So we’re coming to the end of day three of Web Mission.  Day 4 is still on hold as tonight we’re off to DrinkTank, a VIP networking event hosted by Michael and Xochi  Birch – founders of Bebo.  The guest list reads like a who’s who of the internet:  Max Levchin, founder of Paypal and Slide, Michael Arrington, founder and editor of Techcrunch, Joe Greenstein, founder of Flixter, Super Angel Dave Mclure… I could go on. We’re still trying to work out how we landed this gig!
 
It has literally been ‘all go’ since we got here, with a tight agenda mixed with investor pitches.
 
We landed Saturday afternoon and headed straight to a debriefing and drinks event. Then Sunday morning we had brunch laid on by the amazingly well-connected Susan MacTavish Best.  Susan owns Best PR, a firm described as the Silicon Valley equivalent of the Hollywood agent, who takes little known brands and makes them household names. She looks after Craig’s List among others and her quirky logo and business cards deliberately resemble British bar mats. Susan, it transpires, is a big fan of housebites and has already been spreading the good word about us. If we ever do find ourselves based here, we’re going to need someone like Susan on-board. 
 
So Ms MacTavish Best opened her home to a few dozen Valley personalities including key media people and some interesting start-ups. She laid on brunch and staff to serve Bloody Marys and French toast. I was struck with the feeling of ‘start as you mean to go on’.  One start-up of note was Blockchalk a kind of message board for communicating within your neighbourhood. It’s not just UK cities where we don’t know our neighbours well enough (or at all) and I think these guys, three founders previously working at Craig’s List and Delicio.us, are on to a good thing.
 
Monday’s highlights included a visit to Twitter’s offices. Well, actually more of a visit around their canteen as they don’t allow visitors in any other part of the building. But it was interesting to hear how their business is run and hear about the beliefs on which the company is built on.
 
In the evening we had an unexpected opportunity to present to a panel of early stage VCs in a pitching competition.  I was informed that the British accent definitely helps at these things.  We had two minutes to pitch with no slides then two minutes’ Q&A.  One New York VC and an angel were definitely keen on following up and it was also a good heart workout.
 
Tuesday, we spent the morning pitching ‘Sand Hill’ VCs. Sand Hill is the street in the Valley where many of them are housed.  Not sure the presentation went as well as Monday’s but it was certainly an experience. 
 
We spent the early part of the evening with the inspirational Sarah Lacy of TechCrunch and author of ‘Once you’re Lucky, Twice you’re Good’. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Sarah in London and partying till late and I’m a fervent believer that you can’t truly get to know someone until you’ve shared a karaoke session at Lucky Voice and witnessed my rendition of Blue Moon.
 
The TechCrunch offices were really cool. Contemporary, lots of space and fun. A total contrast to Twitter’s, which were duller than I expected (sorry Twitter). Sarah told us all about her latest book which was launching in 24 hours ‘Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky: How the Top 1% of Entrepreneurs Benefit from Global Chaos’. She spent over 40 weeks travelling the world including countries as diverse as Rwanda, Brazil, China and Israel. She met entrepreneurs at every level on this self-financed trip to tell the story of opportunity in the globalised world outside of the US. So you can imagine she had some good tales to tell.
 
Today was a whole different game.  We had one-on-ones with two different VCs and a super angel. So much better than the panel pitches of the last 48 hours. These guys had already decided they liked our concept enough for a full hour and we made the most of this.  I can’t really say any more than this other than watch this space. Hopefully. 
 
With Microsoft, Salesforce.com and some more one-on-ones ahead, there’s still a lot to do. But, tonight I’m going to see how the entrepreneurs that got their big exits enjoy their success. It’s party time at Michael Birch’s castle and I’ll be working that British accent!



Simon Prockter is the CEO and co-founder of housebites, a peer-to-peer social dining platform that enables people to meet through dinner parties in the home. He previously founded SpeedDater which was sold in 2008.