Practical tips for entrepreneurs, early and growth stage startups considering moving to London.
Includes some data points comparing entrepreneurs, salaries and VC between Silicon Valley, Berlin and London.
"Road to the UK" presentation - Berlin, October 2014
1. Road to the UK
Different Ecosystems and Investment Scenes?
Stephan von Perger – @vonperger – vonPerger@wellington-partners.com
2. Road to the UK
Different Ecosystems and Investment Scenes?
introducing Wellington Partners
non obvious facts: SFO <> London <> Berlin
practical tips for entrepreneurs
5. Road to the UK
Different Ecosystems and Investment Scenes?
introducing Wellington Partners
non obvious facts: SFO <> London <> Berlin
practical tips for entrepreneurs
7. Entrepreneurs in Berlin and London are very similar to their
peers in Silicon Valley
Silicon
Valley Berlin London
Age
34.12
31.86
35.98
Gender (F/ M)
10% / 90%
3% / 97%
9% / 91%
Education (dropout vs. master + PhD)
1 : 2.5
1 : 6
1 : 3
Serial Entrepreneur
56%
40%
42%
Non-technical founding teams
16%
17%
15%
Working hours per day
9.95
9.18
9.78
Percentage of founders who lived in Silicon Valley
100%
7%
25%
Motivation (product vs. impact)
1 : 1
1.6 : 1
1.3 : 1
Customer (B2B vs. B2C)
2 : 1
1.5 : 1
1.8 : 1
Market (new vs. niche)
4 : 1
1.8 : 1
3 : 1
Source: StartupGenome 2012
8. There is a lot of venture capital in Berlin & London…
9. There is a significantly lower number of experienced Venture
Funds in Europe vs the United States
VC funds by number of funds raised as of 2011#
#
334
202
132
USA
Western Europe
94
73
5865
28
8
4
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
>=2
>=3
>=4
>=5
>=6
Source: DowJones VentureSource
11. Software developers are paid similarly in London & Berlin but
well below the United States
Median annual salary for software engineers #
USD
Source: Glassdoor
90
63 63
100
80
60
40
20
0
San Francisco
Berlin
London
13. Median M&A valuations in Europe have improved and
overtaken those in the United States in 2013
Median M&A valuation#
USD m
37.8
USA
Europe
60.0
60.0
57.5
23.0
40.5
26.7
63.8
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
2010
2011
2012
2013
Source: DowJones VentureSource, 2014
14. Road to the UK
Different Ecosystems and Investment Scenes?
introducing Wellington Partners
non obvious facts: SFO <> London <> Berlin
practical tips for entrepreneurs
15. What to consider when planning the move to London
§ Location
‒ Area / Type of office
‒ East London / Kings Cross / Clerkenwell / Soho / Notting Hill /
Southbank / Canary Wharf
‒ Co-working spaces / sublets / end-of-lease
‒ campuslondon.com, techhub.com, thebakerylondon.com,
centralworking.com, innovationwarehouse.org, spaciousapp.com
‒ White Bear Yard (Passion Capital), Warner Yard (Playfair Capital &
Techstars), Rainmaking Loft (EC1 Capital, StartupBootcamp)
16. What to consider when planning the move to London
§ Team
‒ Hiring / Contracts / ESOP / Events
‒ SiliconMilkroundabout.com
‒ workinstartups.com, movemeon.com, escapethecity.org,
stackoverflow.com
‒ EMI (ESOP) www.taylorwessing.com/twtechfocus/options3.php
‒ startupdigest.com, 3-beards.com
17. What to consider when planning the move to London
§ Fundraising
‒ Tax relief / Investors / Accelerators
‒ SEIS / EIS www.crowdcube.com/pg/eis-seis-tax-relief-overview-43
‒ Accel Partners, Atomico Ventures, Balderton Capital, Connect
Ventures, Dawn Capital, DN Capital, DFJ Esprit, EC1 Capital,
Episode1, Forward Partners, Google Ventures, Hoxton Ventures,
Index Ventures, MMC Ventures, Notion Capital, Octopus Ventures,
Passion Capital, Piton Capital, PlayFair Capital, ProFounders
Capital, Wellington Partners, White Star Capital
‒ Microsoft Accelerator, Seedcamp, StartupBootcamp, Techstars,
Wayra
18. General tips when
reaching out to VCs
§ Team
‒ get reference from someone in
our portfolio
‒ put team competencies into
pitch deck to show you are
structured problem solvers
§ Product & market
‒ describe product in simple terms
early on in presentation
‒ be realistic when estimating
future revenues
§ Traction
‒ explain how you got the first
users/clients
‒ show improvement on metrics
over time