WebMission: Brits go to Silicon Valley

Edie G. Lush

Edie G. Lush joins a party of young British Internet talent on a pilgrimage to meet Californian role models

Huddle.net boss Andy McLoughlin worked on a potential partnership with a social network and opened a few doors into Microsoft. GroupSpaces made ‘fantastic contacts with many other entrepreneurs, Angels and venture capitalists and is in exciting discussions with a few people following the trip.’ Rummble’s Andrew Scott says: ‘Despite all today’s technology, nothing beats meeting someone in person. Spending time with Silicon Valley luminaries, both in a formal business setting and socially, helped develop relationships at a level which would normally take much longer to achieve, starting from a cold call or a regular 60 minute meeting. In addition, a fantastic benefit was spending a week with 19 fellow UK start-up founders. Time you would simply never spend if it wasn’t for the WebMission trip.’ And WebMission leader Oli Barrett adds, ‘Going en masse really worked in our favour, unlocking opportunities which we could never have accessed alone.’

For Silobreaker’s Kristofer Mansson, the trip brought home an inherent difference between the Bay Area and London. ‘The Valley seems to ooze with confidence and success is almost believed to be a fait accompli if you set up your business there. That is far from the truth, of course, but in terms of mentality there’s a real faith in what the Valley can deliver. The UK Internet scene isn’t concentrated in a specific area in the same way and although the London scene is pretty vibrant it gets easily lost in everything else that goes on here. But the biggest difference is probably that the UK scene hasn’t produced any really big successes yet that have put UK on the global Internet map in a big way. We don’t have any Googles, YouTubes or Facebooks to show yet, and success is always the best catalyst for more success, which in turn changes culture and mentality in a hurry.’

So will one of the WebMission companies be the next Google? If their spirit and drive are anything to go by, there’s no stopping them.

Edie G. Lush has been a reporter for Bloomberg, a political analyst for UBS, and a regular contributor to The Spectator

Pictures by Mike Butcher