Xoogler EMEA 2017 in Review
What a year!
2017 Key Highlights:
- 50+events, 100+ founders, 1000+ members, several startups funded.
- Chapters in Amsterdam, Berlin, Copenhagen, Dublin, London, Zurich.
January kicked off with a round-table session with 18 Xooglers in London. Since then we’ve followed up with activities such as a Funding Strategies event in March and finished the year on a high note in December including an EdTech founder’s lunch, Blockchain focused events in Amsterdam and London and a founder’s dinner at Balderton Capital. In between; the community organised expert panels about Product Management, AI and ML for startups, the Swiss startup ecosystem as well as office hours, term sheet negotiation training, pitch feedback sessions and much more.
Pitching For Success
The very first Pitch Day London held in June was a top highlight, with 13 Startups from 5 countries in front of 80 investors (who showed their commitment despite a busy Tech Week!). Many of those startups’ subsequent success is a testament to the strength and quality of the community; the majority has closed funding and grown their teams (i.e. Insurtech Tensorflight’s seed round), Fintech focused Fractal Labs is among the Open Banking Challenge finalists, Misk is one of the hottest startups in Europe (Attentive and Twiggle are also on Wired’s list), Tada is going to YC, Worksome just became the largest freelance platform in Denmark and keynote speaker Mark Cummins (Pointy) closed his Series A (w/ a bit of support from the Xoogler Syndicate).
What also makes 2017 significant is the community’s continued organic growth to more than 1000 members, 10%+ of whom are founders with 60% of members working in startups. It’s a joy to be a part of and we are bullish on 2018 and want to contribute further to the European startup ecosystem. We see several ‘Ex-Googler generations’ in the community including first time and seasoned entrepreneurs who are building the next businesses, solving big problemas, while we grow new chapters in Tel Aviv, Paris, Milano, building new partnerships and more.
Xooglers and Googlers Helping Xooglers
The activities throughout 2017 would not have been possible without the support and dedication of the many Xooglers who have brought the community to life across Europe, including: Gianluca Caccamo (Dublin), Daniel Gilgenmann (Berlin), Steffen Ehrhardt (Zurich), Mathias Linnemann (Copenhagen), Maron Bieri and Michiel Vanthoor (Amsterdam). This also includes Becky Stephens, Jamie Woodbridge and Dahlia Basar who are driving a number of key activities and have been lending a helping hand when needed!
Also a huge number of you have been key to helping this community grow, whether it’s running/supporting events, helping Xoogler startups or providing guidance and support as needed, including:
Sandeep Anantharaman, Julien Cornebise, Thor Mitchell, Julie Robles, Rabin Yaghoubi, Mark Cummins, Rob Moffat, Qasar Younis, Rich Pleeth, Eze Vidra, Jonas Vang, Vidu Shanmugarajah, Ben Grol, Rob Kniaz, Max Leveau, Kushagra Shrivastava, Ruth Temianka, Alex Diaz, Xen Lategan, Adam Banks, Harold Craston, David Roldan, Gus Maskowitz, Chloe Mills, Steven Suppe, Rose La Prairie, Michele Battelli, Charles Wiles, Viktor Nebehaj, Lena Baudo, Ismail Jeilani, Emma Fish, Stefanie Pfeiffer, Danilo Carlucci, Roberta Diana, Alex Brutin and obviously Chris Fong.
Thank You all and congratulations on the success!
Finally also big thanks to our partners Accel, Balderton Capital, Campus London, CrowdCube, Entrepreneur First, Google, GV, Hoxton Ventures, Index Ventures, SeedCamp.
2018: Focus on People and Funding
In 2018 our focus continues as we strive to make Xoogler.co as a platform to facilitate in-depth discussions, surface useful insights and business learnings as well as helping to grow successful careers and startups. Needless to say two key components to build organisations are people and funding — both areas are priorities going into 2018.
If you’re interested in helping the Xooglers startups early on their journey by angel investing just sign up here. If you’re one of the 100+ founders looking to raise capital in 2018, let us also know here or contact me directly.
And finally if you need support with hiring, looking to get hired or want to refer great people don’t hesitate to contact Becky Stephens and Jamie Woodbridge.
Some of you already have benefitted from Xoogler.co becoming an official partner of Google Cloud by receiving credits worth of min. $20k. We’re hoping to bring you more opportunities to take advantage of resources like this in the year ahead.
If you can’t wait until the London.ai/Xoogler Event Jan 25th, Xoogler Zurich is set to get things off to an impressive start with a panel to discuss blockchain, ai, etc Jan 11th.
Meanwhile watch out for more news, stories and insights (and a few exciting new things!) from across the Xoogler community and beyond in the year ahead in:
See you in 2018
Rune
