WebAppropriate

Based on my limited experiences with the handful of angel investors that I’ve met, it appears as though the angel investment market is heavily influenced by everything that happens further up the investment ladder in the professional VC market. This would make sense, because angel investors would like to get in at the seed round stage of businesses that could end-up taking a larger Series A, B, and C investment on a higher valuation from VCs. Too this end, angel investors may even build much of their investment strategy around their own past experiences of working with VC firms - which it’s more than likely they’ve had in the past (be it as an entrepreneur or as a fund investor). So if you’re a UK-based Web startup trying to tie-up an angel investment, it’s useful to understand what VCs are betting on, and how that might influence the thinking of your perspective angel investor.

The last twenty-four hours in the blogosphere have thrown up three posts discussing what 2008 may hold for VCs and startups:

Mike Butcher, of TechCrunch UK (it’s great to have it back!), has a great post covering not only the European/London VC scene for 2008, but the tricky topic (and one that has previously raised heated discussions) of involving Silicon Valley in your European Web startup;

Quite obviously I think you can startup in the UK and Europe. But it is also smart thinking to put down feelers in Silicon Valley, that’s all I’m saying. I doubt anyone would disagree with that point.

Erick Schonfield, of the original TechCrunch, made a post covering the markets that VCs are most bullish about for the coming year. The Internet doesn’t seem to be doing too badly, but it’s no suprise that clean tech is leading the way (slide from TechCrunch);

Josh Catone, of the recently redesigned ReadWrite/Web, has a another post that confirms that VCs aren’t completely down on 2008, despite everything we’re hearing from Wall St right now;

Overall, VCs peg the entire venture capital market at $20 billion to $29 billion in 2008 — putting it on par with 2007 levels. The majority of those polled also see the IPO market strengthening as well, and mergers and acquisitions increasing, though they are split as to the value of those deals.

If you’ve been planning a new Web app or business and you haven’t launched yet, you’ll want to check out the latest blog post from Evan Williams, founder of Twitter, Blogger & Odeo. Will it fly? proposes a quick, straightforward approach to analysing your latest idea(s);

A single blog post is unlikely to change a budding founder’s aspirations, but Evan William’s post may make you view your idea from the viewpoint of a successful Web entrepreneur, and that’s got to be worth a few minutes of your time.

Although I don’t use it much due to the fact that I can see it becoming hugely time consuming, I think Evan Willam’s latest business, Twitter, is great product. It’s relatively simple in functionality, proposes some great new opportunities for social interaction (micro-blogging, followers etc), and I’ve been consistently returning to it for inspiration. I’m fascinated with the idea of taking a unique concept straight to the Web with the minimum of cash injection and proving it’s usefulness (if not profitability) right from the offset. Twitter is a great example of this approach (despite the necessary SMS integration it required).

I made it to my first ever Open Coffee Club last Thursday - and I don’t know why I’ve waited so long. If you’re an entrepreneur/entrepreneurial developer etc, you really should join the Ning group, find your nearest OCC, and get along to the next meet-up.

Pretty much everyone you meet at OCC will be eager to talk about their businesses/ideas. However, I’m not sure if the whole OCC scene is only intended for Web startups, but most of the people I met were working on something completely Web-focused. Obviously, that wasn’t a problem from my perspective (and the same probably goes for anyone reading this blog), because it meant I could have some really in-depth conversations on Web business, design and development.

Most attendees will be interested in finding out about, and critiquing whatever you’ve been working on. If you take your laptop with a product demo ready, you’ll inevitably get some great feedback. There’s free Wi-fi too, so no excuses.

I should be attending the next OCC in Waterstones on Picadilly, so leave a comment if you’d like to meet-up. I intend to be in London from Wednesday (12th December) to Friday, so if you know of any other Web tech meet-ups, please let me know in the comments!

The guys from Songkick held a UK hacker/entrepreneur meet-up last week at their offices in London. It was (and will hopefully continue to be) a great chance to meet lots of talented and entrepreneurial hackers, and to keep up-to-date with the latest UK startups.

There were some good demos too; Songkick and Hypernumbers showed some really interesting upcoming features for their services - and you can tell they’ve both been through the startup camps (Y-Combinator & Seedcamp). It was a freestyle demo environment, so if you’re looking to show-off your Web app, this is the sort of audience you’ll want to demo to.

Ian from Songkick originally organised the event on the Y-Combinator Hacker News site, but around thirty-five people came from all over the UK to attend - which shows just how much events like this are needed for the UK Web startup scene. Fortunately, it looks like this was the first of a monthly fixture. If you’re a UK hacker/entrepreneur, make sure you join the new GroupSpaces group for this event, and hopefully we’ll see you at the next one in January;