Last Thursday evening, I joined the UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) team in San Francisco and the “who’s who” of the technology and start up communities at the “Crunchies,” the veritable Oscars for tech companies.
I’m not quite sure what I was expecting at an awards ceremony with 2,000 tech-gurus, but what I witnessed was an industry that celebrated innovation and success with pride.
The tech industry is a confident community that wants to push its members to greater heights and, as many put it during the ceremony, to change the world for the better. I presented the award for the “Fastest-Rising Start-up, and the winner was Snapchat, an app that allows users to share photos that self-destruct in 10 seconds or fewer.
The crowd included one hundred finalists, 20 winners, and more importantly from our perspective, hundreds of existing investors in the UK and hundreds of potential ones. It was a privilege to be sitting a couple of rows behind Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who went on to win CEO of the year that night.
I also had the opportunity to meet Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer and thank her personally for her company’s investment in the UK. (She was very complimentary of our offering.)
We at UKTI co-sponsored the evening and had our own Brit-themed networking area, complete with a Union Jack couch. The ceremony finished at 9:30 p.m., but it was great to see the team networking at their best for a long time afterwards. By midnight, the team was still collecting business cards and talking to companies about our exciting propositions in Tech City and across the UK.
The morning afterwards, San Francisco Consul-General Priya Guha hosted a breakfast with 11 tech companies. Seven were already in London, and four were seriously considering making a move there. Naturally, they gave us some useful homework to take away to make the experience easier for them, but they also highlighted what they liked about setting up shop in the UK: a thriving ecosystem, an exciting market, exceptional talent and a culture that is becoming more and more risk-taking.
Above is a photo of the UKTI team after a long hard day of networking. You can try and Snapchat and count to ten, but this team photo will still be there – UKTI’s US team is here to stay!