Dear all,
As I mentioned in the , last Wednesday I attended Saul Klein’s briefing about London harboring the “New Palo Alto”. In a few words, Somers Town, a London neighborhood right behind St. Pancras Station, could become to Europe what Palo Alto is to the US: a hotbed of tech entrepreneurship and a magnet for the continent’s most talented people.
The event was held at Phoenix Court, where Saul and his father Robin’s firm LocalGlobe recently set up shop. Saul pitched me the whole thing at our very first meeting a few months back. The core idea is to install entrepreneurs and venture capitalists right where people live rather than simply where professionals gather during the day. And LocalGlobe wanted to show the way.
Indeed the current regeneration of the area builds upon a unique characteristic: the fact that in many parts of London, fancy houses and luxury apartments coexist with so-called council housing. Unlike Paris, where rich and poor people tend to live worlds apart, in London …