It's been an ongoing refrain among
the European Web 2.0 community that it's a long way to the top if you're an
entrepreneur with a good idea. Where's the support? Where's the money?
Searching this initial boost that many startups lack off, we decided to
apply to SeedCamp. 20
projects will be short-listed to the Camp, we hope to be part of this Top 20
chosen by a panel of Venture Capitalists. If so, we will move to London for a
week of mentoring (first week of September).
After pitching their ideas during this week, 5 companies among the 20 will
be chosen to receive an investment of 50,000 euros each for a 10% stake in the
company. These 5 startups will be invited to stay in London for the further 3
months to develop their businesses. During the 3 months, Seedcamp will work
with the selected companies on a weekly basis. Startups will be coached by a
network of serial entrepreneurs, corporates, product designers, venture
capitalists, recruiters, marketing specialists, lawyers and accountants that
will help the selected teams to improve their new business. Afterwards, the
companies will "graduate" and will get a chance to pitch their business ideas
to a group of VCs.
So, we applied. We did our best efforts to fulfill the Application Form
provided by the SeedCamp Team. We went to Paris OpenCoffee to exchange with Frederic Baud about this
10% stake for 50 KE. Frederic convinced us. While keeping an eye on the prototype, Nicolas
and I worked for long hours this week, and we finally made it. Today, I skyped
with Anthony (he is in Osaka right now) and we did a final review of the
document. Hopefully we have a US guy in the team who can review our English
which is so French. In the meantime, Nicolas is in... Pornichet for the
week-end (a nice but a little bit old fashioned sea resort by the Atlantic
Ocean). He deserved some short holiday while working on the prototype. Yes,
Pornichet is less trendy than Osaka. But don't tell Nicolas :)
Next step : Monday, 20 August. At that date, shortlisted entrants will hear
and will be assigned an interview slot for a telephone interview on 23 August.
Let's cross our fingers !
We 
