On Tuesday last week, after an application and judging process lasting several weeks, where TechCrunch UK, Doug Richard (Dragon’s Den), UK Trade Invest, Oli Barrett and Polecat all put their heads together to work out which of the many applicants could most realistically do meaningful business in the US, TechCrunch announced the 20 companies selected for Web Mission 08, and GroupSpaces was on the list (at the top)!
The judges also assessed the companies based on their business viability and the strength of their management team, and it’s going to be fantastic for Andy and my credibility now that we’ve successfully run this gauntlet.
Sponsors Heller Ehrman issued a statement saying:
“The sheer volume of applicants provides convincing evidence of the depth and breadth of emerging growth technology companies in the UK. The shortlist of companies selected demonstrates that the UK is able to produce credible web businesses.”
As the mouthwatering agenda takes shape, this is building up to be one of the most exciting weeks of my life, and it all starts on April 19th.
We’ll be staying at the Clift Hotel in Union Square, San Francisco, and the hotel is home to the Redwood Rooms, a plush bar we first visited with Kirill Makharinsky last year.
The week kicks off with cocktails sponsored by TechCrunch on the evening of Saturday 19th, followed by a few days hardcore networking with Valley start-ups and VCs. On Wednesday we’ll have the chance to attend the Web 2.0 Expo, and that evening we’ll be having drinks with Michael Birch at Bebo (or should that be AOL?). Thursday contains some PR, accounting and legal masterclasses then we’ll be flying back home on Friday.
Picking up on Michael though – he’s a fantastic example of what British entrepreneurs can achieve. Having graduated from Imperial College London with a Physics degree in 1991, he’s now just sold a $850M company. And when you think that Bear Stearns is selling for $236M, that ain’t bad.
Hopefully Brent Hoberman and Michael will be just the first of a long line of highly successful British Internet entrepreneurs. Is the next one going on Web Mission?
The final list of 20 companies is (in the order TechCrunch listed them):
GroupSpaces – Web-based tools for groups
Tioti – A social network around TV
Exabre (TheFilter) – Advanced music recommendation
Coull – Interactive video platform
Zogix – Employee services platform
Byteplay (dotHomes) – Real estate search engine
Trampoline Systems – Enterprise software harnessing social behaviour
Hubdub – News prediction social network
WAYN – travel and lifestyle social networking community
TrustedPlaces – Venue recommendation network
Slicethepie – Enabling bands to raise money directly from their fans
Mydeo – Mainstream application for storing and sharing video
Skimbit – Research and share decisions
Huddle – Enterprise 2.0 collaboration
Rummble – Mobile social networking and recommendation
Zebtab – Desktop TV application
Silobreaker – Contextual and graphic search results
Kwiqq – Social Website builder
edocr – Making business documents interactive
ShortFuze – Online movie creation tools for social networks
We already know Douglas at Byteplay and we did some filming with Alicia from Skimbit at the BBC recently; however I’m really looking forward to meeting another 17 awesome companies next month.
Doug Richard said:
“some of these companies are as good as anything coming out of the Valley”
So as Mike Butcher entitled the post on TechCrunch.com – The British are Coming. America – watch out!
Posted by davidlanger 
Freed from The Matrix 