Our very own Sam Michel, MD of Chinwag, has made it on to the radio -
Blog Talk Radio to be precise - and it’s good to hear from him that “the
Digital Mission is going incredibly well”.
He was being interviewed while at the
Web 2.0 Expo in New York, part of the exciting
roster of events Digital Mission companies have access to.
The Chinwag contingent are over with
21 of the UK’s hottest digital companies. All are there to meet with potential partners, VC’s and to build their position within the competitive US digital market.
Some of the companies involved have already had interest from venture capitalists and are making intrepid plans for expansion and development; exactly which companies we can’t reveal at the minute.
Thankfully, the crisis in the US economy has not had a damaging effect on VC interest in startups. Most VC companies already had their venture funds put together before economic affairs took a nose dive, and these funds will last several years.
In the words of Sam: “We may be united by a common language but how the UK and the US do business couldn’t be more different”
You’re in a meeting with investors in the UK - you think, great, they seem pleased. It’s all going well. It seems that in London people are a polite bunch who would hold off telling you their real thoughts about a project for an email.
Not so in NY - business culture is a tad different. One of the main things the
Mission go-ers have noticed is the straight-down-the-line opinions of the New Yorkers. “They tell you if they dont like your idea straight away,” Sam told Blog Talk Radio.
It may be intimidating but it’s incredibly useful in a competitve market like New York.
The mission companies may be moving into a completely different market, where home-bred companies are competing along with them, but the pay-offs can be huge. In terms of traffic you can factor the numbers in the UK by ten. The American market is also 5 or 6 times bigger than here in Britain.
Back in the day when the search engine guys first came to the UK, to showcase their exciting new business ideas, the audience didn’t quite get it at first, Sam recalled. But the search engines kept plugging away, and just look at them now.
They say success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. So UK companies will have to work hard to make it overseas. But it’s exhilirating when you can work hard and make contacts in a place like New York; so our Digital Mission companies are making the most of their time and the entire experience.
Listen to the interview with Sam Michel
here
See the list of Digital Mission NYC
companies
Read the Digital Mission
blog
See all Digital Mission photos here on
Flickr
Digital Mission is organised by Chinwag for UK Trade & Investment, enabling digital companies to expand into overseas markets and attract investment outside the UK.
Thought that might get your attention.
Sadly, the budget is limited so we have to apply to TAP with a list of tradeshows that companies would like assistance in exhibiting at. There's between £1,000 and £1,800 in contributions to costs available per company per show. As you'd expect, the T&Cs for this are fairly extensive, but the scheme should be open to pretty much all digital companies head-quartered in the UK.
The afternoon was given over to meetings and recovery, before heading out to the pre-show Web 2.0 Expo evening events - where the British presence was definitely felt.
