April 21, 2008 | Monday
Soho relocates to Silicon Valley
By Jackie Danicki - Blogger
That’s me, above, with Bebo co-founders Paul and Michael Birch. Now I can say I know how it feels to be in the middle of hundreds of millions of dollars…
I’m in the San Francisco Bay Area for the Web 2.0 Expo this week.
At the same time, the Web Mission - a group of 20 UK Web 2.0 start-ups looking for funding - is here, too. Half of Soho seems to have relocated to the Valley - not that they are taking advantage of the weak dollar to save any money. As journalist Paul Carr reports of the lavish accommodation and party venues for the companies here looking for financing:
There’s an irony in the fact that, with bottle service starting at $375 for a mid-range Vodka, drinking at Web Mission 08 could possibly end up bankrupting the entire UK start-up community.
Oh, and Ad Tech just wrapped last week. Between all of these events, there are loads of fringe events and parties going on. We even had telly presenter June Sarpong from Channel 4 sit down at our table during a party on Saturday night! Everyone is here this week, it seems.
I caught up with Paul Birch on Saturday night, and again (with his brother Michael in tow) on Sunday. There was lots of talk amongst the clusters of British web entrepreneurs about the London scene. There seemed to be a consensus that, in many cases, venture capitalists are now funding companies that they don’t really understand, all because of the Web 2.0 label. At the same time, everyone was very positive about the “absolutely buzzing” nature of the online arena in the UK. It’s been a long time coming, that’s for sure.
Watch out this week for some videos from the Web 2.0 Expo and related events. There’s even a Love 2.0 event tonight. Where do I register for Bandwagon 2.0?
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