Web Mission 08: UK startups to visit Silicon Valley
March 11 Mike Butcher
Well, after months of planning and an application and judging process lasting several weeks, Web Mission 08, the project backed by UK Trade Invest, Heller Ehrmann, BT and HSBC to take 20 UK tech startups out to network in Silicon Valley, is ready for launch. Organised by UK entrepreneur Oli Barrett and Polecat, the project had an overwhelming response with over 100 companies applying.
Who judged all this? TechCrunch UK was asked to contribute thoughts on the applicants (TCUK is also the official media partner), as was well known tech entreprenuer, investor and former Dragon Doug Richard, along with UK Trade Invest, Oli Barrett and Polecat. We were all really impressed with the quality of the applications. In the words of Doug Richard “some of these companies are as good as anything coming out of the Valley”. And sponsors Heller Ehrmann are issuing a statement today saying: “The sheer volume of applicants provides convincing evidence of the depth and breadth of emerging growth technology companies in the UK. The shortlist of companies selected demonstrates that the UK is able to produce credible web businesses.”
What was the criteria? The judges were looking for companies who could do meaningful business in the US; from setting up office, to finding funding, to extending their network, and developing sustainable cross-pond relationships. They also assessed the companies based on their business viability and the strength of the management team. And they looked for a mix of companies that showed the breadth of what the UK has to offer in this space. The aim is for the companies “to explore new opportunities for growth with key people in Silicon Valley.”
So, without further ado, the confirmed companies for Web Mission 08 are:
Groupspaces - Web-based tools for groups
Tioti - A social network around TV
Exabre (TheFilter) - Advanced music recommendation
Coull - Interactive video platform
Zogix - Employee services platform
Byteplay (dotHomes) - Real estate search engine
Trampoline Systems - Enterprise software harnessing social behaviour
Hubdub - News prediction social network
WAYN - travel and lifestyle social networking community
TrustedPlaces - Venue recommendation network
Slicethepie - Enabling bands to raise money directly from their fans
Mydeo - Mainstream application for storing and sharing video
Skimbit - Research and share decisions
Huddle - Enterprise 2.0 collaboration
Rummble - Mobile social networking and recommendation
Zebtab - Desktop TV application
Silobreaker - Contextual and graphic search results
Kwiqq - Social Website builder
edocr - Making business documents interactive
ShortFuze - Online movie creation tools for social networks
Comments
March 11th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
The Huddle link links to a domain for sale page. Is it huddle.net?
March 11th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
It is indeed huddle.net - I’ve already emailed Mike :S
March 11th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
huddle.net - dang - I always get that wrong!
March 11th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Special congrats to Trustedplaces, Rummble and Zebtab, 3 great companies.
Is WAYN a start-up though..they’ve been about for donkeys years?
March 11th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Thanks Mike for breaking news. “To do list” just went into overdrive.
March 11th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
I’m thrilled to be going along! Will be my first time in the Valley! And I’m thrilled at the company I’ll be keeping, we have so much to be proud of here in the UK!
(Goodness I use a lot of exclamation points!)
March 11th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
From a company that was not chosen… good luck to all 20 of them. There are some really great once amongst the pick.
March 12th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Congratulations to all of the companies, in particular Trampoline, Huddle and ZebTab, all of whom have successfully completed the g2i investment readiness programme. Go for it.
March 12th, 2008 at 9:40 am
…and I forgot, if you’re looking for investment, you might light to go to http://www.g2i.org to see how we can help.
March 12th, 2008 at 11:29 am
Ok, this time I really screwed up. After I saw the *requirements* to qualify for the amazing Web Mission 08 program I decided not to apply. Things like “Have 2 years trading history, or failing that, compelling early-stage fast-track potential” + “Can provide references from key sponsors/industry players” + “Can Demonstrate some commitment to sustainable business practices (eg, positive environmental or social outputs)” seemed quite hard to sustain (and quite vague too).
But some of the selected companies make me think I’m an idiot and should have applied too. Great chance lost… Another lesson learned.
Good luck to the participants though.
March 12th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Congratulations to all the winners. A special well done to Edocr, Skimbit + Zebtab who I all know, and know how hard they all work and rightly deserve their places.
sent from: fav.or.it [FID50047]
March 12th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Fabio - yeap you should have applied
Nick - thanks mate
Ian - geographical limitations
Alicia - one of your colleagues contacted me few months ago wanting to demo at http://www.nwstartup20.co.uk - if this is still the case, let me know quickly - next date is 19th March - slots still available
March 12th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Hi All, set up a special interest group within edocr http://www.edocr.com/group/web... to bring greater publicity and collaboration to all those attending this mission. Hope you all will join. Guidelines http://www.edocr.com/node/2397
Drop me an e-mail to manoj [at] ranaweera.name - this group is for attendees only and by invitation
March 12th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
We entered but weren’t successful, but I’m hoping to make it to SF anyway for the Web 2 Expo, so may well bump into those of you we already know, in the bar somewhere!
March 12th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Hey Tony, did not think you are a startup! Are you offering any hosting on Sun hardware? We spoke about this last year…
March 13th, 2008 at 9:24 am
Congratulations to all the companies that got invited. We’re delighted to be going along, should be a great experience. Can I also hijack this post to mention DrinkTank, our new meetup for UK tech entrepreneurs, investors and valued members of the network? Sign up here: http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/1678
We’d love to see you all there…
cheers
ali
March 18th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Manoj,
We’re not a startup in terms of length of time we’ve been running, but in other ways we are. You didn’t need to be to enter anyway technically
Hopefully bump into some of you over there anyway.
March 28th, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Huddle looks really great — I’ve been looking for a 37signals alternative for a while. Could this be my lucky day?
Good luck guys!
March 30th, 2008 at 5:35 pm
@Scott
Thanks Scott!
We’ll do our best to make everyone proud!
Andrew
http://www.rummble.com