes a lot of the angel funds work well
This is not yet happening in Europe
Mostly because of less operationally experienced investors
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Theme focused early stage funds
Saturday, 25 May 13

19. More operational partners
Lots of ex founders in VC firms
Huge support teams
A16Z has 60+ staff. Lots of other funds are following.
Help: Hiring engineers, Build product, Go to market, Scale
It’s a sellers’ market
Strong positioning and clear value add are key for funds
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Everybody wants to be A16Z
Saturday, 25 May 13

20. A function of massive seed activity
Accelerators, active angels, and lower costs
Not enough traction for series A
Bridge rounds and top ups on convertible notes
More money than ever
Especially in network-dependent startups, winners are decided
early
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The Series A Crunch
Saturday, 25 May 13

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Take aways
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22. Get inspired and motivated
to build a world beating company
Raise with the best investors
But you need serious traction and validation
Build bridges and connect
To the big tech companies, investors, and startups
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Take aways
Saturday, 25 May 13