The line-up, we are assured, promises some of the best minds in Silicon Valley. Entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and some big web business names are all at Oxford University's Said Business School today to talk about innovation, technology start-ups and which trends to watch in the industry.
Fifteen (that has to be a record) VIP guests shared the stage for the opening session.
Paul Graham has invested in 80 start-ups through Y Combinator, which does the opposite of traditional investment houses in that it makes large numbers of small investments rather than small numbers of large investments.
"Look for things that are evil, broken or stupid. These are usually great opportunities," he said.
"You might look at the music industry and think that it seems evil that they are suing 12-year-olds. Making money through recorded music - that's gone," and to that end, Y Combinator is investing in alternative music models.
Graham said entrepreneurs shouldn't get too hung up on whether there's a bubble or not: "Maybe you'll sell one day for $20m or for a billion - either way you'll be happy. But just do it. Don't sit there waiting for some wave, or waiting for a good time. Just do something good."
LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman said that the discussion about a new web bubble is usually too simplified. Costs of hardware, software and bandwidth are all far less this time around, and the ad market online is far greater. "There will be some trough and companies being corrected, but relatively few. The pace of development is now so fast that we're seeing the next wave of disruption starting before the last has kicked in."
Kim Polese, chief executive of software firm SpikeSource, said that entrepreneurs need a product that solves a problem, but also need to realise how their product fits into people's lives. "A lot of entrepreneurs fall in love with their ideas, but that's not enough."
And Auctomatic co-founder Harjeet Taggar said he'd moved to the Valley with his business partner partly because of the mindset. UK entrepreneurs tend to be fixated on a single big idea, he said, like milliondollarhomepage.com. In the Valley, start-ups are more likely to ay they aren't sure what their next idea is, or that they don't know if their current idea will work.
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