Anyway, for whatever reason, there are a huge number of British & Australian words and phrases that Americans don’t understand, or think is whimsical. Here is a guide:

Whilst, Amongst

This came as quite a shock to me – that American’s don’t use the word ‘whilst’ or ‘amongst’. They use the much less romantic ‘while’ and ‘among’. Apparently, American’s think us Brits/Aussies are quaint for using such anachronistic terms, although they would never use the word ‘quaint’ either, they would say ‘cute’.

Fortnight

Again, an enormous shock to me is that a word which I use so regularly and has such common usage in my life, doesn’t even exist in the US. They would say ‘two weeks’. Which however practical, feels like it loses some yesteryear romance.

Lemonade

You gotta be careful when you order drinks, as what we think of as Lemonade, they call ‘pop’ or ‘soda’ or other terms. If you ask for  Lemonade you get what we call ‘Lemon squash’. And conversely, they don’t have ‘lime cordial’ which is a bit of a problem if you want to do tequila shots the way I do: with a chaser of ‘lime cordial’. Instead, I discovered last weekend a solution: mix sugar into a shot glass of raw lime juice, and ta-dah! Drinkable tequila!

Any word with an ‘r’ in it

I find if I get into a taxi or am speaking to a shopkeeper, the simplest request or question I make is received with a look of bewilderment and incomprehension. I repeat, speaking as clearly as I can… and again, the poor individual just doesn’t understand me. At this point, I usually sigh to myself, and repeat what I am trying to say, but I roll my ‘r’s. Suddenly, the clouds part and I am understood. So, Brits/Aussies – when you say words like ‘car’, ‘ear phones’, and ‘Sutter Street’… you will not be understood unless you try really hard to roll the ‘r’.

And you may ask to what degree have Americanisms affected my speech? I spent a bit of time when I first arrived watching The Rachel Zoe Project, and to my surprise, with all sincerity described something exciting as being ‘major’. And I probably rolled the ‘r’ in that word too. And although I cannot bring myself to say it with a straight face, I do love it when Americans describe something crazy as being ‘bananas’ – but pronounced like you’d imagine a big Texan would: ‘banaaaanas’. It does make me giggle with affection’

Oh, and dating vocabulary is unexpectedly different. Whereas Australians would say ‘pash’ and the English ‘snog’, the Americans use the much less onomatopoeic ‘make out’. And dating here is a very casual sounding ‘to hang out’.

Anyway, am sure everyone has their own experiences with Trans Atlantic idioms that have made us chuckle warmly, would love to hear more of them, leave in comments below.

I look for someone who’s eyes twinkle when they talk about their hopes and ambitions, and when they talk about your company. Someone that has that sparkle of brightness, coupled with a personality that you warm to straight away.

I have hired people (or rather, known I was going to hire someone) just by reading their cover letter. My Account Director, Mark, was like that. We still talk about his cover letter to this day, it is part of the mythology of my company: this passionate, clever, witty, researched letter exuding a desire to work with you. I knew after reading it there was no way I wouldn’t hire him.

Same with when I interviewed Tom, one of our Account Managers. He came to our interview with the job description highlighted and full of notes, and we asked him to share his notes, and what he said was so full of heart and hope and sincerity… I pretty much hired him on the spot.

I love especially when you hire someone that has never done the exact job you are hiring them for, but you just *know* they are going to excel at a challenge you throw at them. They are overlooked by other companies who only want people from the ‘right’ schools and who have done it all before, but I love nothing more than spotting that diamond in the rough and giving them an opportunity to shine. I look around my amazing team and see little gems who I trust and who are so loyal and hard-working, and bring with them untarnished thinking and no ego.

The challenge with this direction is that I tend not to have team members who have done their job before, we are all working it out as we go along. This is both an incredible strength – giving us creativity and unfettered thinking and passion – but a challenge as we can get it wrong, and it takes a degree of management overhead which perhaps a more seasoned team wouldn’t need so much.

My other favourite hiring moments: we have a great designer, Barbara, who had studied and worked so hard, and only agencies and her university gave her work. We looked at the body of work she had done, and were shocked. Why would this beautiful talented girl not get snapped up? Perhaps she didn’t have the experience, and she was shy and not aggressive in her approach. But what we saw in her was a well-rounded, ambitious, creative person who just wanted a chance to shine. So, we gave it to her. What a gem! She can do anything from print design to website design to illustrations to user experience design. And she does it well, quickly, and I think relishes how appreciated she is, the freedom to get a bit creative, and how pivotal her role is in the company, and she knows it.

My CTO, Ciaran, was also one of those people I knew I would hire before I even met him. He tells the story that he knew this was the company he wanted, and he didn’t even apply or care about any other roles. He sent an application in, then – and I love this – he called up to tell me he had just applied, and just so I knew, he *really* wanted this job. Love that.

The point is, as a CEO, you have to make hiring decisions on so little information, and you often just have to go with your gut. And what my gut looks for (ok, some mixed metaphors here, I know) is that spark and fire in the eyes, someone that goes a little beyond the normal, and I do love a good coincidence. My last hiring tale is about hiring my quirky and exceptional Finance Manager, Sofia. We knew we needed a Finance Manager, so I tweeted this fact. A friend of mine responded with a tweet saying a friend of his might be interested, and sent her email address. I emailed this person, and we interviewed her. What we found out was that my friend had only met her once a year ago, and didn’t know her that well at all. He hadn’t spoken to Sofia in a year, and had no idea if she was even looking for work. It turns out Sofia had just quit her job a week before, and was looking for work in a startup. It could not have been better orchestrated. We pretty much hired her straight away, she had the fire in her eyes. Sofia still makes me laugh more than almost anyone in the world.

Anyway, we are hiring again, so I leave it to those who have that spark to get in touch!

Despite being proud of being a UK-based company achieving success internationally, it was becoming obvious that to take ourselves to the level we wanted to, we needed to set up a physical base in the US. We had resisted for a while – I was hesitant to split our team up over two continents when we have such an incredible chemistry when we are together, and I was reluctant to shake up my life, again, to move to a new country. Because it was inevitably going to be me that had to make the move. My dear co-founder, Joe, is married to my good friend Philippa, who runs a wildly successful fashion PR company in London, and it just wasn’t possible for him to move country without living apart from Philly, or without her giving up her company. Neither were even remotely an option.

On the other hand, I was single, with no commitments… it was inevitably going to be me that moved over to the US. But I resisted, I was scared… of starting again, of living out of a suitcase, of not having my support network of close friends, of not knowing a city intimately like I know London. I have moved country 3 times – Sydney to London, London to Sydney, Sydney to London again – and the thought of doing it again… and leaving my support network and team to embark upon a huge challenge on my own… well, I resisted.

But it was my VP Sales, Jeff Sullivan, who kicked me, necessarily, into action. The challenge of running and working with a remote team while 8 hours timezone away – he said – is hard, but its an overcomeable challenge. The challenge of losing opportunities in the US because we aren’t here, is not overcomeable. It was time, and I was the only one who could do it. So like every superhero/heroine/fantasy character I had ever read about and dreamed I could be like (hey, I’m a geek, of course I do that, you all do!), I prepared to shoulder the burden and fear, and set a date for my departure. I emailed a bunch of my friends to tell them – deliberately, so there was no chickening out. No turning back.

Within a month, I had arrived in San Francisco. Why, I am often asked, did you chose San Francisco over New York that has more publishers and advertisers relevant to my business and was fewer hours apart from London? The answer is that I had ascertained in my previous trips to the US that the kind of deals I wanted to win in San Francisco could only be won if I lived in the Bay Area, and was part of the ‘scene’, whereas the deals I wanted to win in New York I could win just by living in the US, not necessarily in New York. I also had more friends in San Francisco, and it made sense to build buzz amidst the home of geek buzz.

It has now been 3 months since I moved over. To be fair, almost half that time has not been in San Francisco – I’ve been all over the US and back to London, Dublin and Athens in that time, but regardless, this sense of ‘home’ is starting to deliciously creep in. It hits me as I drive down the I-280 amidst those grand rolling volcanic peaks; it hits me as walk down streets of such pretty fanciful facades; it hits me as I continually meet such fascinating friendly people, that make me feel immediately at home.

Hannah and I in a helicopter in Vegas

This whole process has been helped immeasurably by the presence of Hannah, one of my team who a year ago asked me if she could one day move to the US with the company, and I promised her I would do that… a year on, I delivered, and to her surprise and delight she was told her dream was coming true and she was moving to the US. Two night ago Hannah moved out of my apartment to her own flat, but before then, for two months, she and I lived together, worked together and socialised together… and strangely, it was actually fun. We explored the city together, ogled at the city’s cute dogs, acted as wing-women to each other at networking events, made each other laugh as we practised Americanisms we learnt from Jersey Shore and The Rachel Zoe Project… we cushioned the cultural shock for each other, and I can’t thank her enough for being such a wonderful. As Hannah said at one stage “There is a level of loyalty you feel for the startup you work for, especially when you are part of the early team, that other people cannot conceive of.”

So, two days before my first ever Thanksgiving, I thought it pertinent to give thanks to the ease and joy I have felt moving to San Francisco. Thank you to the people who are so willing to open their arms and welcome a stranger into their circle; thank you to the cerebral stimulation I feel at networking events here; thank you to my team back in London who have felt the challenge that distance inevitably adds to our relationship, and still deliver again and again and again. I have no idea what the future holds, where I will be in a year, what adventures, challenges and achievements are ahead of me, but right now, this is right, being in San Francisco and building my team out here, growing my company, giving this whole thing a real and proper go… this is right.  I’m glad I came to America.

Fast forward 4 months later… and it is fine. We now have a team of 24 full-time plus 3 part-time team members, we are bursting at the seams, and things are going great! But it hasn’t been without its growing pains.

On a personal level, the biggest challenge for me is looking at the way I lead, and evolving certain aspects of it, without losing the drive and instinct I have, and that I think has done my company well so far. Especially bringing in fantastic senior experienced people, who have a different approach to projects and decision-making to you.

The first thing we did, and I’m so glad we did, is bring in an amazing leadership training lady, Julie Harrison, who I *heartily* recommend. Think of it as group psychotherapy for a company. I took the 8 members of the management team away to a country estate and we planned our future and delved into the kinds of people we are and the ways we communicate to each other. Its been a very humbling and self-assessing time, for me and I think the whole team, as we look into ourselves and define how we want to grow as colleagues.

Here are some of the things I have learnt, and to be honest, am still learning:

1. People don’t read my mind. Really, this has come as a complete surprise to me. Until now I worked with a small team of people who knew me so well that I didn’t have to explain things, or even make explicit efforts to ‘communicate’. I shared things, and the team understood me, and me them. But this isn’t very scalable, and almost tripling in size with people that haven’t known you as long, means you do have to explicitly do things like: share your vision, explain your decisions, talk through why you want something to be done differently. The language I use as well has to change – again, I can’t expect new people to know that when I’m brusque and decisive, that I don’t mean to undermine or be rude, and I have to be mindful of the words and the way I say things.

2. My job is changing. I now have enough people in the company that I really can delegate, and actually, I really should. Its hard as I’ve been a very hands-on CEO for 3 years, and now its not only not scalable, but it doesn’t convey the confidence I have in my team if I get too involved in the details. This is really hard for me, I’m a product CEO, so I am used to being involved in every aspect of the business, and I still want to be sure that the output of what we do as a company is to the level that I think will help us achieve our business goals. What I am striving to do is give clear description of my goals and vision, empower my amazing team to deliver, and if I think there needs to be further enhancements, to communicate my reasoning for why I think there needs to be enhancements, rather than just do the enhancements myself.

3. Find the balance between my instinctive gut decisions, and a more cerebral analytical approach to decisions. This is a tricky one to communicate without sounding like I’m a new-age odd person. But the way I innovate, make decisions, and devise a vision, is not in a linear analytical path. It used to be, but as I’ve grown, and as I’ve been running this company, I have come to accept and revel in this ability of mine to just ‘see’ the right way to go. Its the reason I was able to pivot to Skimlinks from Skimbit, its the reason I have hired certain key people, its the reason behind much of our core strategy. And it has worked – we have a successful company with happy clients and happy employees building innovative technologies and creating a name for ourselves in the industry, we are doing something right. And I think as the leader of a startup in a race to become an established company, you can’t always take your time and analyse every decision thoroughly. Sometimes you get a moment of opportunity and you have to take it, and sometimes speed to market makes the world of difference. I really believe this. But I don’t dispute that there is value in having this balanced with another way of thinking that is more analytical and measured. What I would like to do is still be able to act swiftly and decisively, but working closely with my management team who bring so many different facets and perspectives and insight into the mix.

Many startups stumble at this phase – growing so quickly can lead to huge amounts of time being spent for the first time on processes, meetings, preparation, communication, talking things through, and while I know a degree of all these things is essential for the functioning of a big team, I will not let my company become swamped in inefficient tasks, and hope that we can quickly become the kind of symbiotic telepathic team it was easy to be when we were smaller. I like the analogy of a rowing team – that to win there needs to be a mind-sharing unity to what we do, everyone has to be bought into the vision and direction of the team, and this comes about as a result of a hell of a lot of training, hard work, and passion. Well, this is something we certainly do!

The secret to getting over growing pains, well, I’ll tell you once we are through them, but my guess is that the secret will turn out to be a genuine willingness on the part of all parties to grow and evolve together, and to be honest and open throughout the process. Sounds cheesy, but its perhaps like a new relationship, as you get used to the other person’s quirks, you over time develop a language and habits that make you closer, make you a partnership. I like the idea of that.

So it always surprises me when fresh young startup folk, trying to get their startup off the ground, come to ask me for advice. I’m one of you, really, and it freaks me out a little to see this look of admiration and respect from these people. Really, do you want to take advice from *me*??

Then I start talking, and I realise I do actually have some advice that is pertinent. I now do know a lot of people, have learnt a lot by doing a lot of stupid things wrong, have been exposed to the machinations of other fabulous startup folk, and am friends with a lot of Angels and VCs… so it seems there is a degree of value I can give to those just starting out.

The problem is, I’m still growing my own company. I’m working 15 hour days, most weekends, I don’t take a lunch break, I avoid all non-essential meetings. My number one priority is making my company a success, and second to that is ensuring I stay sane and vaguely healthy and don’t piss my close friends and family off too much. My time is VERY precious, its my number one resource. I pay a cleaner, I catch cabs everywhere, I live as close to work as I can… anything I can do to earn a few spare minutes a day to dedicate to work or my sanity/friends/family.

So, when I get asked by these newbies for help, I am torn. On one hand, I was given so much support, advice and tutelage by advisers and other startup folk when I first began. I knew nothing, and was so blessed with people that taught me and were patient with me and answered all my questions. All they wanted in return, I am sure, is that I give back to others at some stage. I believe in this ethos, about passing things on, and I am a passionate advocate of the startup community, in London and internationally.

However, there is something else that those advisers and startup folk wanted in return, even if they didn’t consciously think this. And that was: evidence that I was willing to put myself out as well, that I was willing to work hard, not take short-cuts, and give back to the community myself. And perhaps, that they saw that I had what it took to be an entrepreneur, and were willing to invest in me. Although I didn’t know very much at the time, I was determined to make it, and I threw myself into learning everything I could. I read every tech blog I could find every day for months and months before I even started my startup; I knew everything that was happening in the scene, all the important opinion-formers, all the key startups, all the basic advice on how to pitch and get funding. I read books and business blogs. I went to every talk, meet-up, event and conference I could. I worked hard and demonstrated I was willing to work even harder. This was not something I wanted to try, this was something I clearly wanted to do more than anything, and I had dedicated my life at that point onwards to make it happen. And I tried to be an interesting and fun person to those who gave me advice. This last one is possibly the least understood, but probably one of the most fundamental. Newbies have nothing to offer advisers and more seasoned startup folk, except being an interesting engaging person to be around. So they should do this well. They should contribute to the community with their energy and commitment and effort, and be fun people to hang out with. The London startup community is unbelievably entertaining, and its because we don’t always talk about work, but we party, drink, dance, travel and hang-out together as friends as well. You may not have much to offer in terms of knowledge and experience, but you can be a damn fine person to hang out with, and that can often be contribution enough.

So, when I get well-intentioned and polite emails asking me to give up part of my day to teach a newbie about how I got funding, I am torn. I love to help, but will I compromise the success of my company, will I risk my sanity, or will I give up my very very rare and precious time with close friends and family, for someone that perhaps just wants a shortcut or an easy way to success… I just won’t take that risk. If the person were someone personally recommended to me by a good friend who put their reputation on the line and asked me to spend time with them, then I would as a favour to my friend. And if the person put in a solid effort, became a part of the community, and gave a part of themselves to increase the vibrancy and fascination of the industry, and consequently became a friend of mine, then I definitely will help. I do both these things all the time very happily. But will I give an hour of my 15-hour day to someone I met for 2 minutes at a conference, that I have never seen before, and just wants me to give them a short-cut with no clear cut requests for what they want to know… however much I want to help and be polite, I just can’t work any harder than I do or risk the things that really matter to me, for this kind of situation.

So, newbies: please don’t take this as a rejection, but as a challenge and hopefully an inspiration. If you are to make it as an entrepreneur, you will be beset by more challenges and hardships that you can possibly imagine, and no VC will ever invest in you unless you can prove you have the tenacity, ingenuity, and passionate willingness to roll your sleeves up and make things work for you, not by asking for charity, but by being so appealing and engaging that people offer to help you because you are so much fun, and so easy to help.

A good example: one newbie I met at a conference this week sent me an email that was short, polite, and asked two very clear questions about funding. I was able in 2 minutes to reply with useful advice. I’m more than happy to do this. CEOs of startups are fucking busy and stressed people. If you want their help, frame it in a way that makes it easy for them to help you, or that makes it a delight for them to help you. Asking very clear and defined questions via very short emails is the way to do it. Sending them the story of your life and then asking them to take an hour out of their day so you can ‘pick your brain about general funding issues’ will never get a response. Not because they are rude or don’t care, but because they genuinely don’t have the time to help everyone that asks them, and they filter based on who is ultimately going to be a friend, valuable to the community, or who shows they have what it takes to be an entrepreneur themselves by being clever in how they approach busy people.

The way to get me – I go to a regular start-up events, but I work long and hard, so want to chat to fun interesting people when I go to these events. If I meet someone fun and interesting and easy to talk to, and they throw in a very clear question or two about something I can help with, I’ll help happily. If you come referred to me through a trusted friend or adviser, I’ll definitely help as well.

So, newbies, be entrepreneurial in your approach to learning how to become an entrepreneur, else, sorry to say this, you probably won’t make it as an entrepreneur yourself.

However, much has happened in the last 14 months. My company has gone from a startup that literally *just* survived bankruptcy to a company now that employs 27 people and has thousands of clients all over the world. We have completed two rounds of VC funding in that time, and have gone from being unknowns to being featured in Wired, the Financial Times and TechCrunch many a time. I’ve gone from being a very hands-on product/sales/testing/operations person to having to learn to delegate and now focused on strategy, international business development and leading and motivating a diverse group of people. I find myself more satisfied and excited than I ever have in any professional capacity, but also working harder and more intensely than I would have ever thought healthy.

So, I thought it might be time to resurrect this ol’ blog of mine, and continue to share some of my thoughts, learnings and experiences.

Boy am I glad I have separated the corporate blog from my personal blog. I have written now a very sensible and official post on the corporate blog about our funding round, which took me a very long time to write, as I kept wanting to burst into admissions of honesty.

However, I restrained myself, but now am ready to pop. Here is where I can say what I really feel.

YIIIIHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After 13 months of easily the hardest, most stressful, challenging, exhausting, demoralising, desperate time of my life, I am finally out of the tunnel and the light is strong. I don’t want to jinx myself, and I am not unrealistic about the challenges ahead, so I don’t want to wax too lyrical about how easy life is now. But, I would be lying if I said a mammoth gargantuan weight hadn’t been lifted from me. I feel lighter, younger, bouncier, and so much happier.

I used to describe my life as a mash-up between Groundhog Day and The Dragon’s Den : one never-ending series of pitches where I was politely rejected. There are a lot of similarities between pitching and dating: you don’t get it if you are looking for it, and they can sense the desperation. And I can attest to the truth in that.

Anyway, here are some of the learnings I have gleaned from this process:

1. It takes a lot longer than you plan – months and months and months. And apparently this was a quick funding deal. !!!
2. Read your term sheet very well, and get a lawyer involved early. I didn’t, and suffered a bit for it.
3. Stand up for things that are critical – in my negotiations, there were a few points that I was adamant about. I learned how to negotiate and be firm on the areas that were key for me, my team, and my current investors.
4. Find balance – I was lucky to have incredible non-tech non-startup friends and a boyfriend who soothed the woes from me on the weekends, allowing me to do 15 hour days mid-week. I needed that balance. My family too, although in Australia, were incredibly supportive and full of love.
5. There is always a way that will work – this has actually been a motto in my life… I remember once I bought a large two piece sofa before I saw the flat I was moving into. When it arrived, my boyfriend and I worked for hours trying to find a layout that would work, and we just couldn’t. But I inately felt a solution would appear, and after a few more heavings and pushes, we found it, and it was perfect. This lesson applies to so much of my life: you gotta shove and push and think and take breaks and take advice and shove a bit more, but there is a combination out there that works if you push hard enough.

My favourite quote is from my lead investor’s blog about this deal – he sums it up really well (perhaps better than he realises):

Skimbit is led by tenacious Australian entrepreneur Alicia Navarro who kept her company and vision alive by sheer force of will through a long search for the right business model and then for financing.

Yep, it sure was a sheer force of will. But I’m here now, relieved, thankful, energised and thrilled. My dream continues… to be honest, it kinda has already happened. Yes, I want riches and wealth, but really what drives me isn’t money, its proving I can do it. And in this climate, as an Aussie female with a Spanish name in London in the midst of a financial crisis, to get enough really smart and amazing VCs and Angels to fund my tech startup because they believe in me… and to have my father say he is proud of me… well, what more do I need to do, really? Oh yes, become a millionaire, but its that sense of inner glee and pride that I yearned for, and now, have.

The road still stretches out before me, but I tread it now confidently, and with a brave heart.

Part of my strategy was to keep my burgeoning company name a secret, to build anticipation and a community around my soon-to-be-launched website. This strategy partly worked: a small following tracked my progress, and I could be delightfully honest about my experiences. I was no-one, and my company didn’t exist yet, so I was frank and vulnerable in all my posts. Look back and read if you are interested.

Then, I launched my website, moved to London, and threw myself into the entrepreneurial scene. I became relatively known, and my website started to be known. I started seeking VC funding, and needed to demonstrate how capable I was, and how great things were going. I found my blogging compromised, as I could no longer share my vulnerabilities, mishaps and hopes, on what had become my company’s blog.

A great deal has occurred in the last few months, which I have covered in what is now to be my company’s blog. I want to reclaim Birth of a Startup now, to return to being my personal blog, where I write honestly, with both vulnerability and hopeful pride, about what it is to be a female Australian tech entrepreneur, living in London.

So please, if you want to read about my businesses, delete this blog from your RSS feed. If you are new to this blog, add it to your RSS, but make no effort to find out about my businesses. It is best if we keep the two separate. Of course, I may have achieved nothing but stirring your curiosity, but I hope that you respect the spirit in which this blog reinvention is made. Welcome to Birth of a Startup!

So, give it a try, and please take a moment to tell your friends about Skimbit. Sites like Skimbit really make it when their community of users take pride in telling other people about it, so please help us become known and loved. We built Skimbit to really help and be useful for any sort of internet research or decision-making task, so keep us in mind whenever you are doing any research online, or are trying to decide on something with a group!

This has of course meant lots of late nights in the office. Sometimes we don’t eat at all (not good), and sometimes we get pizza delivered to the office for dinner (even worse). I’ve had pizza two nights in a row and feel like a bloated heifer.

So this morning, in the interests of team health and vitality, I bought a heap of fruit for the team to feast on when they get peckish.

And isn’t is wonderfully symbolic that completely unintentionally, the bowl of fruit is placed obstinately on top of the pamphlet for our local pizza place. I think there is something meaningful there for all of us

Inamo is a new type of restaurant, where instead of a waiter with a notepad, you have a table with a nifty laser control panel you navigate yourself. You fiddle a bit on the table with your finger, and you can do everything, from ordering all your food and wine, seeing what it all looks like before you eat it, watch the chefs cook it via chef cam, and most excitingly, change the illuminated virtual tablecloth with a myriad of colours, patterns and photos. Plus you can play games, view local maps, call cabs, and have full control of your bill. For those who hate trying to catch a waiter’s attention, and who find the process of ordering food almost as much fun as eating it, it very much appeals.

Anyway, Bernie has been involved in designing this interface, so for the past few months I have been hearing about all the challenges he faces… things like, is it obvious enough how to scroll down (as he says “I don’t know what else to do other than a large red pulsing arrow!”), is it obvious that ‘Service’ includes your bill, and many more fascinating user experience issues. Inamo has been in ‘beta’ for the past fortnight, offering half price meals while they iron out their glitches. Eager to both support my friend and to take advantage of a bargain, I decided to take the Skimbit team there for a much deserved team dinner.

And boy was it fun! Matthieu would not stop changing the table-cloth on me, it was pink with flowers one second, then blue stripes another, then a ravishing set of umbrella images… quite the whirlwind. Ciaran successfully played a picture puzzle game, and I salivated over every gorgeous image of food that was projected on my plate.

Apparently you get £10 off for each bug you find, but it was a pretty solid system. The only bugs in the system were the staff who perhaps need to seem a little more excited to be part of such a cool new restaurant, but I guess if you design a whole restaurant based around the premise of the superfluousness of waiters, then perhaps they might feel a bit miffed. They still get a 10% service charge though, and it kinda was a bit funny the 7th time they brought us the wrong thing we ordered, but being part of a young overworked company ourselves, we accepted the glitches as growing pains, and have faith it will improve with time.

The food was fabulous though… the chef is ex-Nobu and Hakkassan, Asian-fusion, rich and delicious. I’d recommend it thoroughly, if for nothing else but to enjoy Bernie’s great system design!

So, due to this crazy busy bee-ness, I’ve missed the last couple of Drink Tank events, the fabulous networking parties hosted by Huddle. But, my sense of duty overwhelmed me (I mean, one owes it to the community to put in a good partying effort every now and then!) and I extricated myself from my computer at the earliest in months in order to head to Bermondsey and attend Drink Tank.

Ciaran, my fabulous Senior Developer, came along, luckily as I always seemed to get a bit disoriented in the caverns of London Bridge station, and he steered me gently to the venue: first the Huddle offices, followed by Village East (a charming bar in Bermondsey).

And as always, I realised the second I arrived that I was doing myself a disservice by skipping previous events, as besides the opportunity to catch up with my ol’ Web Mission pals Andy from Huddle, Andrew from Rummble, Soks from Trusted Places, David from GroupSpaces, Alex from Latitude, Olli… from everywhere I think, I got to catch up with old friends: Nick from Fav.or.it, Nigel from ZygoHubs, Richard from ZebTab, John and Andy from Wigadoo, the generous and amazing Zuzanna from Huddle, and the glowing Yuri from City Amigos… and I got to meet new fabulous people like Emily from Hatch PR, Bindi from Microsoft, and Ian from Psycuity. It was a busy night.

It must be said, the Huddle guys know how to put on a party. At one stage it felt like trying to get into the most exclusive party in town (which I guess, it was) – with queues, door bitches, guestlists, drink tickets, and delicious nibblies. It was heaving and loud and intense, but that’s what you want in a party, so there were few complaints (although Emily and I did sneak into a calm alcove for a proper non-screaming-above-the-noise chat).

It’s funny: I’m currently helping a friend of mine who is about to start his own web start-up, and he is asking about how I built the entrepreneurial social graph I seem to have achieved in under a year of moving back to London to live. It is in describing in detail – after being questioned thoroughly – the steps I have taken to get here… wherever ‘here’ is, that I realise how actively I have pursued it and yet how organically it has happened, this immersion into such a supportive, incestuous, dashing, entertaining, fascinating crowd of entrepreneurs, or as Alex Hoye put it, “The highest density of Twitter users in the UK in one room”. You realise why they say being an ‘entrepreneur’ is more about personality than ability, because it all comes down to who you know, and people like to ‘know’ people they like, if you catch my drift. And I can honestly say that even if my endeavours don’t turn out the way I plan, at the very least I have had (and still am having) the most gloriously entertaining time, being a part of London’s entrepreneurial scene. And its events like Drink Tank that make this happen, so thank you Huddle and the many sponsors of the event for helping build this fabulous ecosystem.

We are continuing our trend towards being a hugely multicultural company: we have an Aussie (me), English (Joe – well, he is kinda Aussie though), Ciaran (Irish), and Matthieu (French). What will our next recruit be?

We are all busily working towards our soon to be launched new design… bet you are all waiting with baited breath to see what we come out with?! We think you will like it – be patient with us, we want to do a good job.

So, when I read that Visit London (a tourism board for London) was putting on an outdoor office, I thought my team utterly deserved a day in the park.

Four of us managed to extricate ourselves from our office, hopped on the tube, and travelled to the other (greener) side of London, to St James’s Park.

And there, to our joy and bemusement, was a fully designed and functional office – complete with paperclips, folders, desk lamps (not plugged into anything, of course!) and desk trinkets! We sat on office chairs, pulled out our laptops, and worked with glorious views of Buckingham Palace, the duck pond, and lush green trees all around us. It was a trifle difficult to read our screens in the bright sunlight, but we didn’t utter a complaint – if only every day could be so inspiring and liberating.

Unfortunately, nothing good lasts forever, or in our case, lasts more than an hour. Typically London clouds swept over our sunny sky, we started to shiver a little, but we obstinately stayed at our desks.

We started to feel a trickle of rain, and undeterred, we opened the Visit London umbrellas and huddled underneath as we continued working.

The rain started to get harder…. we persisted stubbornly for as long as we could, but it soon became a mute point. We had to pack our laptops away. But we really believed the rain would pass, so we stayed under our umbrellas for a while, and sure enough, the rain cleared, and the sun re-emerged!

With a quick wipe-down of the tables, we could continue our work in the now sparklingly beautiful afternoon.

It was again a shortlived pleasure. The rain clouds came back, and this time we were conquered. We returned to our indoors office, but with a smile on our faces. What a glorious experience to be out in such inventive playful surroundings!

We have a team of developers offshore, but we would like someone to really champion Skimbit from a technical perspective, with experience in scaling web applications, and in building innovative services. As we are a small team, the CTO would also have to be a lead developer (so experience with Javascript, AJAX libraries and PHP essential), and probably be involved in some front end development work too. But aaah, isn’t that the joy of working for a start-up, you can be a jack-of-all-trades, and be truly an integral part of building something special.

Let me know if you or anyone you know would be appropriate. The candidate doesn’t need to have been a CTO before, but is ready (and experienced enough) to be one now, at least.

I have been back a few days from my Web Mission expedition to San Francisco. It’s taken me this long to recuperate and take stock of everything that went on.

I’m still in a state of shock and awe. It was a beyond successful week, exceeding even my overly ambitious expectations. Pretty much everything I’d hoped would happen, did happen.

What, you ask? Well, firstly, and most importantly, forming strategic partnerships with bookmark aggregators like Gigya and Add to Any. They were both San Francisco/Valley based, so I managed to set meetings up with them while I was there, and I can joyfully report that both companies completely understood my business, Skimbit, and agreed to include our ‘Skim this!’ badge in their bookmarking buttons.

I then managed to meet the team from AddThis.com at the Web 2.0 conference I attended in San Francisco, and managed to get them on board too. This is a huge win for us, and puts us on the same playing field as Digg and Delicious, though with a different enough focus and target market to compete effectively.

Then, potential customers for our white-label service, Skim-in-a-box… I had hoped to get leads for new clients, but as I didn’t have any meetings booked, my expectations were low. However, I was introduced to several incredibly exciting and high profile web entities, who you will all know, and they expressed not only interest, but a serious intent to partner.

I won’t spill the beans yet on who these companies are, but they will totally make my business when they come through. Understandably, I’m pretty chuffed.

From a funding perspective, my expectations were also very low, as I’d been repeatedly told US based investors won’t consider UK based companies. However, I had a meeting with a high profile seed investor, who said the distance issue – although challenging – is not insurmountable, and they are currently considering investing in Skimbit.

I had hoped WebMission would attract a lot of very much welcomed media exposure, and to my glee, this also turned out beyond expectation. In the last week I have been TechCrunched, on the BBC, the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, and soon to be in The Telegraph and Spectator. Not bad for a tiny little start-up!

But I would have to say, without a doubt, the best outcome of WebMission was the networking, interaction, and bonding that went on with the rest of the WebMission team. What really stood out to me is how innovative, supportive, and ambitious us Brits (well, I’m an Aussie, but you know what I mean) are, and that although going to the US was helpful and educational, we should be darn proud of what we have back home.

So now, as I deal with the avalanche of work, leads to follow, deals to execute on, and investments to finalise, I am buzzing with joy and elation that I’m on the right path, and the light at the end of the tunnel is bright and beckoning.

It’s Day 2 of Web Mission 08, and I have not stopped yet. From the minute we landed in sunny San Francisco, we’ve been schmoozing, networking, visiting, exploring, learning, and, inevitably, drinking. The only thing I haven’t done enough of is sleeping… But what with unavoidable jetlag and a frantically buzzing mind unable to rest as I constantly think of what I should do next, I suppose sleeping can wait.

Our first night saw us welcomed to San Francisco with a cocktail party thrown in our honour by TechCrunch. It was a great opportunity to meet the other 19 start-ups on Web Mission, plus our fabulous sponsors like HSBC, Oracle and UKTI. However, a long and unglamorous flight that day meant we weren’t in top partying condition, so I went to bed early in anticipation of the next day’s revelry.

And revelrous it was indeed, with us all being invited for brunch and a barbecue at the house of Craigslist CEO, Jim Buckmaster. And I literally mean his home: for the first 10 minutes I stood in wonder in his living room perched on a hill in a trendy area of San Francisco, observing his family photos on the mantlepiece, his taste in twentieth century American poets, and his pet poodle.

Jim and his wife had hired caterers and invited the glitterati of the US entrepreneurial scene for a leisurely afternoon sipping Bloody Marys and nibbling prawn salad in his living room. Utterly surreal, and undeniably interesting.

I met YouNoodle’s founder Bob Goodson and heard about his interesting hypotheses; BlogTalkRadio’s John Havens, who interviewed a few of us using his cool interview-via-mobile-phone-to-voicemail technique, at one stage from the boot of a car in German (you had to be there I guess); and Michael Birch, the delightfully unassuming CEO of recently acquired Bebo.

We then scooted off to a party in the Valley at the home of Brian Solis where in the late afternoon dappled sunlight we ate corn on the cob and talked to the founders of Google-acquired Jaiku and Techmeme.com. I kept having moments of delighted shock as I realised I was in the company of so many people I admire.

By the end of that day, we are all exhausted. And it was only Sunday! The week hadn’t even begun yet!

Today started early, with a visit out to Oracle where representatives from Facebook, Amazon and LinkedIn talked about how to internationalise and scale, and Oracle talked about their incredible company history and interesting product strategies.

I feel so privileged to be part of a group that so many inspirational companies think is worthwhile meeting. After a gorgeous lunch in the Oracle executive dining room, I left the group, and went on my own to meet a company I hoped to partner with. The meeting went really well, so you will hear more about this partnership very soon!

Now I am on the way back to San Francisco to attend an evening with Jim Buckmaster and Michael Birch, followed by one of many parties during this week’s Web 2.0 conference.

You see what I mean then? I’ve been here for only 48 hours, and we’ve done all this already! I’m hoping my stamina stays strong as the week continues to unfold its thrilling and lucrative possibilities.

As you may have read, Skimbit was selected for Web Mission 08, a networking, partnering and promotion journey to Silicon Valley with other UK based startups like Huddle, WAYN, Mydeo, Rummble, Trusted Places, and The Filter.

Startups.co.uk asked me to be a guest blogger for the Web Mission journey, so here are my blog posts covering before, during and after the event.

Before the event:

You would think considering I am going to meet the founders of Craigslist, Bebo, Friendster and the Guidewire Group in a few days, I would be panicking about what I was going to say… But no, it seems the only way one’s mind can deal with the enormity of what one is about to embark upon, is to focus on really insignificant things. Like: how am I going to get from Palo Alto to San Francisco on Monday… and, I wish I had prettier business clothes… and, I have no idea how to tip US-style!

Yes, that is right, I am off to Silicon Valley, which strangely makes me think more of breast implants than semi-conductors, but then, I’m a girl. Yes, I’m a girl, who runs a web start-up (which makes me a minority) , based in London (even further in the minority), and off to Silicon Valley for the first time. What’s more, I’m of Spanish heritage, and Australian nationality. So with this mix of cultures, demographics and experiential history, I wonder what adventures shall unfold over the next week!

I am the founder and CEO of Skimbit, a social decision-making tool that helps you research and make decisions online, with the help of others. I was chosen along with 19 other of “UK’s most promising” start-ups, to head over to the US as part of Web Mission 08. There we will network, pitch, schmooze, research, promote, and partner with as many people as possible in what I am increasingly nervous will be an exhausting, exhilarating non-stop week.

I shall document my daily trials, tribulations, triumphs and tirades via this blog, so come and join me on this journey of discovery!

But, in the last month, Skimbit’s traffic has tripled, so suddenly, bugs are a bigger deal, as they can potentially affect more of our users. And I LOVE my users, truly! I can’t describe it… but to have complete strangers want to use, and benefit from, something that I have worked on so crazily hard for so long, is the deepest compliment coupled with the deepest responsibility.

And so, when something goes a little wrong, I can’t abide that people who have put their faith in me and my product are experiencing any type of inconvenience. I am so prepared for them to rush off and never come back, or to be angry, or even worse, to just leave and never come back or think of Skimbit again.

Imagine, then, my joy this week to meet a user who not only has come to my site because he has a genuine need to use it (as opposed as a mild curiousity to see what my site is vaguely about!); but he also notified me of a bug, and helped me solve it. What a blessing!

Yes, there was a slight bug in the way we sent invitations to friends from the Address Book, and it took a while to find out the root cause of the bug. I kept expecting the user to get fed up and throw his hands up in disgust and frustration, which terrified me because he was a true advocate of the solution. But to my immense joy, he not only persisted, helped find the problem, tested it, and kept sending me updates, but he also – bless – apologised for hassling me! What an angel!

Thankfully, we have now corrected the bug, fixed a misunderstanding on the site, and somehow still have the attention of a user who invited 20 of his friends to use the site – what an amazing man. I can’t stop with the superlatives, it just completely blew me away how kind and helpful strangers can be.

It takes me back to those web 2.0 seminars, where all the speakers raved about “Your users will tell you when you are doing something wrong, they will be passionate advocates of your site!” and I kinda doubted it could happen. But, I just experienced the charity of users, and feel even more passionate about doing a good job for them!

“I can either work myself to the bone, and not get everything done that I need to; or I can NOT work myself to the bone, and STILL not get everything done that I need to…. so there is little point in killing myself in the process.”

I say this, yet here I am, its half past midnight, my eyes are so blurry I can’t focus on the font before me, my back is screaming in agony, and my tummy is not at its prettiest after too much toast… and STILL I haven’t got everything done that I need to.