Webmission

San Francisco – 2013

Antoine — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 11:27:37 +0000

After a short break the WebMission is back in San Francisco first week of June 2013 !

It has been a tradition every year since 2009 to bring to San Francisco a group of Belgian entrepreneurs to visit the hottest startups in the Bay Area, meet successful entrepreneurs and pitch to the local crowd. Following the first WebMission a large flock of Belgians have set their roots in the US and launched great startups like Storify, Checkthis, Twitspark and we’ve heard that there is more to come.

This year the WebMission will be preceded by a special program at the SiliconHouse in Mountain View organised by Paul Stasse and Tanguy Peers (only 8 places available, 2800€ participation fee), and will also take place at the same time than the Mission Princière. We are restricting the application to 25 participants with a small commitment fee up to the participant to support the organisation.

The WebMission will take place the first week of June starting on the 3rd. The program is not finalised yet and will evolve depending on the suggestions we get from the participants, you can have a look at the previous trips to get a better idea of what a typical WebMission in San Francisco looks like.

If you’d like to help in the organisation drop us an email at belgians@webmission.be

If you are interested in the SiliconHouse program check our dedicated page for this event

If you are interested in joining the WebMission 2013 in SF, apply here :

Apply

Fabian Tilmant

kindja — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 14:34:38 +0000

A few weeks before another exciting challenge relocating to The Philippines and connecting with the local startup scene, here’s the time to look back and give credit! I joined the 2011 Bay Area Webmission to field test my current project to the best tech and media scene! After a week meeting exciting people in New York, I joined the team in San Francisco to meet inspiring leaders of companies like Flipboard, Kissmetrics, Playfish, Qik…, meeting the fellow Belgians in the Bay and attending an SF New Tech dedicated to our country startup ecosystem.

This adventure allowed me to get great feedback on DICoDE and to understand that its scope is larger than Strategies and Business Models. These guys are actually making innovation happen, and getting to know the spirit of the Silicon Valley brings a huge inspiration to change the world! Concepts like Customer Development and The Lean Startup, as well as the whole Design Thinking movement, following PARC, IDEO and Steve Jobs’ path allow to Make It Happen putting the User Experience at the center of the Business. Palo Alto became the epicenter of my quest, connecting many key elements of what became a few weeks later Leanovation, my new project.

Webmission is also, and before all, a great group of individuals, passionate about technology and what it enables, improving people’s life. I’ve met some of the most inspiring and knowledgeable experts in Belgium during this awesome week and am very grateful to the core team for spending countless hours making sure it happened!

I can’t wait to make new plans with the team, maybe for an Asian Webmission. Or for joining an upcoming initiative, meeting new people, finding new tracks of inspiration and, who knows, maybe really change the world together?

Fabian Tilmant,
Participant San Francisco 2011.

Pieter-Jan Vandormael

kindja — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 10:40:53 +0000

Get out and participate! Okay, that’s all the provocation I’ll put in this message. Though it sometimes look like Belgians need a lot of it to actually do something and focus. The Belgian Webmission is not your ordinary group of tech tourists. It’s self-organizing individuals that want to rise beyond the masses, and either have done, are doing, or will be doing things that make a difference on an entrepreneurial level. And for this they are right in the forefront of European innovation.

Young Belgian software engineers have the capabilities to make all the products that are being made in San Francisco. Heck, they could even do it better in terms of technical quality. What lacks is often a sense of style and priority. You don’t pick these up without mingling in the right communities. Seeing other people ‘drink the koolaid’ (even in its negative self-destructive meaning) also helps. Finally, communicating and working together in interdependent roles needs to be learnt too.

My story with the Webmission is somewhat a-typical. Then again, most stories about the Webmission probably are. I first learned about it via social media and word of mouth during Google I/O in San Francisco in 2010. At that point I had been intensively occupied with Android mobile apps. I decided the “Webmission” could include mobile as well. In 2011, I therefore joined the next mission from the start and tried to help to organize the new events in California. Trying is as important as anything when a group is self-organized.

While in San Francisco again for Google I/O in 2011, I had to balance a bit between the activities of the Webmission and the GTUG Geek Tour that I was also helping to accommodate (renting a car etc.). I think not holding back on helping out any group that asks you, helps to grow your network even faster and adds cross-pollination. Similarly it never was on my mind that I was one of the few Dutch-speaking members of the Webmission. A few places we visited with the Geek Tour, we revisited with the Webmission and it helped me to get a closer relationship with our hosts and different perspectives on the local ecosystem. One particular example I remember is when Xavier Damman looked surprised when he met one of the Belgians a few days ahead of the actual visit of the Webmission to the Mashery (and old Storify) offices.

As I didn’t have a sufficiently developed product to pitch, I guess one has to be dedicated to support those that have. To this day I still can’t stop repeating the pitches for the (now) companies that I went through this process together with, such as Checkthis, Auctelia, Storify, ShallIBuy and so on. Even though I received some good feedback on the Android apps I maintain, not having a startup-ripe consumer-targeted product is the main reason for me not to participate in the Webmission this year, and leave a space for others.

So if you are at the point in life where you think you could learn from this and contribute to it at the same time, start organizing and bundle your forces with the Webmission. It helps you put into perspective what you thought you knew about software engineering. For you it shouldn’t be about nice venues, good weather or friendly people, but about getting and learning the tools to make a difference, AND using them. Good as it will have been for you, the Webmission should not end when landing in Zaventem. Become active in user groups in Belgium, be social, be high-tech, spread the word, pull your weight, so that you undo the silent majority about real tech entrepreneurship and adoption. Or if you immediately fly off again, back to Silicon Valley to pursue your dream and new reality, that’s okay too.

Pieter-Jan Vandormael,
Android developer, BruGTUG co-organizer, open source supporter
Participant San Francisco 2010 and 2011.

Bruno Delepierre

kindja — Tue, 29 May 2012 10:23:10 +0000

If I had to summarize things, I’d say: the webmission: learn that you are not alone with a dream, see that it can become reality and have great fun discovering how with other Belgians.

The webmission is an inspiring way to learn to know San Francisco and Silicon Valley. It enables you to visit large digital firms and see how things are done on the other side of the ocean, firms you would otherwise not get into by yourself.

At the same time it also gives you the opportunity to meet fellow digital entrepreneurs and share discussions about the challenges, great successes and great failures over a beer. By having these talks, sometimes even partnerships can emerge, but at its very least, it’s just fun to have a beer with other young entrepreneurs sharing war stories.

Finally, the webmission can provide some introductions within the digital scene that could be very useful once your business is launched.

All in all, enough reasons to give it a try, you’ll have new friends, new ideas and maybe, just maybe you meet the VC of your life

Bruno Delepierre,
CEO, Adforce
Participant SF 2011.

Get Inspired

kindja — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 07:24:08 +0000

Well, I think there are enough testimonials about the webmission which can lighten your willingness to participate. In a nutshell, YES, it’s AWESOME.

I’d rather talk about what I’ve learned from the american entrepreneuship. Let me try this short essay. It’s my first one so be kind

Entrepreneurship is like a railway system. A railway system is an highly complex system where technology, equipment, people work in harmony to get people where they want to go. Yet, most passengers are not aware of all the challenges that need to be tackled every day in order to reach their final destination. Passengers just jump in the train and then wait comfortably seated. However, so many actions are undertaken to move the train. The electricity is provided to the catenary, the rails are well maintained to stay straight and perfectly aligned, the train engines power the wheels. The railway controlers choose the right tracks to ensure a perfect traffic. Entrepreneurs are not passengers, they are trains. Firstly, they choose their vision, their destination and take the right tracks to get there as fast as possible. Secondly, they launch, they start the engine and get out alone of the warehouse. Then, they get financing, they need energy to fully run the engine on the tracks. Employees are finally hired, passengers get on the train. On their way to success, they may iterate, take shortcuts to go faster or they may pivot, take another destination. In the end, the success is finally there! They have reached their destination. This fantastic complexity for one simple goal!

Now what’s the point with America ? Here it comes. America has a perfect railway system : There are plenty of trains available allowing the economy to boost. On time ? Yes, because electricity is available at very low cost and no administrative work is necessary to go from one station to another. And most important, the railways have an outstanding reputation, people thinks they bring prosperity and welfare for the entire society.

And what about Belgium, hummm…. For sure, the trains are there and they are many. Moreover, they have powerful engines! For the rest, I leave it to you. Make up your mind!!!!

Any way, do not stay passengers! Get out of the train and be one!!!!

You may live well with failure or success linked to your projects, but it may be more challenging to live with regrets about not having tried!!!

Fuck, just do it!!!

François-Xavier Bellot
Co- Founder, Auctelia
Participant San Francisco & East Coast 2011.

Didier Vermeiren

kindja — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 17:00:50 +0000

I participated in the Belgian webmission in the spring of 2011 to San Francisco.
There are 3 important trade-offs for Belgian entrepreneurs who’re considering to participate:
First, you get the opportunity to meet and be inspired by people and businesses from the local tech scene that are instrumental in the tech business. Second, you’re surrounded by like-minded Belgian entrepreneurs. Being together abroad creates a much stronger bond that will prove to be rewarding upon your return in Belgium. Finally, as an entrepreneur, it is so important that you confront yourself with what’s happening outside your home-turf.

Via Webmission I got the opportunity to pitch at the SF New Tech conference, and show my product to influencers like Scobleizer.

The people of the webmission are doing a great job. You get an interesting agenda packed with opportunities to meet people and get inspired. From the premises of visionary kick-ass startups, an international conference, to over a beer in a loungy bar: meet, pitch, get inspired and have fun!

Didier Vermeiren
Founder, ShallIBuy
Participant San Francisco 2011.

SXSW 2012 is this week!

vinch — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 19:48:45 +0000

A few days left before SXSW.

Sorry for the lack of updates folks, it’s been a busy time for all of us.

For those of you who are not joining but wondering who is, and what this is all about, here’s a recap.

The People

We have 20 participants and we are proud to say it’s a great team!

Antoine Perdaens (Co-Founder and CEO at Knowledge Plaza)
Jeremy Le Van (Designer at Foursquare)
Roald Sieberath (Works at Microsoft Innovation Center Belgique)
Frédéric della Faille (Founder at Checkthis)
Melvyn Hills (Web Developer at Checkthis)
Caroline Sedda (Senior Product Manager at Shopping.com)
Xavier Damman (Co-Founder, Director at Storify)
Marina Aubert (Managing Director at CommunicationWeb)
Damien Van Achter (Editorial Developer at OWNI)
Ramon Suarez (Founder & Managing Partner at BetaGroup Coworking Brussels)
Maxime De Greve (Lead UX/UI Designer at Uberlife)
Sam Piroton (Freelance Consultant)
Stijn Van Vreckem (Managing Director at XAOP)
Jean-Yves Huwart (Founder and CEO at Entreprise Globale)
Muriel Ebrahime (Freelance Graphic Designer)
Grégoire Hoin (Owner/Partner at Spade SCRL)
Vincent Battaglia (Product Manager/Engineer at Storify)
Xavier Corman (External CFO for SME)
Bart Becks (Founder & CO-CEO of SonicAngel)
Patrick Bosteels (CEO / co-founder, tcs digital world)

Ramon and Jean-Yves will be attending the Global Coworking Unconference Conference, which happens in Austin before SXSW starts.

The Schedule

As the few people who have already been to SXSW know, there’s much to do at the conference itself already, and there’s so much network happening organically that we won’t have time to rest.

A few visits and meetups are planned with local people, companies, and the French by South West (FXSW) and we’ll tell you more about them as they happen.

Panels

If you have a browse through the massive amount of panels happenning at SXSW, you’ll see that at any given time, there is something for everyone, wether you’re in marketing, design, development, or running a startup.

There’s also a list of featured sessions.

Keep updated

For those who don’t have the chance to be in Austin for SXSW, we’ll probably tweet a lot during the conference so follow @webmission for updates from the team. We’ll also create stories with Storify here.

See you on the other side!

(Photo: Tori Lesikar)

8 Places You Should Not Miss While in SxSW (myventurepad.com)
#SXSW: How to make the most of your first visit to SXSW (smartblogs.com)

Vincent Battaglia

Antoine — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 18:24:27 +0000

The first time I came in California, it was in May 2010 for the Webmission. It was the second Webmission who flew to Silicon Valley and we were there to showcase WooRank, an SEO tool for analyzing websites. At the time, we reported our experience on 1MD’s blog.

For me it was a very inspiring trip. Besides the city that I directly fell in love with, I instantly enjoyed the enthusiasm of the place. Here, everything seems possible. Entrepreneurs don’t have constraints and limits. They want to change the world, no more, no less.

All major computer companies are located here: Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo!, Electronic Arts, etc. This is the place to be for a developer, as well as Hollywood is the place to be for an actor that wants to become a movie star.

This is also where many technologies are developed (e.g. Node.js invented by the guys at Joyent) and where are located many investors who will not hesitate to put several million dollars in your startup if it seems interesting to them!

After 24 hours, I knew I should live here some future day.

So as soon as I got the opportunity, I did not hesitate for long. Moreover, I’m lucky to work for Storify, a young startup full of potential!

Anyway, the Webmission was really a very important step in my career and I recommend anyone to attend it someday. It could really change your life!

Vincent Battaglia,
Front-End Engineer, Storify
Participant San Francisco 2010.

Meet

kindja — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:40:28 +0000

Hackers often talk about getting into “the zone”, but it’s exactly the same for entrepreneurs. Each year, the webmission is like a pilgrim’s way to (re)discover the heart of tech life. This trip to San Francisco, Google I/O and all the web startups from the valley is a one of a kind experience, where innovation finds new ways to life.

They say it’s not the destination, but the journey that matters. That pretty much summarizes what makes the webmission such a great event. Traveling together to meet so many web entrepreneurs willing to talk about their own success and moreover their failures is the cornerstone of each mission.

You can read so much about entrepreneurship in books, podcasts or blogs, but that’s no match with the social aspect of the webmissions. There is subtle mix between learning, sharing and meeting new people from the startups’ world.

It’s not about superficial networking. You meet people with open minds and ready to share their experience. Sometimes, you even get to know better entrepreneurs from your own country and you end up working together on a new idea back in belgium.

That’s exactly what happened when I met FX and Chris from Auctelia! A couple of months later, I joined the team to build a B2B marketplace for industrial and professional equipment. Idea are easy to find, but meeting great people to have fun everyday (while working) is something really precious.

The webmission DOES change your entrepreneur life by mixing the best ingredients: technology, sharing, innovation, web, inspiration, fun and people ! All that condensed in one week to fuel your mind up with passion.

Eric Rodriguez,
CTO, Auctelia
Participant SF 2010 & SF 2011.

Pitch

kindja — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 18:00:22 +0000

Our experience with the Webmission in San Francisco last year was a major and fantastic step in our journey to build a valuable product.

First, it’s a unique opportunity to meet your peers, getting feedback and constantly improving your pitch, days and nights. We couldn’t have done this in Belgium.

Then, off-course, the travel itself. San Francisco is where it happens, and even if you probably can build anything anywhere, you absolutely need to understand how these guys are making these things happening — and they are really willing to share their experience with you.

Now, nearly one year later, we feel much more stronger and ready to take checkthis to the next level, thanks to validation we got from the belgian community (don’t read the news, they are absolutely supportive!).

Frédéric della Faille,
Founder Checkthis
Participant SF 2011.