Recent interviews with startups in Silicon Roundabout have focused increasingly on funding and mentoring. We thought we would start the week with a guest blog by Rob Moffat of Balderton Capital who is involved with portfolio companies such as Housetrip, Wooga and Archify. -
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- Background photography courtesy of Aaron Thompson
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In the second part of our piece following the Financial Times article ‘The curse of innovation’, we asked two leading law firms Kemp Little and Wiggin whether they were concerned about a potential future cycle of IP disputes “spilling over from the smartphone industry into the broader online world” and what value non-competes really have for small companies?
First, Kemp Little.
Smartphone litigation – should you be concerned?
You can’t really escape the press coverage around the large number of patent disputes involving smartphone companies. This growing trend of litigation in the mobile sector has, in part, been caused by some of the major players purchasing vast patent portfolios for strategic purposes – either to actively assert against competitors, or to use as a defensive measure against anyone who seeks to sue them for patent infringement.
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The Financial Times (Thursday 10th May) ran a full page article ‘The curse of innovation’ reporting ‘Escalating courtroom battles over intellectual property’.
We asked two leading entrepreneurs and two prominent law firms whether they were concerned about a potential future cycle of lawsuits involving Intellectual capital, Non compete agreements, Patent infringement and corporate governance issues spilling “over from the smartphone industry into the broader online world”?
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Colette Ballou is the founder of Ballou PR. With a client roster that includes Eventbrite, Seatwave and Shopping.com she is well placed to give us the inside track about what to think about before hiring a PR agency.
It’s heartbreaking when an agency-client relationship doesn’t run smoothly, and one of the number one causes is that expectations aren’t aligned. So here are a few things to think about to make sure this doesn’t happen to you, and a few bonus tips on how to be an irresistible prospect for a PR agency.
First and foremost, PR takes time: count on six to nine months to really gain traction if you are starting from scratch. It’s a long-term investment; one-off projects here and there are not fully effective. You can’t just show up with your press release and get coverage – that happens about 5% of the time, and only if it’s really interesting news – a huge fund-raising, a truly breakthrough product or service, or it ties into current news or trends. It usually takes months of educating your target press about what you do and it’s value before you can get coverage.
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In February 2012 David Rowan, editor of Wired magazine wrote a piece ‘How Significant is Silicon Roundabout’. The title raises some interesting questions!
A few months ago at a conference it was suggested to us that to believe Silicon Roundabout was a new land of opportunity was an illusion, borne out of an economic crisis and a government ever vigilant to an opportunity.
We asked three leading entrepreneurs what 2012 held for them and whether being located outside of ‘Silicon Roundabout’ had made any difference to business growth or respectability?
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In this months GQ Magazine supplement Stephen Bayley in his piece ‘RIP IT UP AND START AGAIN’ says “Very few things are certain about creativity, but a fixed point in any definition is a commitment to disruption. Plus an appetite for surprise as well as courage, energy, enthusiasm, a hardened response to criticism and an unassuagable appetite for doing it differently”.
The Milkroundabout brand is certainly doing things differently!
It is estimated that the two events thus far have saved more than £2m in recruitment fees in filling 168 posts at 133 startups. Furthermore the dynamic is spreading.
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The ‘ecosystem’ that is Silicon Roundabout continues to thrive at a healthy pace as what is generally a narrow geographical cluster continues to attract a plethora of both entrepreneurs and startups on an almost daily basis.
The challenge and general consensus remains the difficulty in hiring ‘talent’. Feedback confirms that this is a potential hindrance to growth.
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In the second part of our ‘Regret minimisation’ blog we caught up with CEO’S Johnathan Agnès of Foodity, Tom Allason of Shutl and Tom Adeyoola of Metail.
In the 1990′s Jeff Bezos hesitated before starting Amazon after a respected colleague advised him against it(see The Economist 3rd-9th March 2012). However, he applied “‘what he calls a ‘regret minimisation framework‘, imagining whether as an 80 year old looking back, he would regret the decision not to strike out on his own”.
They tell the story of what 2012 holds for them and why as 8o year olds looking back they won’t regret striking out on their own!
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We are always looking for a fresh and different perspective from Silicon Roundabout’s genuine game changers and disruptors. This week we caught up with six leading entrepreneurs and asked them the same question.
You may be surprised!
In the 1990’s Jeff Bezos hesitated before starting Amazon after a respected colleague advised him against it(see The Economist 3rd-9th March 2012). However, he applied “‘what he calls a ‘regret minimisation framework‘, imagining whether as an 80 year old looking back, he would regret the decision not to strike out on his own”.
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Having teamed up with Hunter Morris, Jason Trost launched, betting exchange platform Smarkets in London, in 2010.
Quickly picked up by The Wall Street Journal as one of Europe’s 10 young companies to watch and the subject of much press attention, most recently being featured in Decembers edition of Wired, we caught up with Jason at Smarkets office in Clerkenwell.
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