Nurturing the serial entrepreneurs of tomorrow

Reshma Sohoni tells us how Seedcamp's combination of seed funding and mentoring support will forge a community of young technology entrepreneurs in Europe.

Seedcamp is a Europe-wide initiative to support the next generation of technology entrepreneurs, by providing seed funding plus access to the collective experience of mentors.

At the heart of the programme is Seedcamp Week, which first took place in September 2007. The events and activities of the week are designed to give first-time entrepreneurs a chance to show what they'd be able to achieve with investment, support and the right connections. NESTA Investments has provided funding and support for Seedcamp.

Supporting early-stage companies

Seedcamp's Reshma Sohoni says that although there's a significant and sophisticated venture capital community in Europe, the needs of early-stage companies - who often need only small amounts of funding - aren't well served at present. "If you go to Silicon Valley, you'll see lots of entrepreneur hangouts and networking groups that help start-ups build connections and find seed investment."

It's this kind of community outlook and support structure that Seedcamp is aiming to build.

Reshma explains: "Young, first-time entrepreneurs shouldn't feel that they're alone - they've got peers who can share their experiences and mentors who've done it all before who are willing and able to support them. We believe that bringing people together in this way will lead to a real step-change in Europe's technology entrepreneurial culture."

Building a community

The working style of Seedcamp Week could be described as an 'unconference' - the entrepreneurs attended panel sessions with investors and business experts, but there's a strong emphasis on one-to-one mentoring sessions.

The intensive schedule and the intrinsic involvement of mentors throughout the week helps to establish strong connections between all of the attendees.

Although Seedcamp Week is the cornerstone of the programme, it's vital that the entrepreneurs and mentors maintain ongoing contact if they are to establish a genuine community of support. The Seedcamp website forms the hub of this community, with tools including a forum and wiki and links to a Facebook group as well.

There are plans to develop these tools further and to provide useful resources such as articles and videos from mentoring sessions. Developing the website's ability to sustain and nurture the community is a focus for the Seedcamp team, and the goal is for it become an essential resource for the European start-up community.

A start-up for start-ups

As a start-up company itself, Seedcamp provides Reshma with first-hand experience of the challenges of getting a business of the ground. One challenge is making sure that there is regular communication between the core team, advisory board, investors and the mentor network.

But the Seedcamp model brings clear rewards too, such as seeing strong connections quickly forged between young founders and seasoned entrepreneurs.

Reshma describes her job as an immersive, 24/7 experience with lots of learning opportunities - a description that's likely to ring true with the entrepreneurs that she works with.

Reshma Sohoni

Reshma joined Seedcamp from the Venture team at 3i. Prior to 3i, Reshma spent over three years at Vodafone in its Commercial Strategy team, working across the Europe and Japan footprints in marketing strategy and pricing functions. Reshma started her career in the US in investment banking (Broadview) and venture capital (Softbank).