Venture Cafe Launches In London With Invention Agency Backing

Forbes

3 days ago

Venture Cafe founder and Advanced Research and Invention Agency chief of staff, Dan Cole on stage in ... More London
Earlier this month, around 270 people - most of them startup entrepreneurs - gathered at the Jellicoe Building in London's King's Cross area to mix and mingle at the newly launched Venture cafe.
The first Venture Cafe was launched in 2009 as a place where entrepreneurs working within the Cambridge Innovation Center in Massachusetts could meet regularly, get to know each other and exchange ideas. Since then, Venture Cafés have opened their doors in 20 locations across the U.S., Europe and Asia. The London location marks the first step into the U.K. by the not-for-profit Venture Cafe Global Institute, so when I spoke to founder Tim Rowe, I was keen to find out what his organisation was bringing to the party in a city in which ecosystem building has been a way of life for more than a decade.
As Rowe explains, he has been planning to bring the Venture Cafe concept to London for a number of years. It was an obvious location. 'You know, some people might refer to London as the capital of the world. I think it's more diverse than any other city in the world, and that's really important when you're building a startup and you need to sell your products everywhere. So there was no question about whether London was interesting. It was just a matter of when we could come here.'
A first attempt - which got as far as a letter of intent - fell victim to the COVID epidemic. However, the idea was revived when Britain's newly-minted Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) offered to sponsor the weekly events. With the funding in place, the first meeting took place on May 15.
As Rowe sees it, the purpose of Venture Cafe is not simply to bring people together but also to create a space where new opportunities can be developed with personal relationships as the catalyst.
'When people within the innovation community don't know each other, they can't help each other and they can't start companies together,' he says. 'They can't do all the things that need to happen in an entrepreneurial community.'
Equally, businesses may well struggle if they don't know how to find VCs or engineers. So, Venture Cafe provides a space where they can meet.
And that, at least in part, is the rationale behind the funding from the Advanced Research and Invention Agency. Set up by the U.K. government's Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the agency is tasked with supporting transformative technology projects. As ARIA's Chief Product Officer Pipply James said in a canned quote, the agency's mission aligns with the Venture Cafe concept.
'Breakthroughs happen when different people, ideas, and disciplines collide. That's why we're partnering with Venture Café: to create open, energising spaces where founders, researchers, investors and innovators can meet, collaborate, and spark the next wave of world-changing ideas,' she said.
But here's the thing, London - and the U.K. in general - now boasts a pretty mature innovation ecosystem. In practice, that means there are many forums and organisations that exist to support entrepreneurs and introduce them to their peers. At a local level, there are networking groups. Nationally, organisations such as Tech Nation and Barclays Eagle Labs offer opportunities to connect. The same is true of innovation centres, such as Plexal in East London and there is no shortager of numero accelerators.
Nevertheless, Rowe sees space for new forums. 'I haven't heard anyone say there isn't a space for this, " he says. 'I have heard a lot of excitement about what we're doing.'
One important element of Venture Cafe, he says, is the fact you are never far away from a meeting. 'There is something unique about what we do, and that's the regularity and intensity of what we do. We do it weekly,' says Rowe. 'And I think there's something fundamental about that. For instance, there is no major world religion, as far as I know, that doesn't meet weekly.'
To some degree, the concpt sits in a complementarty space to others working within the ecosystem. For instance, one attendee was startup accelerator operator, Growth Studio. 'Our accelerator programmes, and the success of our cohort founders, are heavily influenced by our ability to meet in person and get first-hand access to industry leaders and understand their markets and priorities. Events like this break down the barriers,' said co-founder Paul Finch.
Will it catch on with time-poor London entrepreneurs and VCs? Well, the first event attracted 273 people. Evidence from elsewhere suggests that the figure will grow as word spreads. The last meeting in Tokyo attracted 1,000 people, while in Boston and Berlin, attendance was put, respectively at 500 and 440.
With sponsorship from ARIA, the events - which include themed nights around specific sectors - are free. Rowe hopes and expects attendance to be on a par with other centers.