Who’s at Web Summit 2015?

    The Web Summit, possibly the last of it’s kind in Dublin, is getting closer, and we’re getting excited to head for Dublin between the 3rd and 5th of November for a couple of days of talks, networking, exploring the latest trends and meeting the hottest upcoming startups.

    As usual, the organizers have managed to put up a massive and impressive list of speakers. Let’s have a look at who’s going to be there this year and who particularly tickles our nerves. We’ll break it down to two sections; General Speakers and Investors.

    Speakers

    Stewart Butterfield, Co-Founder & CEO of Slack certainly is one of the hottest names this year, having taken the company collaboration and communication to the next level with the clever application. Definitely keeping our ears open. Sean Rad, Co-Founder and CEO of Tinder. Yes, swipe to get a date (or not!), Tinder has taken over the dating world. Palmer Luckey, Founder of Oculus Rift became a multimillionaire at a very young age after selling Oculus to Facebook last year. Looking forward to hear his thoughts on the launch of Oculus for general public on 2016. Dan Brown, Author of The Da Vinci Code and other bestseller books will create some buzz for sure.

    Nicola Mendelsohn of Facebook, Peter Lau, CEO of OnePlus phones, Rob Lloyd, CEO of Hyperloop, Yancey Strickler, Co-Founder and CEO of Kickstarter and John Sculley, former CEO of Apple will also catch our interest, to just name a few. Choose your picks well, as it is impossible to see all you want, especially when keeping in mind that you are there to network too and not just to listen to the speeches.

    For some Nordic flavors on stage, you’ll be able to see Martin Kallström (SWE), CEO of Narrative clip, Kristo Käärmann (EST) Co-Founder and CEO of Transferwise, Laura Lepistö (FIN), World Bronze Medalist in figure skating, Steve Angello (SWE) DJ & Founder of Size Records, Nicolas Michaelsen (DEN), CMO of Airhelp, Adam Kostyál (SWE) SVP of NASDAQ, Knut Molaug (NOR) CEO of Green Mountain and Mikko Hyppönen (FIN) from F-Secure.

    Check out all the speakers here

    Investors

    Web Summit probably gathers under the same roof the most startup venture capital at any one place at one time. You can meet all the big shots from US and Europe, and they are of course looking for great deals. Here’s few of the heavyweights you ought to be on a lookout near the stages and near the investor lounge.

    Sonali De Rycker (Accel Partners), Shervin Pishevar (Sherpa Ventures), Mark Suster (Upfront Ventures), Dave McClure (500 Startups), Neil Rimer (Index Ventures) are probably the most famous ones, even the list goes on and on. And also these names are typically the most chased ones too, so maybe you should try to look through the very long list of investors and filter out the ones that could be more suitable and more accessible for you to meet. Keep in mind that not all investors invest in to Nordics and Baltics as they may have some geographical limitations in place, so do your homework regarding the region and of course the industries.

    We can easily spot some familiar investors who are active in the Nordics. Dawn Capital, Balderton Capital, Rubylight, Open Ocean Capital, Proxy Ventures, Alliance Venture, Atomico, Qualcomm Ventures, White Star Capital, Northzone and DN Capital at least are “safe bets”, and it may be possible to spot your more familiar investor face from the crowd and get their attention as sometimes in the local events it is hard as everyone is trying to get to them.

    During the evenings, if you are able to spot an investor you have been wanting to meet at some bar (which does not play music too loud), it’s like hitting a jackpot, as investors are humans too and enjoy some networking with drinks and tend to be more relaxed then. Just remember not to start pitching them your idea immediately. Rather show interest on them on a personal level, how has their day been etc. and maybe a bit later ask for an advice. After all day of pitching and pitching, switch that part off and make friends. That way even they might not be able to help you, they might be willing to introduce you to someone they know and can help you.

    See all the investors here

    ArcticStartup has partnered with Web Summit to offer a limited amount of discounted tickets for our readers. To get 20% off your ticket, act fast as we have a quota of just 20 tickets. Use code: WMD8735jm