So I should say at the outset that there is nothing wrong with the concept of privacy. But in an age of social media, people really are going to have to start getting used to the idea that a lot of what we do in public is going to be “out there”. To digress briefly – as we heard at a session at MoMo London recently, mobile location based social networks in South Africa have privacy settings set to “public” as a default. It is then up to the user to lock down what they, well, want locked down. That’s not the case in Europe of course. But similarly, if you are in a public place, you may end up on some Qik video, or Flickr page. Yes, this is not ideal for people who still have no handle on any of this. What can I say? We are in a period of societal change.

So I am rather glad therefore that the Information Commissioner has seen sense and ruled that it is “satisfied” that Google’s Street View photo-mapping – a story we helped break – will have safeguards to avoid risking anyone’s privacy or safety. The project drew criticism from “privacy campaigners” [sic.] worried it could breach data protection laws – but it must be said, the main privacy campaigner which had a problem was Privacy International. It wrung its hands over whether people’s faces in the street would end up on Google StreetView. But Google is now obscuring those faces so there is little issue with this.

It seems like any time any Internet company wants to do anything vaguely innovative, there’s Privacy International popping up, worrying about “our privacy” for us. Yes, they do useful work, like in the case of fisking Phorm. But I rarely see journalists quoting anyone else. Though I applaude their work with the Big Brother Awards, I note that many of these “privacy” stories are rarely generated other than by a press release from, er… Privacy International, saying it’s worried about something.

And I’m not alone in my bemusement at PI. As Mohammed Hanif says in The Guardian today:

Google Street View is as much a threat to western civilisation as disposable cameras are to London’s historic monuments. The most viewed pictures on the US version of Street View include a giant pumpkin, two men leering at a woman bending over and the fractured signboard over a porn theatre.

Would you like to talk to your Twitter friends or set up a spontaneous conference call? Normally you’d have to agree to hook up over Skype or something else. But soon you could be making calls via Twitter.

Phweet is a new piggy-back Twitter service which does just this (thanks to Pat Phelan of MaxRoam and Twitterfone for the tip-off). After signing in with your Twitter name and password you select how the call will be carried, either via browser, SIP ID or number/Mobile Phone. You then plug in the Twitter username of the person you want to call. The system generates a “Phweet” which is a unique shortURL. The “PhweetUrl” calls you and you can share who you are talking to without having to reveal or exchange phone numbers or other identities. Once the conversation ends, the unique URL expires and the session message board disappears.

This is impressive. Connecting Twitter, web calls and conferences to the PSTN is no means feat. And because it uses open SIP services, it will work on many new Nokia phones with WiFi, as well as connecting to PSTNs. The whole thing appears to be free. Phweet plans to add more social networks and the Phweet API is going to encourage application developers to come up with new apps.

The founders are Stuart Henshall and David Beckemeyer, architects of TelEvolution which created the PhoneGnome VoIP service.

I doubt many phone networks are worried by this development, but it does show just how powerful Twitter’s service could potentially become, as a backbone for services like Phweet.

iubo, a start I wrote about in December last year, has launched its public beta. The idea is that you input all your data (contacts, photos, bookmarks, calendar, etc) and then iubo lets you search across all that data to create a useful service. iubo calls this ‘your own private Google’ for your stuff, which you can then tag up and share (if you want). The service was sparse back then, but has improved its interface a lot now its public. But it needs to be noted that iubo is a side project from two university students [update: they are now a registered company and have managed to secure a small amount of funding from Business Gateway]. They are still at university so don’t expect a Google killer just yet. Worth a look however. Here’s their video demo:

Click To Play

Manchester-based Locify is a project about GPS on java-enabled mobile phones which enables a web service to offer location relevant services.

Users can explore what is “here” or “there”, can tweet their location, explore nearby Wikipedia articles, update their location on Fireeagle, show a map where they are or seek for “caches” about their current location. It also has offline support as a main new feature. Founder David Cizek says developing location based services for mobile phones is now as easy as writing XHTML pages. Planned features inlcude a full map and route support and native versions for iPhone and Android. It works with both GPS-enabled and non-GPS devices, and can be accessed by going to www.locify.com/m or downloading via PC.

It reminds me slightly of the Irish Locle startup, a new mobile application that lets users see where their friends and family are without the need for GPS or mobile network operator location based services. However, Locle is much more social in that it integrates with social application platforms such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace to bring social networking functionality to the phone. Locify is much more of a platform.

There are plenty more mobile apps out there but Locify is worth checking out even if it seems a little rough around the edges. Here’s one of their videos about how it works:

It’s weird how ideas get a certain zeitgeist. Last night at around 1am I put up my idea for a TechHub – a physical cluster for startups, probably a building or a set of buildings not unlike the converted Guinness warehouses in Dublin used for the amazing Digital Hub.

Today the FT’s tech correspondent Tim Bradshaw blogged about “Silicon Roundabout”, the area around London’s Old Street which was once a thriving dotcom scene in the late 1990s and is now re-claiming its heritage, with lots of tech companies floating around.

Dopplr’s Matt Biddulph coined the phrase “Silicon Roundabout” on Twitter last week and the idea has quickly taken off. Here’s the FT:

“Previously known as the busy junction where London’s Old Street meets City Road, Silicon Roundabout is not the most salubrious of locations for budding entrepreneurs. But a coalescence of young web and tech companies in EC1 dates back to dotcom days. Alongside cheaper rents and a surfeit of bars, tapping into that experience is part of the area’s appeal for many of its newer residents. Many will be hoping to follow the example of local hero Last.fm. The online music community was bought by CBS for $280m (£140m) last year, one of the largest UK web company buyouts of recent years.”

“For me it’s all about the community here,” Biddulph told the FT. “We moved in because our friends did too.” [Update: He says more or less the same thing in the Evening Standard which even did a bill poster, right].

Neither article mentions that Dopplr sub-lets space from Moo and can they literally shout across to the Moo guys on the other side of the office, but let’s not split hairs. This is the TechHub concept in action to a large extent, just created organically. In some sense Moo is creating its own TechHub. And all power to them for that, it’s a great move.

The Dopplr CTO has even plotted his fellow Roundabouters on Google Maps (below) and even created a social network: SiliconRoundabout.com.

Out of the 16 listed on the map, 50% are what you might call technology startups, the rest are more like Web, design, or creative agencies:

Here’s the list:

Last.fm – no longer a startup – bought by CBS, but a good example

Moo – Startup.

Trampoline Systems – Startup.

Skimbit – Startup.

Kizoom -Startup.

Dopplr – Startup.

AMEE – Startup.

Songkick – Startup.

IDEO – Design agency

Consolidated Independent – technology services company

LShift / Cohesive FT – Agency.

tinker.it – Technology and design consultancy

Schulze & Webb – Creative design consultancy.

Techlightenment – “Social Brand building” agency

Redmonk – Analyst firm.

Poke London – Creative web agency.

Meanwhile, over on the “The World’s Web & Mobile Startups” map we started for Techcrunch UK in February (and which has now been replaced by our London map on CrunchBase), there are even a few others.

My Neighbourhoods

Ether-ray.com

Rabbit MQ

Unlimited World

Welovelocal – (Now sold to GCap)

Bragster.com

So it’s a good, natural cluster with many of the networking effects that go with that.

Plus, Silicon Roundabout’s claim to be the heart of the London tech scene is getting a South London gravitational pull from Huddle which has four under it’s expansive roof in Bermondsey: Huddle, Rummble, Veedow, Kubera Money but is soon to be seven as three will come from the Seedcamp competion post-September.

Does that mean the TechHub concept is not required? Maybe, but I think it’s worth having the debate, and perhaps this is how we decide where to put TechHub, if we put it anywhere at all…

PostScript: Please add your company to CrunchBase and add in a full address with postcode. It looks like our our map is a little out of wack – most of the startups are in the most expensive part of London!

Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words. And the cool thing about Cuil (and when I say cool I mean “funny”), is that it keeps getting the pictures wrong. As The Register has pointed out (note: not suitable for work), Cuil’s attempts to associate pictures with search results are getting “cuiler” by the minute.

Meanwhile, from the screen grabs I’ve been passed from True Knowledge’s private beta (they just announced more funding btw), their search results are way beyond even the kind of thing you’d expect from Google.

So to recap. Here’s Cuil’s attempt to find me:

And here’s True Knowledge’s answer for “Who was US president when Barack Obama was a teenager?”

Enough said.

I’ve long known about Dublin’s Digital Hub but seeing is believing, and when I was over there recently for our TechCrunch Meetup I visited the place and was mightily impressed. Here’s what it’s all about:

The Digital Hub is a community of people – artists, researchers, educators, technologists, entrepreneurs and consumers, all working together to create innovative and successful digital media products and services which support their future. The Digital Hub is an Irish Government initiative to create an international centre of excellence for knowledge, innovation and creativity focused on digital content and technology enterprises. The core development of nine acres is located a ten minute walk from the city centre within the historic Liberties area of Ireland’s capital city, Dublin. Over the next decade, this initiative will create a mixed-use development, consisting of enterprise, residential, retail, learning and civic space. The project is managed by an Irish government agency, the Digital Hub Development Agency, which was established in July 2003.

Fantastic. Totally and utterly fantastic.

So I am hereby serving notice that TechCrunch UK is going to start campaigning for a Digital Hub for the UK.

The working title for this concept is “The TechHub”.

Unfortunately this is going to sound boringly London-centric. But I think it ought to be in London. Why? Simple really. Money, access and the networks inside London. Startups can make use of the amazing access to the wealth of mentoring, venture capital and talent here. I know there is an argument for creating other centres around the UK. But the classic clustering effect created by Silicon Valley would be replicated by concentrating efforts on one geographical area.

The location would preferably by an airport (London City Airport? Near the Heathrow Express?) or other major transportation network where key industry players will be passing through.

A London TechHub (LondonTechHub.com now registered) could also be a great place for startups from other parts of the UK to lay their hat. Ideally it would even have a sort of “pod hotel” next door.

It would need to have super-fast broadband, a cafe/bar, hot-desk facilities and great transport links.

I’m thinking that one of the buildings in the plans for the London Olympics would be good for this TechHub, or perhaps it could be near Canary Wharf or in the East End of London? Perhaps there is already an existing project that can be expanded? Kings Cross might be the ideal area – loads of new development, access to the Heathrow Express and Eurostar.

[Update: Having said all that, I also know London has disadvantages, expense being the main one. It could be in Cambridge (45 mins away) or - maybe Brighton. But the important thing is that it's a genuine geographical cluster with fast transport links to London].

There is also a European element to this. Why could we not have a European network of TechHubs, all with similar purposes, creating a network of startups? The idea could dove-tail well with the Open Coffee Club network.

This is going to require people from government to get involved [Maybe - unless I can find a willing millionaire]. I may even have to kidnap Boris Johnson and hold him to ransom.

What do you think? Please leave your feedback.

———————————————
UPDATE: Ian Forrester of BBC Backstage is not impressed with the idea and says:

Yawn! I’ve heard it all before, and to be frank its getting a little tired. What is it with people and big shiny shiny central locations? What would this all achieve? Remember the dome people dummys! What about all the other simular activities going on all across the country?

And he says I should “get some action by fingering through that massive contact list you must have and pulling some strings to get something done”. Er yeah, that’s the point Ian.

So to answer his points:

• Regional efforts are great but are not a true cluster and don’t have access to the amazing international tech scene of people, mentors, VCs etc that is constantly moving in and out of London. They don’t have an international footprint. That is the harsh reality.

• What’s to stop these other regional hubs creating a network with a London TechHub anyway?

• Yes, The Millenium Dome wasn’t great but it would have worked had it been filled with startups IMHO (no, I’m not joking)

• I am not out to copy Silicon Valley as such, but I am interested in the clustering effect SV has. That’s the real point.

• What is TechCrunch UK going to do to make this all happen? We’ll do what we’re good at – creating a debate and keeping on with lobbying. And yes, I will open my contact book to help it happen.

• Viz. the TechCrunch Euro Tour: As it happens I’m prepping several articles which will link up each city I went to. I think Europe is poised to create a true startups network. But Rome wasn’t built in a day.

• Geek Dinners and other ad-hoc events are great but meeting up in pubs is always one event away from fewer and fewer people turning up. All events have a life-cycle and when key people leave they wither. A physical, geographical cluster is not like that.

Over the Summer I’m opening up TechCrunch UK & Ireland for some guest posts by people I think have something cool to say about startups here and in the wider European tech scene. It’s not much more complicated than that. I’m looking for posts which are well written, thought provoking or informative. Preferably all three. The posts will appear exclusively here on TCUK (under “Guest Author”) and the writers will get picture bylines, a short bio and a link back to their site. Contact me via the usual methods to pitch a post idea or even leave a comment. [Please note: Your pitch/idea - and even the final article - may be refused, but don't take it personally. Any copy will be sub-edited. Submissions need to be in raw HTML with relevant links and pictures].

Well, maybe I was wrong. Instead of True Knowledge bagging a large amount of VC funding as I thought, it’s gone back to its existing investors Octopus Ventures and some angels to secure $4m further funding. However, it may be it just that it couldn’t agree terms with the VCs that were courting it. (I’ll update the post when I have done more digging). It brings the total raised by True Knowledge in the last 12 months to $5.4m (£2.7m). This will be spent on expanding the management team and product development.

Although not quite yet the Powerset or Cuil of the UK, True Knowledge is pioneering a radical new approach to search, best described as answering questions asked on any topic in plain English.

Babbel, the Berlin-based language learning startup which we wrote about in January and which appeared at our London TechCrunch Pitch! event, has secured an undisclosed amount of funding from German investors Kizoo and and VC Fonds Berlin, although its understood to be less than a million euros.

Members of Babbel teach each other via an Adobe Air Flash framework. The languages it covers so far are French, Italian, Spanish, English or German. The schtick behind Babbel is that it has a design inspired by a game console, incorporating user-generated images and human voices into the teaching, like shopping or flirting. Year old Berlin company Lesson Nine GmbH, started the site only six months ago but appears to be gaining users if this investment is anything to go by. The company has four founders: Thomas Holl, Toine Diepstraten, Lorenz Heine and Markus Witte. Following its funding Babbel is now releasing a preview of new tutorial formats for things like grammar which are currently in closed beta testing. They will be followed by a tool for more advanced speakers and language educators to create their own tutorials.

Competitors to Babbel are myriad but many have a differing take on language learning. Mango Languages, which launched in September of 2007, offers ten languages. LiveMocha also features social networking. LingQ, offers vocabulary and grammar drills. Then in Europe you have FriendsAbroad, founded by former Amazon people a few years ago. The recent VoxSwap has video services and integrates Skype. And LearnItLists puts language practice into a widget.

moot.no is a brand new mobile social service for Windows Mobile 6.0 mobiles and XP/Vista PCs. You can share content (text, video, pictres) with the network closest to you. Launching out of Oslo, Norway, it has financial backing from TeleVenture and has a five person team.

Essentially what they do is connect people within the same wifi-network. Unlike Plazes, which is more about geotagging your location, people entering the same WiFi zone are displayed on your screen. However, Moot says they are building geotagging into their strategy.

Why only Windows mobile? And Why not the iPhone? Co-founder André Mlonyeni of Ground Conrol Labs tells me that “The reason for only supporting windows mobile is partly due to technological issues and partly due to resources. Supporting a variety of mobile platforms would demand a lot of resources just in porting the application. Also the typical mobile platform is not yet powerful enough to run our application the way we want.” However, they have plans for an iPhone version.

I should hope so.

Most Windows smartphone users are not mobile social networkers. They are businessmen who probably wouldn’t share a conversation, let alone a mobile video over an ad-hoc WiFi-based social network. That said, it will be interesting to see if Moot gets any traction, perhaps amongst Geeks who want to run a quick social network over WiFi at a conference.

Guess who I’ll be speaking to when I next call Google’s press office? Peter Barron, Editor of Newsnight on BBC Two is leaving to join Google as Head of Communications and Public Affairs for the UK, Ireland and Benelux regions. The move follows Google’s European Head of Communications, Rachel Whetstone, departure for the role of Vice-President of Communications and Public Affairs for Google in the US. Peter is expected to start in September. It’s always an odd feeling when a high profile journalist crosses the great divide into PR, but this is surely one of the oddest yet. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to ask him the same question 12 times in a row as has famously happened on Newsnight in the past (at least twice).

And as you can see below, Barron had a taste for the online world even as editor of Newsnight – not that Jeremy Paxman gave a flying f*@k.

The BBC has launched a BBC Music beta site which enables users to explore artists played on BBC Radio music programmes. The site is powered by MusicBrainz, an open content music database. The site still has a few glitches but you can see full tracklists on each network’s website: 1Xtra, Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3, 6 Music, Asian Network.

I have no idea if my campaign to try and get the BBC to open up more of its data to outside developers – which resulted in a public debate – has had any influence there However, they have put up a developer page which has a comprehensive outline about how developers can use the data from the Music site.

The BBC is mashing up data from MusicBrainz and Wikipedia with information from within the BBC, like details about which BBC programmes have played an artist. They say:

This new version of the site has been developed against the principles of linked open data and RESTful architecture where the creation of persistent URLs is a primary objective. The initial sources of data are somewhat limited but this will be extended over time… The data available in a variety of formats, including: XML, YAML, JSON, RDF, Atom and RSS.

Plus they have released what they call a “mini-manifesto”:

Peristence
Linked open data
RESTful
One web

From the statements made at BBC TechCrunch Debate, and this launch, it looks like the BBC is now on the path to releasing much, much more data from its system, so congratulations to them for this move.

GoAdv, the European online media company listed on Alternext market of Nyse-Euronext Paris, has raised more than €11 million more financing after completing a Convertible Bond Issue with several investors in France. The issue will finance the firm’s acquisition strategy following its acquisition of the Excite Europe network of portals last year. GoAdv now retains more than €20 million cash. The firm had Q1 2008 revenues of over €8.8M.

GoAdv started in 2004 after Luca Ascani, President, sold BuyCentral.it to Lycos Europe in 2003. He also sold ADVance, a consulting ad agency to NetBooster Group on April 2007. So he has cash to play with.

So what’s next? Probably a buying spree for sites with decent, qualified traffic in Europe. GoAdv runs Excite Europe and the Better Deals network. It has a staff of about 110 working across offices in Italy, Ireland, France and the Philippines. It’s currently active in active in eight markets; UK, Germany, Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Poland.

Sweemo bills itself as a “experience sharing community website” where users bid auction style for “a unique range of user generated life experiences” like skydiving, cooking lessons from a Michelin starred chef or backstage passes at Paris fashion week. Think crowd-sourced Red Letter days. It was launched in a blaze of D-list celebrity stardust at London’s chic Embassy club in June (er, not that I went) and is currently being incubated by London’s g2i investment programme.

But that’s not the most interesting thing about Sweemo right now. The most interesting thing – apart from the helpful Italian pensioner who is offering the experience of Oxford Street or the opportunity to go Zorbing with two (2!) of London’s “hottest Glamour models” – is its blog. Why? because it’s hilarious.

Written by “Joe and Lucy”, the blog has absolutely nothing to do with Sweemo. Honest. The site is not mentioned once. As far as I can tell this a first for a startup in the UK, and deserves to be congratulated. It may have something to do with the fact that Lucy (who thinks “children are a lot smarter than they look“) has been busy looking after her sister’s “two little darlings”:

Within half an hour of arriving they’d emptied a whole pot of triple-action moisturiser, ruined my brand new butter-shine lipstick by painting their faces red, and tried to use my hair-straighteners as a sandwich toaster. And my “no-smudge” mascara? Well I may just sue under the trade descriptions act – you should see my cream sofa!

Luckily Lucy works in PR, and has a handle on this blogging thing. She was able to relate the whole story in laugh-out-loud detail. It was a hoot. Pity there are no permalinks. Details huh?

Meanwhile “Joe” – who recently went banger racing, enjoys windsurfing and pulled a “sickie on Monday to go watch the final day of the test match” – is a tiger a work. He recently landed a big project and “really must find out what it is.”

With a team like this, Sweemo is sure to go far.

Today, tomorrow and over the second and third weeks of August, TCUK will be on a summer break. Posts will be light to non-existent during those periods. Normal service will resume from September. Have a good summer everyone!

Last week TechCrunch reported that Channel Intelligence (CI), a company based in Florida, had filed a lawsuit for patent infringement in the US against a long list of startups which – get this – offer wish lists for products people may want others to buy for them. However, many of these companies don’t yet know they’ve been sued so their defence response is likely to be slow.

The patent No. 6,917,941, appears to cover the invention of creating a list of things in a database. It was issued in July 2005 (sometime after wish lists were invented on the Internet I believe) and defendants include a long list of startups like On My List, Remember The Milk, WishList and Zlio. Channel Intelligence is not suing Amazon or Ebay, probably because these are large companies which would send Channel Intelligence packing.

A European startup, blablalist – an open-source wish list service – has also been targeted and has had a letter from CI that claims blablalist infringes its US Patent No. 6,917,941.

However, at blablalist’s helm is the eagle-eyed Geert Bevin who has found that the European patent doesn’t seem to have been granted yet. He’s now looking for prior art to stop the patent from being awarded. This could make this lawsuit null and void and protect everyone CI targeted in Europe. Here’s a list of what he has already found, Including ShopSmart in 2000, Kelkoo in 1999, Peapod in 1996 and No Amiga To Waste in 1997!

Channel Intelligence may well have jumped the gun with the European patent complaint as it only vaguely mentions that they ‘own the foreign equivalents’. The equivalent European patent is still under examination by the European Patent Office.

As Bevin points out, with the abundance of prior art, it might be easy to stop the patent from being granted in Europe now as it’s much more effective to intervene during the examination process than it is to contest the patent once it’s granted.

So pile in people, and contact the European Patent Office to stop this patent being issued in Europe.

The tectonic plates of Euopean venture capital are shifting once more as the France-based VC Partech International Partners (PIP) launches a management buyout from its Partech parent. The move looks like it was prompted by overtures from the US business, which the Eurepan team has taken advantage of. Some might say there are now “great expectations” of PIP.

The buyout by European managing partners Philippe Collombel and Jean-Marc Patouillaud is being supported by Partech investors, including European investors CIC 123Venture, Masseran, AGF Private Equity, CDC Entreprises, Caisse Nationale de Prévoyance and SGAM Alternative Investments.

PIP will continue its trans-Atlantic investment in IT, media and Internet companies and will instead partner with Partech’s American team, based in San Francisco, which is led by Vincent Worms, one of Partech’s original founders, and partners Nicolas El Baze and Tim Wilson. PIP has the “Partech Funds V” fund to play with in Europe and in North America, as well as overseeing all the European investments of the previous Partech funds, which include portfolio companies AirWide, B3G Telecom, DailyMotion, DiBcom, Goojet, JobPartners, Qype and Total Immersion. Pip has also invested in Acco, TVTrip, Replay, and RockYou!

What’s significant about this? Some VCs appear to be choosing to split off to create independent European entities. In June last year Benchmark Europe, one of Europe’s largest venture capital firms, split from its US counterpart, and changed its name to Balderton Capital, showing that the European outpost of the US had become successful enough to do business under its own name. Others (like Accel and Atlas) are not taking that route. Still others (like DFJ) are using local teams (DFJ Esprit) to enter the European market, and others (Index) have no US presence- although they do use a US PR firm, if you call that a presence.

UPDATE: A European VC contacts me to comment: “”It means two things, number one the Trans Atlantic venture capital model does not work. There is no point in having one fund or one firm which is investing in the UK and in the US because there are no synergies that is specific to venture capital… though there are synergies with later stage stuff. The second issue is one of returns. That is, when the US are making money, it’s not always the case that Europe is making money and vice versa.”

Last week I had a coffee with Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures. Fred is perhaps best known as the blogger “A VC – Musings of a VC in NYC” but he is also an investor in Twitter among other startups. He was on a European “Tech Tour”, but this is not something he normally does. I asked him why a New York VC was suddenly doing a tour of European startups (which he’s blogged here, here, here, here).

The first reason, he said, was that his blog had given him exposure to many European startups, so he decided to combine a family holiday with a trip over here.

Secondly, as his firm’s portfolio of startups becomes more mature they have an increasing number of companies that need to “be global”. It’s possible to get English-speaking countires right just being based in the US – you can hit the UK, Canada Australia, etc almost without having to get on a plane in many cases. But trying to generate footprint in foreign languages is harder. You need boots on the ground. He cited the recent example of how StudiVZ is beating out Facebook by being the big local player in Germany, faster than Facebook was able to internationalise (and that story will run and run now court action is under way).

“So we either need to get to know local entrepreneurs to either partner with them or work with them or maybe even buy them,” says Wilson. As a VC, it’s easier for him to be a “go-between” between US and European startuops than it is for possibly competitive startups in Union Square’s portfolio from the US, he says.

The third reason is that “when we built Union Square we tried to focus on web apps and services in New York then invest in Silicon Valley.” The latter is of course a 6 hour plane ride away. But – as it turns out – a 6 hour plane ride in the other direction puts you into Europe. “We can do that from New York, but Silicon Valley VCs can’t do that,” he says. In other words, a VC in New York is more likely to be interested in European startups than one much further away in Silicon Valley. Plus there is the time factor: European companies can have a New York base because the time difference with Europe is not so onerous. So will Union Square make investments into Europe? Fred said they woud look at doing “one investment a year in Europe” to begin with just to “get the deal flow going.” It helps that Albert Wenger, partner at Union Square, is German, so he has plenty of roots in Europe.

Wilson admits that pan-EU VCs like Balderton, Mangrove, Index and others are “way more connected” here so it’s not like Union Square is about to trouble them. However, there is an interesting aspect to Union Square’s incursion into Europe. They will fund startups from a point as low as $250,000, which is unusual, and possibly suits Europe’s hunger for seed financing right now.

After we chatted, Fred rushed off to another meeting and was later clearly networking with Seedcamp Seedcamp over dinner if this blog post is anything to go by:

Topics of conversation included: hosted processing and storage vs. true cloud computing, the question of whether European entrepreneurs receive a “black mark” from failure, where to base development, whether to expand monetization efforts geographically at the same pace as user adoption, the advantages of targeted local startups that seem to fend off even the biggest global juggernauts, the early-stage European funding gap, and the knock-on effect of having not only the founders of successful startups seed new ventures, but their early employees as well.

I would have recorded a video interview but all my tech failed me on the day, so here’s an interview recorded in Berlin by Lukasz Gadowski of Spreadshirt fame:

Link: sevenload.com

Fred will be talking on 8th August at Old Broadcasting House in Leeds. See here.

Startups please take note: Get your entries in to Digital Mission by Wednesday this week for the chance to pursue business opportunities and make connections in the US. Winning firms will be on a trade mission organised by Chinwag for UK Trade & Investment both at Web 2.0 Expo in New York and SXSW Interactive.

The advisory board comprises:

Nic Brisbourne – Partner, DFJ Esprit
Mike Butcher – Editor, Techcrunch UK & Ireland
Enda Carey – Head of Games & Digital Content, Northwest Vision and Media
Herb Kim – CEO, Codeworks
Doug Richard – Chairman, Library House, Ex-Dragon & Founder, Cambridge Business Angels
Reshma Sohoni – CEO, Seedcamp