What an end to 2011!
We’ve finally recovered from our week of hanging out euro-style at Le Web in Paris and then in Berlin. They were both awesome experiences and we met so many great people. At Le Web we heard from some of the most successful startup CEOs and founders (see below) that got us really inspired and ready to kick ass in 2012.
We also managed to grab interviews with the super-nice Dennis Crowley (foursquare) and Alexander Ljung (SoundCloud) that we’ll publish on our blog in the new year as part of our upcoming Tech Champions series to inspire others starting out. What we can say is that these guys are so down-to-earth and the challenges they face daily are the ones that we all as startup founders go through, so it was great to hang out and keep it real with them.
Karl Lagerfeld was the opening keynote! An interesting choice for sure and certainly the first (and possibly last) time we’ve ever been in the presence of such a fashion legend. These were the really cool live drawings from the guys at LiveSketching.com capturing some of the main messages from each interviewee, including Kevin Rose below…
Kevin Rose live sketch (Digg, Milk Inc)
Bill Gross (CEO of UberMedia) was one of the most inspiring speakers at Le Web. So much great advice in 12 steps!
Our favourite founder and CEO Dennis Crowley (foursquare) - such a genuine and humble guy. Probably the most inspiring person we had a chance to hang out with at Le Web.
And then there was Berlin…. The hangout that we arranged in Berlin straight off the back of Le Web to meet some local startups went better than we could have imagined with around 15 - 20 people from the tech, music and design scene coming down for a few beers to say hello.
And - serendipitously enough, London’s very own Mike Butcher happened to be in Berlin that night and made it along to hang out with us too! It was a great night and we made so many new Berlin friends, we’re looking forward to coming back soon for our hangout number two there next year.
It has been an incredible 2011, loads of challenges, highs and lows and most significantly the year that we saw the conception and birth of this, our newest project, uberlife.
We’re so excited about 2012 and everything that we want to achieve. But for now we’re going to power down for a few days. When we come back in the new year we’re kicking off with our second “Meet the neighbours” all-American BBQ in Old Street, for Silicon Roundabout’s best tech, music and design companies to get together, chew the fat, catch up on all the Xmas and NYE goings on and set our 2012 resolutions in place.
In the meantime, have a wicked Christmas everybody and here’s to hanging out more in 2012!
Off to Le Web - SOLOMO all the way!
Less than a week now until our first trip to Le Web, Paris and we’re so excited to be going there. This year’s theme is SOLOMO – Social-Local-Mobile so a perfect year for us to be there with uberlife.
In recent years we’ve tracked Le Web closely and this years conference is playing host to one of the highest calibre of speakers and panelists ever.
We’re particularly looking forward to hearing and learning from the founders of some of our favourite apps and services - Brian Chesky (AirBnB), Kevin Systrom (Instagram), Daniel Ek (Spotify), Phil Libin (Evernote), Kevin Rose (Milk Inc). Such early days for us but if we can achieve just a fraction of what these guys have then that would be awesome.
Plus we have our fave bloggers/writers Robert Scoble, Fred Destin and Om Malik and our lovely backers Brent Hoberman and Jonathan Goodwin of PROfounders Capital speaking too so so much to look forward to.
We’re also looking forward to hanging out with as many of the other 3000 people going along and it’s going to be a great opportunity to meet so many new likeminded people and make some new friends and connections from around the world.
We already arranged a couple to get together with other LeWeb attendees for the Tuesday night when we arrive in Paris, and then the Thursday night for a pre-official LeWeb party hangout.
Paris here we come!
