Xoogler 2017 Rewind. 2018 Demo Days in US, Europe & Asia.

2017 was a major growth year for the Xoogler community. A year ago I wrote that in 2016 we had 60 events in 12+ countries. We ended 2017 with over 200 events and 10 communities in the US and over 30 globally!

Xoogler.co is continuing to foster the camaraderie formed during a Google employee’s time at Google and Alphabet and helping our alumni’s post-Google professional interests. We are especially focused on helping with the hardest task, helping Xoogler startup founders succeed!

Connecting Startups with Investors

We helped our community members connect with the best investors from firms like Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Index Ventures. In addition, our community members have created a VC research tool to help founders figure out which investors to pitch during their fundraising process.

We will continue to connect investors with Xoogler founders by organizing Xoogler Demo Days in 2018 in the US (startups can apply here, investors can request an invitation here), Europe (startups can apply here, investors can request an invitation here) and our first in Asia (startups can apply here, investors can request an invitation here). Thanks to Qasar Younis, Y Combinator’s ex-COO who helped prepare 2017’s Demo Day participants, Xoogler founders had excellent mentorship and feedback before they presented to investors.

The community introduces founders to potential investors and also invests alongside them via the Xoogler syndicate that Ethan Beard, Kushagra Shrivastava and I co-lead. There are now over 350 global investors that have backed the syndicate to invest in ex-Google founders. We invested in 3 startups in the US, 1 in Europe and 1 in Asia-Pacific in 2017.

Kushagra Shrivastava and Christopher Fong with Revere’s Vanessa Krumb. Xoogler.co’s investment syndicate’s first startup investment.

Talent

With so many opportunities, it’s harder than ever to build a team. Our regular events enable potential co-founders or team members to meet and we have a simple co-founder matching system which over 150 Xoogler founders are using to match themselves with other co-founders. Job opportunities are also highlighted in our newsletter and slack channel.

Outside of the US

Read our EMEA super volunteer Rune Bentien’s wrap up of 2017 when he stepped up to organize the community in London and beyond. Many of the communities listed below were also formed in 2017.

Get Involved

Check out the community locations and leads below to attend an event near you or help to foster the community. While we’ve grown tremendously in 2017, we need more Xooglers and Googlers to be involved to ensure it continues to be a strong community for everyone. Reach out to [email protected] if you would like to help us in a deeper fashion, sign up for the newsletter via Xoogler.co and check out the past newsletters with event programs here.

Silicon Valley

AdTech - Deepika Phakke

AR/VR - Shiv Kumar

Autonomous Vehicles - Ricky Wong and Mohammad Musa

Blockchain - Alan Yu

Demo Day - Kevin Yen and Alex Brutin

Founder Lunch - Henry He, Lei Xu, David Huebner and Dip Ghuman

Growth Hacking - Katherine Chen and Watson Warriner

Machine Learning - Max Grigorev and Stephen Tse

Women’s Dinner - MinhHa Pham

Global

Investment Syndicate - Ethan Beard and Kushagra Shrivastava

Slack Moderation - Brian Rabben and Jordan Pedraza

US - Outside Silicon Valley

Austin - Jenna Sandoval and Hemant Bhanoo

Boston - Katchen Gerig and Wan Li Zhu

Boulder/Denver - Jeff Rozic

Chicago - Melissa Galbadores

Durham/Raleigh - Ryan Carey

Los Angeles - David Bos, Eli Calderón Morin 

Miami - Anthony Hernandez

New York - Ben Colman, Amy Jin, Al Chen and Emma Weisberg

Seattle - Pablo Brown-Rodriguez and Meir Lakhovsky

Outside US

Amsterdam - Maron Bier and Michiel Vanthoor

Bangalore - Ganga Kumar

Barcelona - Ahlem Mahroua

Beijing - Jijia Huang

Berlin - Daniel Gilgenmann

Copenhagen - Mathias Linnemann

Dublin - Gianluca Caccamo

Ho Chi Minh City - Kim Pham and Chris Kung

Istanbul - Ali Yilmaz

Kuala Lumpur - Marc Woo

London - Rune Bentien and Eze Vidra

Madrid - Amanda Bender and Carlos Emilio Gómez

Melbourne - Cindy Burke

Mexico City - Brian Salomaki and Vladimir Palacio

Milan - Andrea Roberto Bifulco

New Delhi - Amit Agrawal

Oslo - H?vard ?rbech

Paris - Florent de Gantès

Sao Paulo - Thiago Moura and Natália Fernandes

Shenzhen - Peter Duan

Singapore - Anne Caron and Julien Condamines

Stockholm - Nicola Bortignon

Sydney - Shane Nantais

Taipei - Chris Kung

Tallinn - Karl Pae

Tel Aviv - Eleanne Hattis

Toronto - Gaurav Shinde

Zurich - Steffen Ehrhardt

Other volunteers - Ankit Jain, Ishita Matharu, Vivienne Lee, Zi Wang, Sean O'Keefe, Rishi Garg, Jason Costa, Ruth Temianka, Neil Sharma, Jose Montes de Oca, Alexander Telegin, Christophe Coutzoukis, Mike Wakerly, Jon Sadow, Tracy Wilk, Mike Church, Cory Klippsten, Tam Le, Manu Lakkur, Yimei Miao, Vanessa Youshaei, Danilo Carlucci, Becky Stephens, Jamie Woodbridge, Dahlia Basar, David Kolodny, Phil Santoro, Jerry Lu, Jody Shapiro and Herman Yang.

In addition to the above community leaders, thank you to Bradley Horowitz, Catherine Lacavera, Gus Gostyla, Karolis Balciunas, Sam O'Keefe, Shiri Sivan, Roy Glasberg, Ken Schutt, David Roldan, John Fitzpatrick, David Hirsch, Manish Patel, Parker Barrile, Shabih Rizvi, Ankit Jain, Patrick Sullivan, Brett Crosby, Punit Soni, Mark Cummins, David Eun, Mary Grove, Qasar Younis and many others for their support to bring the Xoogler.co community to this level.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the community continues to help each other in 2018. Come join us, sign up via xoogler.co or email [email protected] on how you want to help, as we grow the ex-Google community and support Xoogler startups globally.

Thank you AngelList for hosting the Xoogler.co volunteers holiday party in December!

How to get involved

• Back the Xoogler syndicate to invest in ex-Google led startups.
• Xooglers and Googlers, sign up to receive the monthly Xoogler.co newsletter here and join the regular events. You will be invited to the Xoogler.co slack as well.
• Non-Xooglers or Googlers - let us know how you want to be involved.
• 2018 Demo Days - US (startups can apply here, investors can request an invitation here), Europe (startups can apply here, investors can request an invitation here) and Asia (startups can apply here, investors can request an invitation here).