Last week Susan Lucas-Conwell, chief of www.SDForum.org kindly invited me to a gathering of the Edinburgh-Stanford Link www.edinburghstanfordlink.org, a high tech collaboration between both universities, funded by Scottish Enterprise. She knows only too well I can’t resist a good evening out with my fellow lads and lassies. Och aye.
Internet guru Mark Fletcher www.wingedpig.com was brave enough to host the invasion of whisky-drinking venture-capital pursuing Scots at his Dr. Suess-inspired pin-ball and pool table filled mansion in the hills of Redwood City.
I chatted with some jolly Scottish entrepreneurs (who sounded suspiciously English!) and they described the humiliation of pitching to VCs at Google. One nugget of advice: if you want to build a social network – hosting competitions is key. Everyone wants to be a winner of course! Mike Clauser, US tech entrepreneur and angel funder in Scotland seemed a bit under the weather: whisky or flu, I’m not quite sure? But I hope he’s recovered by now.
Also chatted with the host and his entourage about proper kilt wearing etiquette, and the Scots’ propensity for deep frying everything from haggis to mars bars. Even plugged my concept for a green living website, but sadly no blank checks were forthcoming…
Before Susan and I hit the winding road, I met with the charming Margaret McGarry of www.scottish-enterprise.com who told me about the three Scottish entrepreneurs who knocked on every door in Sand Hill Road earlier that day and had some good leads (no joke!). Still hoping to hear the good news from Margaret: that their mission was $$$$ successful. I love to hear about SV sharing its wealth and wisdom with the Auld Country.
