
Sherry Coutu is skeptical of the big valuations that have been banded around so far this year. You can definitely trust her judgment, she knows what she’s talking about – her entrepreneur/investor pedigree is impeccable.
The list of companies Sherry Coutu is associated with is a veritable who’s-who of successful ventures: LinkedIn, Interactive Investors, LoveFilm, Seedcamp, NESTA, and most latterly, ArtFinder (a great site that I wrote about recently). Sitting down with Sherry Coutu at NESTA’s London headquarters, she discusses the big valuations that have been made recently. As a reminder: so far this year, Groupon rejected a $6bn bid from Google; Google/Microsoft/Facebook tried to acquire Twitter for $10bn; and Facebook was valued at $80bn. Is this another tech bubble? Are 2011’s huge valuations for Groupon, Facebook, etc, going to blow up?Despite her skepticism of the industry’s mega-valuations, it’s still an industry that remains close to her heart – she doesn’t want to knock it. One of Coutu’s big annual projects is the “Silicon Valley Comes To The UK” programme (known as SVC2UK), which arranges for key serial entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from Silicon Valley to spend a week in London and Cambridge, sharing their stories and inspiring students, and introducing links between investors. SVC2UK has been hugely successful in the past – last year, the programme had more than 2,500 participants, and focused on green tech, consumer internet and social. Coutu is delighted to confirm that it’s going to happen again this year, to focus on gaming. The finer details are still being worked out, but it’s going to be bigger and bolder. More entrepreneurs, more events, more reach. We’ll report more on this closer to the event – it’s pencilled in for the week of November 14.
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