Our (Kwiqq) experience of Web Mission [kwiqq]

Posted on | January 19, 2009 | 2 Comments

Web Mission is a unique scheme which allows British companies to visit San Francisco to meet with investors and buzz makers in the Valley. Last year, Kwiqq was announced as one of the Web Mission 08 companies. We were obviously thrilled to go Tech Mecca. Jack Fairhall represented Kwiqq at Web Mission. I heard a lot of praises from Jack in regards to the events and the companies he visited. The likes of Facebook, Oracle and Craigslist were mingling with UK Web Missioners. As a startup, meeting high profile companies increased our understanding of the mover and shakers of the valley and of the industry.

Success stories

Nobody can deny networking is the way forward for a young company. Web Mission’s introduction helped Huddle to be the only outside the valley company to launch a LinkedIn application. Allowing Huddle to tap into the massive 29 million+ LinkedIn users.

At the reunion event (in November) I bumped into couple of companies which raised funding after Web Mission. One of them was Zogix, supplying carbon management and energy efficiency system. So Web Mission could be thought of a place for serious networking + raising cash.

Raising Profile

Web Mission could also be fantastic to raise profile of your startup. Apart from several mentions in blogs, we were also Techcrunched twice at the start and during the mission. Companies were also mentioned on the Telegraph Blog, The Guardian and Ryan Carson’s Carsonified Blog.

Requirements

This year’s entry has to be British Enterprise 2.0 company offering social tools and applications for use in business environments. Also they need to have two years of trading history or early stage fast track potential. When we applied we didn’t have two years experience or VC funding. Although we demonstrated fast tracking potential via articles in leading newspapers and blogs, and assembling a team of successful business people. We also demonstrated the ability to create a buzz around our company without raising finance. I think it does make a statement about a company when they bootstrap their growth.

Why Web mission is truely life changing ?

It is difficult to pin point any one reason for Web Mission’s roaring success. A lot of it is due to the people involved in the project. The applications tend of assessed by veterans like UKTI executives, Dragon’s Den entrepreneur Doug Richards and TechCrunch UK editor, Mike Butcher. The competition is stiff as a result the winners tend to be fairly competent. Doug Richard said:

“some of these companies are as good as anything coming out of the Valley”

Not only potential clients but also suppliers take notice of it and over all this generates a lot of kudos. I seriously recommend all startups to apply for it. It is one of those things, which once you are on, could genuinely change your company’s fortune. Whether that is funding, advice, direction or just pure networking.

All the Best !

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