Where to start in London? | Hacker News Reader

Where to start in London?

20 pointsolliejudge12 comments

So in about a year or two I'm looking to move to the US either through my own startup or some kind of freelance venture. For the last little while I've been doing okay doing some security and general technical consulting for companies but I want to go after something a little more adventurous.

I want to meet some people in the London tech scene and how I should get started and glean some experience of those who have been there before. I realise I just missed the HN meetup last week, does anyone have any advice for where I should go to either have a drink with some inspirational people or anyone here fancy a coffee to throw around a couple of ideas?

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Hit the streets around Silicon roundabout. Find their blogs, get yourself invited to the Friday pub trips (or just turn up and get talking; if you've got what it takes to start and run a business successfully, that won't be a problem for you).

http://www.economist.com/node/17581635?story_id=17581635&...

Startup Weekend Cambridge is in a couple of weeks and should be a good place to meet people.

I wrote a general list of london startup events a while back: http://blog.awesomezombie.com/2010/06/london-startup-event-g...

Also take a look at Lanyrd http://lanyrd.com/places/london/

My advice with the London tech scene is be wary when you go to too many events and not spend enough time building. Try to be selective after a while. Read this post in TechCrunch EU that pretty hits it on the head: http://eu.techcrunch.com/2010/09/23/the-london-startup-scene...

I think everyone in the London tech scene has the experience of going to one too many events. I was also talking to someone at HNLondon who recounted stories of hot-tubs and naked ladies back in the pre-facebook Paul Carr days. Yeah pretty much sums it up.

Also if your interested in general hackery London Hackspace is a pretty good place: http://london.hackspace.org.uk Tuesday nights are pretty much open nights. We have a laser cutter, MakerBot and loads of other fun equipment (incl. homebrew beer)

http://www.techhub.com/ is a good start, especially TechHubFriday.

Join the London OpenCoffee meetup at meetup.com, as they hold regular weekly meetings every Thursday in Central London for tech start up folk, and you should be able to get some good contacts there.

http://www.meetup.com/londonocc/

HTH

I was looking for something that was around often rather than monthly I'll check it out. Thanks!

The MiniBar meetup - last Friday of every month - is for internet professionals and entrepreneurs (nr. Brick Lane / Liverpool St) http://www.meetup.com/minibar/

They are well attended, have guest speakers, and best of all - free beer ;-)

I've been to MiniBar a handful of times, and I'm not really keen on it. It's a really noisy venue and you can't hear the speakers. Great if you want to have a drink and general chit-chat. My advice with Minibar is to meet or go with people you already know and make it a social evening.

Agreed, I generally cann't hear the speakers either unless I'm right at the front, but that's sort of by the by. The main reason to is to meet people in the crowd.

I find that events are a good starting point. You can check out the startupdigest.com for London.

Lots of good people meet at the Londroid meetup. We'll be having another one soon and you'd be very welcome: http://www.meetup.com/android

I'll be starting a monthly networking event for creative professionals shortly. I'll post a link here. if you add your email to profile I'll email you when it starts.

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