On TechCrunch talk

I went to TechCrunch UK talk yesterday. It was a good event, Mike Butcher is good at organising this stuff and gets some quality people on the panels. There was a party afterwards which I didn’t attend but we did get frisbees and rock. Why I cannot tell.

As far as the panel discussions went there was a lot of talk about the financial climate and how it affects startups. There are downs in that getting money may be harder but compensating ups in that hiring people is easier. Given that talent is more important than money I would say that is a net gain. It also means the value of a solid business model goes up especially if you can explain how you can prosper in a recession. There was the usual stuff about when and when not to take VC, the highlights were these:

• Deals can be done fast when needs be
• The best way to get good terms & a fast close is to get different VCs in competition
• VCs are done with new social networks but are looking out for the app that can monetise existing SNs
• You don’t need a huge amount of users to get finance, what you need is a working microcosm with a story about how you will scale with the funds you raise