Google's Big Tent: Don't Be Evil

During Google's Big Tent Event last week, the room didn't feel quite as welcoming as I had anticipated. In the weeks leading up to it, Google had been in the news for all the wrong reasons, and it seems even their most loyal supporters were feeling a tad disgruntled. Despite all the different themes and discussions the day had been arranged to discuss, there was only one issue on most peoples  minds; Google's tax, or lack thereof. As Eric Schmidt was speaking towards the end of the day, there was an air of anticipation, and a need for direct questions to provide direct answers.

Ed Miliband spoke before Eric Schmidt arrived, and Ed was crystal clear with his views on the matter.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaIeSU-P338?rel=0]

When Eric did arrive,  Krishnan Guru-Murthy was quite blunt with  his questions, and wouldn't let the matter go until Eric had given a few answers. However, once the floor had their chance to ask, the majority were all about tax. The Guardian had a live feed of the session, so you can read the questions and answers here. Perhaps the moment that  gained the most amusement was when Schmidt had a slip of the tongue and accidentally said "Google is a capitalist country ... company. It's easy to say you would like us have less profits and have that somewhere else – we will comply with the letter of the law but we're trying to avoid being doubly and triply taxed which would prevent us investing in some of the wilder things."

For now, the message from both Google and the government is clear. Which one will have the final word? To discuss this further, come along to our Down The Pub event on Wednesday 29th May.

Moment.Us Makes the News!

Moment.Us co-founder Andrew Ko has been interviewed by the Manchester Evening News about his smartphone app, which assesses factors including the location, date, time of day, weather and more, to create custom music playlists.

Here's an excerpt from the piece.

'Ko remembers the 'eureka moment' when he first came up with the concept. He said: “I was walking to class on an overcast, chilly day and I wanted to listen to some downbeat music but I kept having to press 'next' because my iPod was playing all the wrong songs. I thought 'my iPod should know not to play me Christmas songs in March.'

“These days we use our phones every day, including to play music. Our phones know so much about us and our habits. Moment.Us is about tapping in to that knowledge to help understand the person. It creates playlists of songs that feel the same, not just sound the same.”'

To read the full article, click here.

Collider12 at Digital Shoreditch, come and say hello!

The Collider12 team and startups will be out in full force at this year's Digital Shoreditch. This year the week long show is set to be bigger and better then ever before! We'd love to see you there, so make sure you come and say hello.

Wednesday 22nd May, Future Brands Day

Five of the Collider12 startups will be giving a two minute pitch and then taking questions from the audience. The startups are:

1. Avocarrot
2. Beem
3. HitMeUp
4. Miappi
5. Seeker

Where : Mayor's Parlour, Shoreditch Town Hall - http://www.shoreditchtownhall.org.uk

When: 3:45pm–4:45pm

More info: Check out Lanyrd

Immediately following our session, The Bakery will present a panel of brands and agencies (including Stephen Maher form Maher Bird Associates) on how startups, brands and agencies can work together to get to market quicker.

Thursday 23rd May, Capital and Growth Day

This day is dedicated to discussing how to raise capital, grow your business and earn more profit. You can expect deep insights for real success, told by remarkable entrepreneurs and funders who have been and done it.

Rose Lewis, one of our co-founders, will be speaking at 2pm about fundraising in these interesting times. Rose believes that:

So come and hear Rose share a few useful hints while will improve the chances of your startup raising finance successfully.

Where : Shoreditch Town Hall - http://www.shoreditchtownhall.org.uk

When: From 2pm

An All Male Panel at the BIMA startup seminar in Google Campus

On Tuesday I went to the BIMA (British Interactive Media Association) startup seminar hosted at Google Campus, in collaboration with Rackspace. The panel was a great mix of large companies and startups, who all have experience relevant to those starting up today. The panel of speakers included John Webb from Rackspace, Benjamin Southworth, deputy CEO of Tech City, Joe Stepniewski founder of Skimlinks, Damian Routley the CEO of Glow, Jean-Michel Deligny of Go4Venture, Alex Wood, the editor or Tech City News, Drew Benvie founder of new comms agency Battenhall, and the chair Justin Pearse of Bite. However, it was rather hard to ignore that all eight members of the panel were male, and indeed, so was everyone who spoke on stage, including the welcome speech from BIMA and the closing remarks from Rackspace. This was picked up on Twitter Candace Kuss and Karen Barber, and then mentioned at the very end of the session by Craig Le Grice, the Executive Committee Member of BIMA. 

I got in touch with Craig who said that "Benjamin Southworth and Joe Stepniewski were fantastic additions to our panel - but both were in place of their respective female CEOs (Joanna Shields, CEO at TCIO and Alicia Navarro, CEO at Skimlinks) who were invited first but unfortunately could not attend due to diary commitments." 

Craig went on to say that "Speaking personally, I'm a huge advocate of - and fighter for - equality in our industry. I work with a number of startups and actively encourage diversity and the building of companies based on talent, regardless of gender, race, sexuality etc. I welcome the day when no woman attends a technology or digital focused event and feels she's at a boy's club."

This situation is clearly not ideal, especially as there are more than enough women who could at least match the experience on the panel. However, it is positive that people are realising that an all male panel is no longer neccessary or acceptable, and hopefully, these all male events will become a thing of the past. In the mean time, check out these future BIMA events and get involved in the discussion.

• 6 June - BIMA Thirstday (an event held every month on the first Thursday)
  • A networking event for anyone involved in digital. Every member is invited so the group is always a diverse mix.
• 24 July - Digital Hall of Fame
  • A formal ceremony to honour the five new inductees to the Digital Hall of Fame, and the inaugural BIMA Hot 100 list of digital's biggest talents. The '100' list is voted for and so represents a great cross-section of the industry.
• 12 September - The BIMA Awards
  • BIMA's annual awards, recognising the best of the digital industry, are in September. The call for entries is open now and the judging panel has been announced. Check out http://www.bimaawards.com/judges.php to see the great mix of judges.

Locomizer joins San Francisco Accelerator 'Momentum'

One of our startups, Locomizer, has just been accepted to the startup program Momentum, based in San Francisco. Alex Polyakov, Locomizer's Co-Founder, says "We are very excited to have this opportunity to get access to the Silicon Valley's network of mentors and potential investors."

Duncan Logan, the Founder & CEO of Rocket Space, said "Here at RocketSpace, we love meeting the top startups from all over the world, so it was only natural that we'd open our doors to great startups in London. The environment, networking opportunities and changes of scene will all help Locomizer continue the excellent work started at Collider12 to achieve their goals."

Momentum startups will benefit from RocketSpace’s startup services and access to their corporate innovation program, as well as spending 12 weeks at RocketSpace’s highly coveted San Francisco campus. They will be joining four other startups who have also been accepted into the program, which are:

• Fiverun
• Orbeus
• PocketMath
• Squrl

The 12-week program provides the class with weekly workshops, networking dinners, and an enviable mentor list of Silicon Valley’s top 50 mobile executives. The program team consists of Mario Tapia (AT&T, Disney, Yahoo!), Arte Merritt (Motally,Yahoo!), and Mike Rowehl (Admob, Chomp, Metaresolver, Skyfire).

The Momentum program is more of a graduate level program, geared to help accelerate businesses in the mobile space, as opposed to teaching startup basics, making it perfect for Locomizer, who are more than ready to take on Silicon Valley.