I just got back from the TechCrunch party at www.lewebparis.com. It sucked. Last night was definitely better (MySpace sponsored). The music was great, the people we’re lively, and everything seemed too click.
That being said, here’s what I’ve learned over the past 2 days by attending LeWeb 08.
When it’s good, go with it!
The internet was down, then it was up, then it was down again … this happened 100 times a day. I just assumed it would get better as things progressed, it didn’t.
The MySpace party rocked. As I mentioned earlier, the TechCrunch party didn’t.
When something works, you should go with it – don’t plan for the next night, or next time it’s working, just enjoy the moment.
Overall – I loved LeWeb. It gave me a new perspective on global entrepreneurialism, and the challenges faced by europeans looking to build big, meaningful businesses. All that being said, there were definitely differences, and a few predictions.
Differences: Building a Company In Europe
- Localization: Right out of the gate, you need to be ready, even support, up to 5+ languages.
- Decentralized capital and resources: It’s normal to have to jump on a plane every week to do biz dev, or connect with venture funding partners.
- Self Promotion, or PR is hard: Unlike the US, if you have an amazing idea, it seems like it’s 10x times hard to get it promoted or recognized.
Top 5 LeWeb 08′ Predictions
- MySpace Music will be acquired by 2012 (not MySpace, only the music part).
- ALL books will eventually be freely available to read online by 2015.
- Virtual goods will be the next major monetization strategy for startups, more so than advertising. (maybe a hybrid of both).
- Gary Vaynerchuk (www.winelybrary.tv) will eventually (within 1-2 years) do something big with Barack Obama.
- Marissa Mayer (VP of Search Product and User Experience at Google) will be discovered to be a robot (o.k. you may not believe me, but give it time :-).
All in all, I had an amazing time. Maybe it was Paris, maybe the wine – either way, I need to send a huge thanks to Geraldine and Loic for hosting an amazing conference, with very unique content!!! I would highly recommend any company from Canada, or the US, to attend next year (hopefully they’ll have the wifi issues fix by then :-)!
Did you attend? Any thoughts? Maybe ideas / feedback from the twitter stream. Let me know.