In a bid to keep abreast of what is happening out there and to raise the profile of phuser I went to Mobile Mondays at Centre Point yesterday evening. Once I had circumnavigated the building and inspected all of the trick entrances with No Entry signs I finally found the actual entrance. I was closely trailed by another delegate who had identified me as someone who knew how to find the way in. How right they were. Once in and name-badged up I proceeded to not do any networking for the next 20 minutes.
Like any good networker I had printed off the list of attendees and highlighted the people I wanted to meet from the mobile and social networking blogs I have been reading. Unfortunately in a room of 200 people you have never met with tiny name badges it is really hard to find the few people you are looking for. Not to mention insulting all the people whose badges you look at and then walk away. So if you are reading this Katie Lips or Sarah Blow, I wanted to enthral you with all things phuser but I’ll do better at the next event, like maybe dropping you a line beforehand. I did get to meet Deirdre Molloy of Chinwag who was splendid and very briefly the ever popular Sam Sethi who was also a panel member and had some good ideas.
The MoMo discussion itself was very interesting. The poser was to the effect “If Bubble 2.0 happens what is likely to cause it?”. In summary these were the suggestions by the panel and audience (which I haven’t attributed but ask me if you want to know):
- A shortage of skilled people.
- Who needs VCs anyway? You can get a start-up off the ground for £300k these days rather than £3m.
- £10m investment takes the same effort as £1m for a VC so there is less incentive to make small investments.
- Management team is key, an A+ management team with a B- idea is better than a B- management team with an A+ idea
- With Bubble 1.0 websites didn’t work, Bubble 2.0 will be about good design and then finding ways of selling it.
- There is a valuation gap between what VCs and entrepreneurs think companies are worth. You need marketing spend and power to attract attention to new ideas these days.
- Is there an Ambition Gap in the UK? There used to be but it is getting better.
One thing which got me thinking was an idea Sam Sethi mentioned (attributed to Tony Fisher) which is “The Four Screens of Life: PC, TV, mobile and car”. Sam advised devising a strategy for rolling out to each. Luckily phuser lends itself to any screen however I hadn’t thought about car screens before, they weren’t quite around when my car was built. I like the idea that you could have Joanna Lumley or Eddie Izzard reading phuser messages to you while you drive.
