29th
November 2008
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BaseKit’s recent Seedcamp adventures have brought us to Silicon Valley through mid November. Finally recovered, we are happy to report that it was a rip roaring success!
Our first time in the Valley was always going to be a good experience but with all the events that Seedcamp had organized for us, it was the ultimate trip. Visiting Google, Twitter, Microsoft, Facebook and Yahoo we were able to interact with the best of the best.
Our first trip was to the O’Reilly Web 2.0 Submit where we hung out (or in other words, too tight to by a ticket!), speaking to advisers and mentors as they passed through. We met up with Ben Godfrey, a San Fran Veteran (well, he’s been there more times than we have) who showed us the sites. Great to get in the mix of it so quickly and experience the networking possibility of being at such an event and being in the Web Tech hub of the world.
Next was visiting Google at their HQ which is beyond belief! Free food and a great working environment. Great to see the more relaxed way of building a Super Business; Employ the best people and give them a inspiring place to work! Google took us through their current offerings; Android, OpenSocial and GWT. Even though it was great to hear about all these technologies, the most relevant chat was with a Lead Product Manager at Youtube. Google have an interesting feedback loop; they release the product into the Google ecosystem first and get feedback. I think this truely awesome! Like a incubation stage before they release products into the wild.
Next was a great talk with Twitter. This was really the most interesting and relevant chat. The problems Twitter have had are well reported but ultimately, they have product that people want. There were some great questions asked; mine was about how did they get people (and investors) to believe in such a crazy idea (it is crazy… I don’t care what you say!). I didn’t realize (I should do my homework!) the guy behind Twitter was also behind Blogger (sold to Google) which obviously gave them the validation. Twitter started out as a side project and once it started gaining traction they jumped on it full time. The combination of Founder experience and the user traction got them the investment they needed. Very interesting!
Separately, we went to Palo Alto to visit Facebook in one of their many buildings (8 apparently!), we talked about the Facebook experience and Connect (which is awesome by the way – really looking forward to connecting this up into BaseKit). More free food and great company! I love how Facebook is built in PHP… so many haters but it is a great testimony to my favorite language (joint 1st with javascript).
So the weekend descended on us so we got busy building our presentations for Seedcamp in the Valley. Our pitch went great at Microsoft and at SocialMedia, we kept it short and snappy showing for some of the developments we’ve made in the past 2 months since Seedcamp (still a bit hush hush – sorry!).
Our next visit was to Techcrunch then Yahoo! The TC Ranch was not what I expecting… no horses or cowboys (generalization? probably!) but inside (even though it was very early) there was a lingering buzz of the start of another day of hot-off-the-press journalism. We met the team who ran Crunchbase and the Techcrunch core products. As Heather Harde was speaking, I sensed a presence behind us. Peering over my left shoulder, there stood the Man Giant himself, Mike Arrington! He gave us advice on how to deal with blogs and getting PR coverage, but kept it brief because he knew that we were there to pitch to him. Great guy! Great advice! Some of the Seedcamp teams got some great coverage.
After finally finding Yahoo! (by that I mean, turning up to the correct building!) we received some awesome information on Yahoo! products. We met with members from BOSS, Pipes and YUI teams and even got ourselves on the YDN! Awesome!
The whole Silicon Valley experience was truly great. Some good mentoring and particular from the companies that we went to visit. Business wise was interesting. definitely opened some doors for the future. Thumbs up Seedcamp and a special thanks to Dave McClure
29th
November 2008
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As we’ve previously posted, Team BaseKit been working with Swede to help us define the user experience. One thing we have to say about the people at Swede is that you can’t help but be inspired by their work. They sit you down, chat about your product and inject their sweet cerium that opens your mind to a cornucopia of concepts and ideas! They’ve been working hard on the user experience and feeling our users get when using BaseKit. It’s also great to have have a different slant on direction.
You can see so of the concepts they’ve created for BaseKit on their blog. Check them at the Swede Blog. Not only awesome at what they do but slap-on-the-back great guys too!
Cheers Swede!
22nd
November 2008
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We recently visited Yahoo! HQ in Silicon Valley this month and where asked to be featured in a short interview to talk about BaseKit. Obviously we were more than obliged to talk to Yahoo! because we feel there is synergy between our technology and some of the products that Yahoo! offers. Here is our video for your infotainment!
Check out the interview at Yahoo!’s YDN website (BaseKit Interview), and be sure to check out the other Seedcamp winner’s interviews as well. Thank you Yahoo!
