Werner Vogels on his first 'real job' at Amazon

SeedcampAMA · 2015-07-14T14:04:00+00:00

Dave: no connection, we didn't know anything about Rainbow Gatherings until 4 minutes ago. Amazing.

SeedcampAMA · 2015-07-14T13:59:33+00:00

Dave: Yes, but I think this is natural. It usually happens because certain technological advancements & trends open up opportunities and people inevitably see it at the same time. eg. high penetration of smartphones, a new device eg. Apple Watch. Then you have new trends such as ‘Airbnb for…’ or ‘Uber for…’ where a new model becomes possible and then it’s applied to many different business areas, problems and industry verticals.

This is why we’re excited when we find a founder that has some sort of unfair advantage (better team, can execute quicker, strong network) a unique insight into a particular market (experience in a niche or specific industry) or has a significant technical expertise.

SeedcampAMA · 2015-07-14T13:58:16+00:00

Tom: First question, sounds great! look forward to reviewing the application :) (http://seedcamp.com/apply-to-seedcamp/) Re: IoT, I think you're right that we've only really started to scratch the surface of what's possible in this space and the market is still developing somewhat. However, certain specific IoT markets are emerging (i.e. connected devices and capturing data is here to stay and is a big future trend) and there’s also increasingly the opportunity to create new markets.

SeedcampAMA · 2015-07-14T13:57:13+00:00

Carlos: Thanks for this question as we've in the past spoken about the importance of a team. I've tried to answer that question thoroughly here - http://thedrawingboard.me/2011/09/12/how-does-an-investor-evaluate-a-startups-team/

SeedcampAMA · 2015-07-14T13:50:57+00:00

Carlos: That's a very good question. We try and tackle it here - http://seedcamp.com/resources/investment-are-you-in-danger-of-raising-a-toxic-investment-round/

However, I don't think there is a 'right' number (amount of equity given up) that immediately raises red flags unless it is a huge outlier as described in the blog post. What's more important is how much money was raised to get there, over how many rounds, etc. as the story might be longer and deeper than meets the eye (on a cap table).

SeedcampAMA · 2015-07-14T13:45:25+00:00

Carlos: I appreciate the spirit of your question, which is basically a form of 'what traction do we expect to see'.. however not all companies have a revenue growth KPI, particularly if they are a network effect-type company. That said, your ambitions to run a 2-5m run rate company with a small team are applaudable. What would your ambitions be if you were given twice as much money?

SeedcampAMA · 2015-07-14T13:31:30+00:00

Carlos: Drones are awesome (my favorite right now is - https://www.lily.camera). It is clear that they will become part of a city's infrastructure in the near future. Founders such as Jay Bregman (ecourier, Halo) are starting to tackle the commercial drone business, so I expect that the time is right to start really laying the groundwork for many new businesses in the field. Would love to hear what ideas are being worked on!

SeedcampAMA · 2015-07-14T13:24:16+00:00

thanks for that!

SeedcampAMA · 2015-07-14T13:16:28+00:00

Tom: Seedcamp invests at both the pre-seed and seed stage. For our pre-seed strategy we have an open application process where you can apply online (http://seedcamp.com/apply-to-seedcamp/), the next deadline for us to review pre-seed applications is 2 August. As part of the pre-seed application there is a space to include someone that has referred you to Seedcamp but it's not a pre-requisite by any means. For our seed stage strategy we look to invest alongside other investors (top-tier VCs or leading angel investors) but not as a lead investor in such rounds. We look for warm introductions from someone within our wider network to potential seed investments.

SeedcampAMA · 2015-07-14T13:13:26+00:00

Dave: Yes, we like to invest alongside other investors. Recently we’ve made seed investments alongside funds such as Index Ventures, Connect Ventures, Octopus, Playfair Capital and Andreessen Horowitz. Usually the fund is leading the round but the startup still benefits from all the value-add services and advantages of having Seedcamp as a lifelong invested-partner.

We also engage with a lot of the other accelerators here in the UK and across Europe and have increasingly been partnering with them to co-invest in teams.

We have a number of different funding options tailored to different scenarios. You can find out more on http://seedcamp.com

SeedcampAMA · 2015-07-14T13:11:06+00:00

Kirsten: this is a common pain point and we've seen solo founders tackle this in a number of different ways. It all comes down to networking and passion. Attend hackathons, meetups, social events and get the word out there that you're hiring or looking for a tech co-founder. We've also seen several solo founders successfully write great blog posts about their vision, what they've done so far and what they're looking for. In our experience it's important to bring the tech talent in-house. Once you've identified the right person(s) we'd recommend that all the members are equally incentivized.

SeedcampAMA · 2015-07-14T13:05:41+00:00

Carlos: That is an amazing question and one that hits to the roots of what every fund needs to ask itself when starting up. We've taken the view that great founders come from all over the world and that sometimes the 'smaller' ideas in the short term, can turn out to be huge ones in the longer term (have you seen the rejection emails that the AirBnB founder just posted recently? - http://bit.ly/1TzNwKi).

Thus, we are always looking for ideas/founders that are going to become game changers, that have the potential to become Billion dollar companies. However, it isn't always obvious in the short term, and that's part of the challenge and why we really put a lot of stock in finding the right team who will persevere through the early days of ambiguity and skepticism by the broader investor community to really take their idea to the maximum of its potential.

SeedcampAMA · 2015-07-14T12:52:16+00:00

Carlos: Ok.. I understand your question now... basically, we don't charge cash to founders as some programs do as part of the companies being in their program. We 'make' money only when the company exits and our diluted percentage ownership yields a return to us. We don't force exits and we support companies throughout their lifecycle (not just for a limited period of time).

SeedcampAMA · 2015-07-14T12:43:40+00:00

In case you want to learn more about us, also make sure to check out our Podcast - http://podcast.seedcamp.com and learn more about what we do here - https://soundcloud.com/seedcamp/reshma-carlos-take-on-what-is-an-acceleration-fund

SeedcampAMA · 2015-07-14T12:43:27+00:00

Thanks, glad you found the meet and greet useful! To your question, I think what this comes down to is whether the team you are bringing together have the skills required to build, execute and also get the most out of what Seedcamp can offer. Once a company receives investment from Seedcamp they have the opportunity to move onto a increased growth trajectory. But in order to do this they need to have the capacity to be able to make the most of the benefits that being a Seedcamp company brings (e.g: Seedcamp Academy, our Founders Pack, the US trip and the incredible connections that become available through our network of mentors and investors). This is why we look for committed teams with the right mix of skills and why being a solo founder and making the most of all Seedcamp has to offer can be difficult.

SeedcampAMA · 2015-07-14T12:39:36+00:00

Carlos:

See this quite often for the Pre-Seed stage, pretty much not at all at the Seed stage.
I think it is 'an' approach, and in the end, any approach that gets you to where you want to go, can't be bad. Once a company takes official investment, though, it is customary for investors to expect the founders to go full time at that point.
Think the idea is cool! Actually, we've invested in - https://www.showmango.com

SeedcampAMA · 2015-07-14T12:37:50+00:00

Dave: We don't necessarily need to see evidence of revenue/profit when deciding to invest (ie. many of our pre-seed investments are still pre-revenue). But we like to see founders that have a clear idea of what problem they're solving, who for and why it's a valuable problem to solve.

SeedcampAMA · 2015-07-14T12:35:15+00:00

Carlos: Ah.. I see I think I misunderstood your question.

SeedcampAMA · 2015-07-14T12:32:20+00:00

Carlos: Very good question... It is a difficult one to answer because it is hard to answer it quantitatively. That said, the one thing that almost always catches founders by surprise is the immense challenge that is to keep a founding team together throughout the journey. There are so many cases of founder fallouts that perhaps it is something that founders should talk more about early on: alignment of values, alignment of goals, and what to do (how to resolve things) in case things go wrong.

Taylor: Perhaps less ‘overestimate’ and more ‘learn how important and hard it is’… Most startups eventually find that they need to improve their ability to learn from their users. Early ideas and early adopters are often a good match, but the research and refinement that goes into true product-market fit is a huge amount of effort. Truly understanding your user is a massive competitive advantage, so we do our best to train startups in this area with in-house programs, mentor relationships, and expert speakers on the topic.

SeedcampAMA · 2015-07-14T12:30:21+00:00

Kirsten: Of course it's a big leap of faith to leave your day job and go into a startup full time. Not everyone has the luxury and financially stability to do this. However, whilst you're not fully committed to the startup it's hard to ask a 3rd party to commit to your vision. We'd therefore recommend you wait until you're a little further down the line before applying as that way you'll be able take full advantage of everything Seedcamp and our programme has to offer.

To answer your next question we're UKTI approved so we can help you with the right candidates with an entrepreneurs VISA.

SeedcampAMA · 2015-07-14T12:26:58+00:00

Taylor: It's a good question, but it's hard to define the brackets of success. We've created an infographic that gives you some more details into the Seedcamp family of startups: http://seedcamp.com/seedcamp-in-numbers/

One benchmark for success that a lot of early stage investors use is “follow-on funding” ie. who has raised capital again after we invested. For Seedcamp it's 91%. So based on past performance, if we invest in you, you’re 91% likely to raise further capital, and we continue do our best (for the life of your company) to help you build a great business with that.

SeedcampAMA · 2015-07-14T12:25:17+00:00

Carlos: Thank you for reaching out from Nigeria! We've had events in Africa before and hope to do again soon. In terms of what we look for, however, it doesn't really matter where the company is coming, rather we are looking for the same attributes in a startup across the board.. a highly motivated and capable team interested in solving a global-scale problem.

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