

RWW Never Mind the Valley: Here's London - marklittlewood
http://www.readwriteweb.com/readwritestart/2010/01/never-mind-valley-london.php

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petesmithy
We (Songkick, yc s2007) have a floor of a warehouse just up the road from
Silicon Roundabout. There are about 8 startups based at our place (including
Habit Industries, also yc s2007). This post gives a really measured, non-
sensatinal view of what it's like to start up in London. We're really enjoying
building Songkick here.. It's changed for the better even in the two years
we've been starting up. Btw - we have deskspace going at our place - see here:
<http://www.gumtree.com/london/17/50884217.html>

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pierrefar
It's interesting to see how Cambridge is playing into this ecosystem. There
quite a few very interesting startups here, but clearly we're still in
London's growing shadow. For example, lots of Cambridge companies have London
offices.

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adw
We're a Cambridge company who just moved to London.

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pierrefar
I would have loved to meet you guys. Been really busy lately though but now
slightly more free.

If you ever come up to Cambridge, drop me an email. It's in my profile.

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adw
I still live in Cambridge (for, oh, a week and a bit all being well). We'll be
around loads.

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jgrahamc
My start-up is here in London: <http://causata.com/>

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revorad
Surely if you are based in Mayfair, you are not just a "startup"? :-p

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gstar
Azeem is spot on about what UK startups face, but here's a couple more
overriding themes that I've observed:

\- There's a culture of "what's in it for me?", so it's hard to get advisors
or put together an advisory board without getting out your cheque book. People
in the valley (outwardly) seem to be more willing to take a chance, and trust
that they'll get looked after in the event the business goes well. Not as much
altruism in London.

\- The UK is more risk-averse than the valley, you don't just need a vision, a
prototype and a quality team, you need all that plus traction and profit
before you fall inside investors appetite for risk.

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adw
Actually, is there a big list of London-based startups anywhere? There must be
close to three figures, even if you only count the consumerish Web ones.
There's umpty-billion hedge funds and financial technology houses.

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revorad
Couple of good London startups I know from friends :

<http://www.nestoria.com/> Property search engine, which is doing really well,
profitable and spreading base across Europe. Started by ex-Yahoo people.

<http://www.mendeley.com/> "Like iTunes™ for research papers. Mendeley is a
free research management tool for desktop & web."

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adw
The hub thing is kind of taking off here. VentureBeat wrote about the building
Mendeley are in - [http://digital.venturebeat.com/2009/12/18/white-bear-yard-
lo...](http://digital.venturebeat.com/2009/12/18/white-bear-yard-london/)

I think Playfire are setting one up over in Soho too. There's also the
RIG/BERG axis (<http://berglondon.com/>, <http://reallyinterestinggroup.com/>
who do Newspaper Club) over in Scrutton Street, and I think Songkick share
space with someone (maybe Moo?)

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revorad
That sounds cool.

Timetric looks very good. How long have you guys been around? I'm working on a
startup in a similar space (see profile for details).

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adw
Fulltime about eighteen months. We were one of the winners at Mini Seedcamp
London last year.

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revorad
Wow, congrats! Are you coming out with a paid product anytime soon?

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pclark
How valuable is location if you're not in SV? New York seems pretty great for
media companies. But what about else where?

What is Londons calling (zing)? Is there notable value in groups of startups
being together other than the PG "don't ever stop typing" social aspects?
Whilst that is valueable, a lot of startups go to SV for the visibility and
proximity to the exit acquirers.

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ionfish
Lots of startups around Silicon Roundabout.

<http://siliconroundabout.ning.com/>

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flashingpumpkin
This seems quite spammy -> "Canadian online pharmacy". Someone should moderate
this. ;)

[edit] Wee. Just had a look at the forums. That doesn't really seem usefull.

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ionfish
It had a bit more in the way of relevant, recent content when I last checked
it (about a year ago). Just google "Silicon Roundabout" if the Ning group
isn't helpful.

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flashingpumpkin
Greetings from a fellow Londoner :)

