Posted on March 27, 2007 at 2:35 pm | 
By 
There’s a buzz around the European startup community at present. Well, actually, most of it seems to be happening in London, where the passion and enthusiasm is most apparent and collaboration is easier to attain. That’s probably because it’s a big city with lots of people and all speaking the same language with no water separating them. That’s not to say there isn’t the same level of enthusiasm elsewhere which shouldn’t be harnessed and supported.
A much needed ecosystem to enable better collaboration is starting to form in London, with people like Saul Klein kicking off initiatives such as OpenCoffee, Robert Loch and Paul Birch running (compelling) Internet People and informal gatherings for Creative People (supported by me from a BIMA perspective) and Sam Sethi running mashup events. And these are just a few of the networking opportunities that attract an average of 80 likeminded opportunists on a regular basis. Then you have intimate and private breakfast meetings which I’ve attended, along with people such as Paul Birch, Robert Loch, Olly Barrett, Saul Campbell, Judy Gibbons, Judith Clegg, Michael Smith, Saul Campbell, Sam Sethi, Daniel Appelquist and more.
Sam wrote a very interesting post that grabbed the attention of some of the UK’s finest investors recently, most notably Doug Richards, one of the originals from Dragon’s Den. Sam articulated what I’ve been thinking about for a while – about the disconnect between investors, brands that can make a difference such as BT and Microsoft, government initiatives and entrepreneurs.
I was interested in the debate it sparked. Each investor articulated their involvement in various initiatives, all of which were unknown to me personally. That’s not to say they’re not compelling and very worthwhile, but it does highlight the necessity for each community to collaborate and not just each person in each community.
During the exchange of comments on Sam’s post, I raised the question about working with government bodies to seek more support to help build the foundation of such an ecosystem. There were no takers and only Robert suggested something similar.
Whilst Enterprise Ireland does very little, the Irish government has decided to roll out free WiFi access across Dublin city. This is the type of stuff that’s needed, but much more needs to happen if budding entrepreneurs are to, well, blossom. Unlike the dragons, I wouldn’t necessarily expect an inventor to have the business acumen to realise the full potential of their product – you can’t be good at everything.
So, whilst I believe entrepreneurs have the ability to sell, that doesn’t mean they have the time to fill in application forms for innovation type competitions to ensure they end up on the radar of people who count, nor are they likely to have time/money to spend on PR firms to do it for them. Congratulations to Nooked though, they deserved to be on the list! I believe the rest of the value chain should seek and discover such talent and help them realise their full potential. It’s not just about the money; it’s about building an ecosystem where better collaboration can take place.
I work with what I like to call ‘widget companies’ instead of trying to build everything. We now work in an environment where ‘plug ‘n play’ companies work together to deliver compelling products and services that don’t cost an arm and a leg to build.
So, who are the ‘The Digital Pioneers’ and how are they discovered?
So, here’s an example of where a vital stake holder could better engage to make a bigger impact.
I was contacted by the British Council this week and asked if I would consider becoming a mentor to a Hong Kong based mobile games company under a new scheme called the ‘Digital Pioneer Programme’. I have accepted because I think it’s a brilliant initiative.
I will also be talking to them about how to improve the programme itself. I’m impressed by their open-door policy to change where necessary.
The Digital Pioneer programme is a British Council programme for digital pioneers in the UK and Hong Kong. Six people, three from each country, have been selected following a competitive application process to take part in the first Digital Pioneer programme.
The Digital Pioneer programme 2007 is focussing on content development and an integral part of the programme is mentoring. Each digital pioneer has been asked to outline the area that they would like their mentor to be working in and the kind of input they would like from their mentor.
The Digital Pioneers from Hong Kong will have mentors in the UK and the UK pioneers will have mentors in Hong Kong. The initial visits will take place at the end of March with the UK pioneers going out to Hong Kong first and the Hong Kong pioneers returning the following week.
The UK pioneers will be in Hong Kong 17-24 March and we would like them to have the opportunity to meet their mentors during this visit. The Hong Kong pioneers will be in the UK 29 March – 5 April and again we would like the pioneers to have an opportunity to meet with their mentors during this week.
My role as a mentor will be to work with the Digital Pioneer and help them to access the market opportunities they are seeking in either the UK or Hong Kong.
I will
- put the pioneer in contact with people in industry who might be interest in buying the services/products offered by the pioneer’s business;
- be able to advise on how to access the market for example who is the best person to contact, what form the contact should take for example email or telephone;
- comment on the business they are running and offer advice on how to run the business more effectively;
- be a sounding board for ideas that the pioneer might have in terms of business or market development.
The (lucky) company 
The guy from Hong Kong that I’m going to mentor is Wallis Wong.
Walis set up his first start up company in 2004 and has successfully developed and launched more than 20 mobile games and services including two award winning games, 3G Mopas and Hong Kong War. More information can be found at www.3dynamics.com.
It’s ironic to think that Enterprise Ireland sent 2 of its consultants to review my company’s business recently. Neither of them had any experience in our area. In fact, one of them was so bad I asked him to leave our office in Dublin, as he was ‘wasting my time and I was wasting his’. Note to Enterprise Ireland – please hire people who ‘get the Internet thing’ and stop wasting tons of EU funds in administration fees.
So, how do we get all the relevant stake holders to collaborate and discuss how to implement better collaboration? I know this may sound a little silly, but sometimes you need to plan how you’re going to plan.
UK
May I call all of the aforementioned, the DTI, British Council, Business Link and Gordon Browne to a sit down breakfast? If Gordon is going to pay for it, why don’t we make it the Ivy?
Ireland
I’d like to call upon Enterprise Ireland to have a meeting with those of us who author Web2Ireland blog (I’m one of the authors), Tom Raftery, James Corbett, Judy Gibbons and all the other smart and well connected people I’ve failed to mention by name. I’ll happily host it at one of our restaurants in Dublin.
What are your thoughts?
12 Comments
So far,
March 28, 2007 @ 
James Corbett
Very interesting to hear how the Digital Pioneer Programme works - what a great scheme. Agreed we need to meetup with EI and trash out some of these issues.