Startup Fest EU Diary: Day 1
Tech Kings In King’s Landing
Tech Kings In King’s Landing
At the age of 28, I promised myself, I would never visit Amsterdam again. I had just finished a study abroad session at London School of Economics and visited the Holland capital city with a group of Planteers for the second time in four years. No need for details on my two previous trips but its safe to assume I was fighting crime and pollution. So when I was personally invited by Startup Amsterdam and the city of Amsterdam’s Marketing group to join the Media Tour about the city’s growing startup scene, I didn’t know what to expect. But I was excited to have a productive meeting there.
Tuesday I attended the opening event for the Startup Fest Europe. The event was an interesting mixture of fireside chats with tech giants such as Tim Cook, Eric Schmidt, and Travis Kalanick as well as panels featuring local leaders in the Amsterdam startup ecosystem. I wasn’t sure how I could give a clear idea of how my most (and only) productive trip to Amsterdam went other than sharing my thoughts real time as they came to me. So to pay homage to Bill Simmons and his past NBA Draft Diaries, I’ve decided to share my thoughts from the opening event of Startup Fest Europe in diary format. Remember these insightful, idiotic, and snarky comments are just that — insightful, idiotic, and snarky. And on to the Startup Fest Europe Highlights…
…and Lowlights.
11:12 am CET: Of course the conference opens with a dance performance. I felt sorry for the performers. They were dancing their hearts out and I don’t think I heard more than fifteen collective claps.
11:18 am CET: Neelie Kroes has the first official remarks and explains how the collaboration between the Amsterdam government and the tech industry has built an ecosystem that is now ranked as a top hub for European startups. See governments can help in innovation. Neelie ended her speech by reminding the Dutch entrepreneurs that they must “Remove ‘modest’ out of your vocabulary.”
11:19 am CET: Ok now it’s about to go down. Tim Cook just walked calmly on to the stage. The suspense is about to kill me. I wonder what Neelie will ask him. Everyone stop with the applause, they are about to begin the Q&A.
11:21 am CET: False alarm. They begin their conversation with a bad Rembrandt/iPhone joke. Apparently the first iPhone was designed in a Rembrandt painting — Tim swears it.
11:27–11:38 am CET: Tim definitely starts providing more quotes than a charismatic preacher on Easter. The provides insights on mantras that drive success at Apple and essential advice for entrepreneurs.
11:52 am CET: Tim closed his Q&A session by sharing his views on my lane (i.e. Education technology). I agree with him that we shouldn’t expect teachers to teach code. We should invest in teacher development and treat them as the vital customers they are in the edtech ecosystem. It was interesting that Tim suggests that coding should replace one of the language requirements, as early as 4th grade. It should be the second language that students learn. He believes more access to tech would bring more diversity in tech and more people interested in the area.
12:10 pm CET: Is Miami bass music necessary? I know making an entrance is important but thinking of upbeat slow jams of my childhood isn’t what I expected at a tech conference.
12:11 pm CET: The seats for the panelists look like the game of thrones small council. Where’s Kevan Lannister?
12:15–12:25 pm CET: The panel of Dutch tech leaders Gillian Tans, Peter Van Der Does, and Steven Schuurman provide some great advice for first-time entrepreneurs on the subject of expansion, when to let things go, and picking the right investors.
1:40 pm CET: Tried out Samsung VR experience for the first time seated without the moving chair (apparently I’m much heavier than 90 kilos). VR is really cool but I began to get a headache. Not sure if my brain was ready for that rewiring.
1:52 pm CET: Eric Schmidt is joined on stage by Melisandre (a woman in a red dress and I probably am a little too obsessed with GoT). The conversation begins on the subject of Google’s future business model. Eric believes that at Google ad has always been the leading revenue stream and he expects it always will be that way.
1:56 pm CET: Eric believes all the concern that is expressed through films about AI is not a concern for a long time. Well, a long time in tech years…
2:02 pm CET: GoogleX is mentioned and when I hear “moonshots” I immediately think of Hooli xyz’s potato cannons.
2:07 pm CET: Eric shares some interesting insights to why the US and European startup ecosystems are different. Universities in Europe are greatly underfunded in comparison to US schools. The three gaps that need to be addressed in the European market are an acceptance riskier capital, investment in university and seed capital to entrepreneurs.
2:10 pm CET: Eric survey’s audience for iPhones users displays 90% iPhone users. He quickly responds by saying “So much for an android monopoly in the European market.”
2:11 pm CET: Lastly the moderator in the red dress mentions Donald Trump’s quote “Data is overrated.” After dismissing this question with a response about the Donald’s use of twitter, the moderator then asks what type of President will he be? Eric doesn’t really answer the question and if he did I got too upset about the idea to listen.
2:23–2:34 pm CET: The next panel of tech highborns, including Mathais Ljumgman and Reshma Sohoni, share their thoughts on the funding environment, the importance of international expansion, and how European nations collaborate.
2:44 pm CET: Next up is Travis Kalanick! He greets a welcoming response and jumps into his presentation called “A Geeks Guide to Becoming an Entrepreneur.”
2:46 pm CET: The first step in the guide is knowing (or accepting) your geek-dom or geek-hood. Then the next step you have to find a problem that’s broken — like the taxi industry.
2:47 pm CET: Travis shows a lot of stats on the indirect or direct social implications on CO2 releases and total miles driven on highways in certain cities. I found it interesting that about 18 cities have already had at least 100,000 unique users of Uber pool.
2:57 pm CET: Travis explains how people naturally misunderstand risk. He uses the example of a tightrope walker. Tightrope walking is very risky unless you have developed an expertise that allows you to mitigate risk by a lot. The tightrope walker is just taking a stroll while it is stressful and risky for us.
3:01–3:08 pm CET: Travis shares his final two pointers (Storytelling and Mindset) for geeks to transform into entrepreneurs. He displays these keys of success by showing two inspirational videos. The first video clearly shares the economic impact Uber “partners” in emerging markets like India are experiencing. The second video displayed a successful mindset like I’ve never seen before.
3:09 pm CET: Travis closes with a pay-it-forward announcement that will operate in 30 cities globally. Throughout his journey of building Uber, he was told “no” from investors or simply didn’t have access to investors. So he has decided to have a special event called Uber Pitch and will match founders with VCs who will arrive in an uber for a ride and pitch. Awesome idea. And I immediately bastardized in my explanation on twitter.
This was a great start to my first productive trip to Amsterdam. I’m so glad I decided to come. If I would have kept my promise to never come back, I would have deserved a Cersei-like walk of shame.
Earnest Sweat is a Startup Adviser that specializes in mentoring startups within the fin tech, ed tech, and real estate tech sectors. If you have any questions, comments or requests please connect with Earnest through LinkedIn, Twitter, or AngelList.
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