NeilCocker.com

So much to write about – so little time!

A couple of cracking articles from the BBC about the future of the web: One points to the second web boom (as I highlighted with examples in a post about the huge amounts of money being spent on new companies). And the other asks lots of top thinkers and innovators what they think will happen to the web in the coming years.

And speaking of innovation, I went to a great talk last night by Charles Leadbeater, a world authority on innovation and creativity. His talk was mainly about how immigration is a positive thing for innovation in this country (did you know that Triumph cars, Moss Bros, ICI and ice cream trucks were all founded in the UK by immigrants?). His argument is that complex problems are better solved by a diverse group, and immigrants into a society provide massive diversity. Catering for the differences inevitably comes with higher costs, but the lesson for entrepreneurs and businesses is clear – don’t just surround yourself with people exactly like yourself.

Thanks to Richie Turner at NESTA for hosting it and providing the nice veggie canapes!

p.s. If you consider yourself an entrepreneur in the web or technology fields then you should probably read this….

I took a look at my wardrobe a few months ago and realised the vast majority of the t-shirts I owned were freebies from clubs and events around the world where we’d played. As a result they were mainly black with white print and slightly on the baggy side (or very baggy if they’d come from American clubs!).

So I decided to clear them all out and get some groovy new t-shirts. But not being a particularly fashionable bloke I avoid “boutiques” like the plague. So I was relieved to have the utterly brilliant Threadless.com in my bookmarks. I’d discovered it a few years ago but never purchased anything. But now with the dollar so weak against the pound you can order a fantastic t-shirt and have it delivered to your door for a total of about 11 quid…

The site is run as a competition with designers submitting their images that are voted on by the site’s users. The winners each week get printed and awarded with bundles of cash and a place on the chest of thousands of grateful Threadless fans.

In the few months since I’ve been buying from them I’ve amassed ten, including the few pictured here*, and contributed to a brilliant business. It’s user-generated, user-moderated and (for those of us on the east of the Atlantic) incredibly cheap to get high-quality, designer t-shirts from. The only problem I’ve got now is convincing myself I don’t need another ten. With an email each week with a handful of ace new designs on it’s going to be very tricky…

*It must be noted that I’m not in any of the pictures. I’m nowhere near that wholesomely good-looking.

I took a look at my wardrobe a few months ago and realised the vast majority of the t-shirts I owned were freebies from clubs and events around the world where we’d played. As a result they were mainly black with white print and slightly on the baggy side (or very baggy if they’d come from American clubs!).

So I decided to clear them all out and get some groovy new t-shirts. But not being a particularly fashionable bloke I avoid “boutiques” like the plague. So I was relieved to have the utterly brilliant Threadless.com in my bookmarks. I’d discovered it a few years ago but never purchased anything. But now with the dollar so weak against the pound you can order a fantastic t-shirt and have it delivered to your door for a total of about 11 quid…

The site is run as a competition with designers submitting their images that are voted on by the site’s users. The winners each week get printed and awarded with bundles of cash and a place on the chest of thousands of grateful Threadless fans.

In the few months since I’ve been buying from them I’ve amassed ten, including the few pictured here*, and contributed to a brilliant business. It’s user-generated, user-moderated and (for those of us on the east of the Atlantic) incredibly cheap to get high-quality, designer t-shirts from. The only problem I’ve got now is convincing myself I don’t need another ten. With an email each week with a handful of ace new designs on it’s going to be very tricky…

*It must be noted that I’m not in any of the pictures. I’m nowhere near that wholesomely good-looking.

A complete list of 2007′s web/tech acquisitions has been published and it makes for encouraging reading for those of us that are working in that field. The good news is that people are definitely still spending big bucks on buying up brilliant ideas.

Two of the more well-known names in the list, Last.FM and Feedburner, were bought for a total of 280 million dollars. Even very niche sites such as Treehugger were commanding fees of $10 million.

So has global finance finally regained confidence in the internet following its overexuberance in the initial bubble that burst? I think that now that broadband connection speeds are widely used enough for most in the developed world to have constant, high-quality access to the net things are different – the ideas that people had 10 years ago are now a lot more feasible.

People are connected for longer, aren’t worried about minute-by-minute charges (as they were with dialup), have faster computers to deal with the flashier graphics and are generally more net-savvy. All this adds up to a “consumer” that’s spending more of their time online but also, and perhaps more importantly, committing more of their life onto the net. They are filling social networks with personal data, storing their diaries online and basically becoming perfect patrons of the online world. It’s like the equivalent of going to your local superstore and spending 9 hours in there, signing up for all the loyalty cards and trying all the tasters. Now obviously not everyone spends money on the internet, but the reality is that traffic is synonymous with cash for many websites. The more visitors a site has, the more its worth to potential investors.

No wonder Facebook has been valued as $15 billion. Yes. Billion.

Some days you just feel like an outsider.

I’ve been trying to get my latest project, Dizzyjam, off the ground for about 3 years. And in all that time I’ve been reading about other smart ideas, successful entrepreneurs and fantastic small businesses. And it makes me feel like an outsider, desperately banging on the door of the cool club, trying to get in.

Part of it’s to do with living in the UK. It doesn’t help. Amid all my reading and web-surfing I’ve been seeing how the cultures of different countries (but mainly the US) are so much more supportive of entrepreneurs. I sometimes feel like banging my head against a brick wall when I realise how little relevance the business support agencies here have for creative entrepreneurs. There are some good people out there, but I’ve been met with more blank looks than I can remember. And don’t even think about applying for any financial help. Unless you’re in a mainstream form of business, you’re very lucky to get a penny. Yet if you’re based in San Francisco or Colorado, for example, you’ll find hoards of venture capitalists looking for smart people to invest in. You’ll find regular meetups just for people who have crazy web 2.0 ideas, or want to sell MP3s from your juice bar etc etc. People don’t look at you strangely when you say that you’re an entrepreneur.

Anyway, I’ve realised most of the genuine help and support has come from fellow entrepreneurs, people who’ve already been through the process or are struggling through it as I type this. So to that end I thought I should set up a network of likeminded people who are doing something different. There are already plenty of networks for lawyers, manufacturers and accountants. What about us creatives? The people doing something different…. So to that end I’ve set up Pollen – a network for creative entrepreneurs in South Wales.

In the meantime, my project is hopefully, hopefully nearing launch date. But then I said that 12 months ago….

Here’s some articles from the Beeb about entrepreneurship in the States.

From Oxford to Silicon Valley #1 (a series of short articles about some British guys who move to the States to improve their chances of their startup being a success).

From Oxford to Silicon Valley #2

From Oxford to Silicon Valley #3

From Oxford to Silicon Valley #4

Life lessons for hi-tech startups

Web 2.0 article #1

Web 2.0 article #2

Web 2.0 article #3

Web 2.0 article #4

Silicon Valley startups

Inside the Silicon Valley tech bubble