I just returned from our party in central London to celebrate Seedcamp Week and the relaunch of TechCrunch UK & Ireland.
Robert Loch, who’s famous for his London parties, generously agreed to have the event at his penthouse London flat in Soho. His parties are so notorious (and I use that word intentionally) that we had to keep the location secret and only email it out to attendees who’d registered. Even so, 50 or so people showed up “off list” and were able to get in.
Total attendance was about 250 people, including most of the venture capitalists in London who invest in the Internet, most of the Seedcamp attendees and a ton of other entrepreneurs. Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis also dropped by for an hour or so.
One thing I need to remember for our next party – Londoners drink a lot more and stay out far later than their Silicon Valley geek counterparts. We actually ran out of alcohol completely at around 10:30 but Heather soon had another shipment brought in. I left at 1:30 am to get back to my day job. As far as I know the party is still going strong.
TechCrunch UK & Ireland Relaunches
The primary reason for the party was to celebrate the relaunch of TechCrunch UK & Ireland, after a nearly year-long hiatus. I am very pleased to announce the return of Mike Butcher as the editor of the site. Mike knows everyone in London – seriously – and he has deep experience writing about startups at The Financial Times, The Industry Standard and The Guardian, among other publications. We are very lucky to have him rejoin the TechCrunch team. Look for his coverage of Seedcamp on Friday morning London time.
See more coverage of the relaunch at The Guardian.
Thank You To Sponsors
Heather put the party together in a week after we nearly canceled due to a lack of an appropriate venue. Still, a number of sponsors stepped up to cover costs of the event and supplied excellent food and drink. Thank you to all. And special thanks to the Seedcamp team for working with us to organize and promote the party.
Event Sponsors:
Olswang is a leading law firm renowned for its work in media, communications, technology, real estate and more recently, biosciences. Founded in 1981, the firm has grown to a staff of more than 500 and has offices in London, the Thames Valley and Brussels. Olswang is organised with both a sector and service line focus, enabling it to deliver specialist legal advice backed by a strong business perspective.
WorldTV is an exciting, second generation video site offering a slick and user-friendly interface for online aggregation, personal archiving, search and viewing of multi-definition video content in Flash, including access to more than 25 million video clips from a range of popular, well known sites. The service lets users create their own full-screen online TV channel, complete with MTV style logo and all at a cool and easy-to-remember URL. Based in London and Limerick, Ireland, WorldTV will launch out of private beta in November, and is an idea from Smashing Concepts! – the UK ideas and incubation company.
Food & Drink Sponsors:
Thanks to Mucho Mas Burrittos (seven days old, founded by former Skype guys, better than Chipotle) and Hummus Brothers for feeding us, and Stormhoek for supplying the excellent wine for the event. The food and wine was awesome and you kept everyone appropriately fed and watered.
Congrats guys! Keep up the great work.
Sounds like UK geeks are less geeky. Maybe I should move there. Though technically speaking, I am not a techie. Ever thought of ’satellite’ parties connected to the mother ship via video? Like when a church sanctuary is full, and the stragglers take part by way of closed circuit TV in the dining hall. Not the best comparison.
Either someone got too eager with
the green on the Irish flag, or UK conquered Italy overnight. Should I switch from coffee to tea, just in case?
UK tech startups are quite spread out across the UK, however I’ve read a few times in the press this week that the UK government is trying to develop a UK equivalent of Silicon Valley. It will be interesting to read the Techcrunch UK view on this and how it develops.
Congratulations to the 2 Mike’s. Smart peeps both.
Yeah, it was a great party. Nice to see the community rally around Saul’s Seedcamp.
Not that it matters, but I was one of the 50 “not” on the list who got in….though I did pay and did get an email confirmation.
Not to sidetrack, but “better than Chipotle” isn’t saying much, Mikey.
Also, I know there is a growing demand for good Mexican in the UK, but glancing at Mucha Mas’s menu, are Brits not ready for carnitas or al pastor? I mean, c’mon, why would you eat a burrito without one or the other of those?
Then again, I probably should’ve saved this post for FoodCrunch…
Json: apparently they used to have Taco Bell in London, but no longer, possibly due to low demand. We have the same lack of fast Mexican food in Paris
The UK government is never going to ‘develop’ a silicon valley. Government catalysis of any ecosystem is a huge waste of time.
Great party and great to be involved! Thanks Mike
WOW! Great night – thanks 2 sponsors & Robert. I didn’t believe you had a bath in your living room, but I’ve been proven wrong!
Mike – you kept them quiet last night!!! heh. I actually would never have guessed. Things have just got very interesting!
That’s great news! I met Mike Butcher last week (thanks again for Brunch Bites) and thought he was a top guy, and it’ll be great to see TechCrunch UK revived finally!
I work in the heart of the “Silicon Fen”, in the Cambridge Science Park, and something like this might just help bring us together with the other startups in the same boat!
Json: As for Mexican, I’m just about to go get a burrito al pastor con jalapeños y guacamole from Manna Mexico (http://mannamexico.com/) who have a really lovely food van in the Cambridge Science Park on Thurs-Fri lunchtimes. It’s not all bad down this way!
…And FoodCrunch, I’m drooling already!
Just as I thought, A BUNCH OF DRUNKS!
http://fakestev...er.blogspot.com
Great to have Mike Butcher doing TCUK. He’s a great guy.
Just wanted to say thanks for the nice comments. Glad people enjoyed the party!
TC seems more about parties and networking lately than reporting interesting and useful technology information. When MA was doing 100% of the articles, it was an awesome site – I read it religiously every day, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day. Now I’m bored to tears.
Bring Michael Arrington back to TechCrunch!
A BUNCH OF POTHEADS!
http://fakestev...er.blogspot.com
Congrats Guys! Keep up the Good Work.. All the best for UK version of Tech Crunch
!!
Silicon Valley nightlife blows. Thank god I don’t live out there.
Welcome to the UK TechCrunch, keep up the good work, I am a regular follower of TechCrunch, afterall it was TechCrunch that inspired me to setup http://www.WhichWebsite.com (we work slightly different though)!
Robert… bathtub… hmmm…
Is that the super hip flat with “there’s nothing to fear but fear itself” in neon lighting on the wall? Sweet spot for a party. How the hell did they fit 250 people in there?
Vero: Dare you deceive me? MannaMexico’s menu only lists minced beef steak, chicken breast, and latin vegetable on their online menu–No al pastor (rotisserie pork) to be found. Do they just need to update their site?
John: well, I don’t blame the folks in the UK for rejecting Taco Bell, what a horribly misleading introduction to Mexican food. However, if you check out this forum, lots of people seem to miss it: http://blogs.wa...as_anyone_ever/
Missed this post… Great party, really nice to meet so many enthusiastic people and even better to talk to people in the know, very helpful. I look forward to future London events.
It was a shame the alcohol ran out; we weren’t even drunk yet
Thank-you Michael and best of luck Mike getting things rolling again for TCUK. I hope we can be a part of it some-day.
Damn it. I go underground for two bloody weeks and miss tech Crunch UK! And being originally from California and missing mexican food like it’s nobodies business makes missing this event doubly soar.
All i can say is bugger.
Good to hear that TechCrunch UK is live again. Just heard the news today from Mike Butcher.