or why Darwin would be very proud indeed of Dublin’s WebSummit
by Enrique Posner — Co-founder and Co-CEO of Taiga.io and mentor to Linkedage.com
Had Charles Darwin been studying evolution in 2014, he could well have saved himself the expense and danger of taking the HMS Beagle to the Galapagos, and instead boarded - as I did - a Ryanair flight to Websummit, Dublin’s technology lollapalooza. Here he would have encountered an exotic, vibrant ecosystem to rival the one in Ecuador; this one also itching to reveal the clues of the past and future evolution of our planet.
I can just imagine the opening lines of his On The Origin of Species, rewritten to suit the occasion:
“WHEN at the RDS WebSummit, as a participant, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the inhabitants of the Internet, and in the relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that world. These facts seemed to me to throw some light on the origin of creativity— that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of our greatest philosophers.”
Not only would Chuck have encountered many a specimen to preserve in formaldehyde vessels for later study, he would have readily found entire tribes believing in Transmutation — the evolutionary theory preceding his, which claimed that one thing can almost spontaneously become something else.
Common to WebSummitters other than the love of Pub Crawls, is the alchemist’s dream. That 6 minutes of spoken words can turn into Gold.
WebSummit, which started only 4 years ago with 400 attendees, attracted 22,000 tech enthusiasts this year. By way of comparison, it took Gilles Jacob, the venerable head of the Cannes Film Festival (which I attend somewhat regularly), about 50 years to attract the crowds that @paddycosgrave has brought together in just 4.
Dublin may well be the new Cannes. Technology is swallowing filmed entertainment hook, line and sinker and will regurgitate it in some evolved version of its former self; in the process perhaps making a relic out of the film festival itself. It’s at Websummit that we will see what that new world is like.
The crowds are here for several reasons. Starting at the top of the heap: To bean-count the poster boy Billionaires (Billionarus Nobilis) — the most evolved creatures of this ecosystem. Though rare and fleeting, they serve as the beacon to which everything else is referenced.
The crowds are also here for a hopeful encounter with a member of the Investor species: Regular Investors (Allocatur Monietarea), Angel Investors (Allocatur Monietarea Cookijarus) and Venture Capitalists (Allocatur Monietarea Otherpepolus). These are a species with the chameleonic power to hide in plain sight. They are supposed to be tagged clearly with an INVESTOR lanyard, but alas, I did not spot any. The keen observer would have noticed that they are an insular group, prone to congregate amongst themselves in heavily protected, hard-to-reach nooks and crannies called Investor Lounges. Trolling along the crowded stalls is not their style.
With the grounds teeming with parasites ready to attach themselves to any Allocatur spotted in the wild, who can blame them? As you might expect of a highly evolved species, Allocaturs, are sophisticated and selective hunters who study their prey ahead of the pounce. If you are their prey, you know it well in advance; for they have telegraphed their intent and have likely provided you with a Willy Wonka-worthy Golden Ticket to access the Lounge. Hopefuls expecting to be unexpectedly pounced are likely to be disappointed.
Websummit is teeming with many other inhabitants. Speakers (Expertus Generosus), Showbiz Celebrities (Monietarea Magnetis), and many others. But by far the most prevalent and most interesting species at Websummit; its raison d’etre, are the Startups (Startapus Invincibilus).
Invited Startups come in different flavors, Alpha, Beta, Start and Pitch, categorized in accordance with their stage of evolution. The criteria for admission is something of a mystery, but from the chatter on the floor I did discover a common trait. They all seemed prepared to state without a hint of irony, “we are disrupting… (chose any field of human endeavor) followed by “with (insert product name) we are changing the world.” Emphasis not mine.
The privilege of attending (prior payment required of course) comes with 8 hours of exclusive access to a 1 square meter bully pulpit from which to sing the above praises. As you can imagine the cacophony is reminiscent of Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar. The goods on offer just as varied.
By my calculation that real estate for those paying full price, is 11.5 times more expensive per square meter per hour ($1,541/m2/hr) than Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay ($133/m2/hr) - the world’s most expensive commercial real estate. But, hey this is survival of the fittest; to play you have to pay. Still, startups do get complimentary access to a lockbox to store coats and backpacks, electricity and fast Internet via ethernet cable. This year all other participants had to make do with free wifi nostalgically throttled back to 14.4 bps, presumably in celebration of the Internet’s 36th anniversary.
Financial advancement is the name of the game at Websummit. I for one came away a few ducats poorer, but I am far richer anthropologically.
I spent hours walking the floor of Websummit, bathing in this primordial soup of ideas evolving at breakneck speed. Some are ludicrously recursive and endogamic, sure to mutate themselves out of existence. Others are gems, perhaps misdirected, still searching for the sustainable form that will allow for growth. One or two may prove the Transmutalionalists correct. Rare as it has always been, the move from Startapus Invincibilus to Expertus Generosus to Billionarus Nobilis used to happen at a gentler caterpillar-to-butterfly metamorphic pace. Today it can happen at transmutational speed in less time than it takes @paddycosgrave to pack this year’s Websummit and unpack the next. No wonder the press is in attendance.
Startups are best defined as business-model seeking machines; constantly evolving, birthing and dying; each cog in the wheel less important than the wheel itself. To me this was one the most striking anthropologic feature on display at Websummit. The battle is fierce in the petri dish known as the Town Hall, but seen from above it is a thing of beauty.
Speaking of battles, I would be remiss if I didn't remark on Websummit’s Pitch program. I’m not sure whose perverse idea it was to pit startups against each other in a 6-minute pitch competition, but I would like to make a motion to ban this race to the intellectual bottom.
My attention span is no less impaired than everyone else’s, so I do appreciate an elevator pitch as much as the next guy. But turning startup entrepreneurship into a spectacle akin to The Voice is demeaning and disconsiderate, unbecoming even of Donald Trump. Because 6 minutes are… well 6 minutes, the “competition” degenerates quickly into a contest of style over substance. The audience is primarily interested in schadenfreude and the judges relegated to having to show their smarts by plucking holes into the startups delicate lining. The non-Native English speakers are at a particular agonizing disadvantage.
Perhaps appropriately, many of this year’s pitches were held at the Coca-Cola stage. The Coke logo looming large over the lambs being led to slaughter. A reminder of how unsavory, unfilling and deliciously bad the whole thing is for the organism.
While my proposal to ban this unpalatable practice works its way through the system, startup CEO’s will no doubt take to the stage. So to them, I offer a word of advice. If what they want is brevity, by all means give it to them. Take advantage of the time constraint by leaving out major key messages. For instance “forget” to mention your business model or your competitive edge, or anything else or great relevance. The judges won't be able to ignore the glaring holes, and will exhaust their equally limited time by asking obvious questions for which you have ready answers. They will seem smart, you will appear prepared, the allotted time will seem sufficient, and the whole thing will be as lacking in substance as…a Coke.
Last year at a Websummit panel discussion involving Elon Musk (Billionarus Nobilis Magnificae) the moderator concluded strangely by quoting one of the literature’s most dour pessimists, the Irish playwright Samuel Beckett who wrote in his Worstward Ho (sic) “Ever Tried. Ever Failed. No Matter. Try Again. Fail Again. Fail Better.”
Due perhaps to the shortened attention span so prevalent in the event, few probably stopped to wonder why the famously bleak author would have produced a quote so bright and optimistic, so eminently apropos to the startup ethos. As it happens anything can be taken out of context for the sake of convenience, and that appears to be the case here.
The lines in Worstward Ho that follow the quote above actually do matter, and provide additional context. They aren’t as pitchy and concise and motivational, but to my mind they offer just as appropriate a description of the exhilarating, yet bleak, confusing, disconcerting but strangely uplifting experience that is being a member of the genus Startapus Invincibilus:
“Try again. Fail again. Better again. Or better worse. Fail worse again. Still worse again. Till sick for good. Go for good. Where neither for good. Good an all.”
I can't wait for Websummit 2015!
