Seedcamp Paris took place at the impressive Microsoft Campus in southwest Paris on the 15th of April. The experience was a very positive one for  English Attack! which scored a win as one of the top five start-ups as voted for by the contestants themselves, the mentors, and the other start-up professionals in attendance.

The Seedcamp format, for those of who who don’t know it already, is a highly interesting, stimulating and useful full-day mix consisting of three-minute elevator pitches in the morning, followed by a networking lunch, leading to four consecutive afternoon sessions at which each start-up team is challenged by a group of mentors (typically Venture Capital professionals; angel investors; successful entrepreneurs like Jonathan Benassaya and Stefan Tirtey ; and tech start-up bloggers) to defend its choice of product or positioning; business model; and operational roadmap. At the end of the day, a superb cocktail party allowed us to get to know our fellow start-ups better, including friendly and interesting teams like those of MobNotes and A World for Us.

The mentoring sessions were a great boost for us in terms of the general appreciation of our concept and of the website itself; but the real value of the expertise around the table was in the probing of some strategic aspects of our venture which we had not revisited for some time and which will now be the subject of internal discussion. We were truly impressed with how generous the mentors were with their advice, perspective, and ideas.

All in all, a good day for e-learning which culminated in the announcement of our inclusion among the event’s five winners Thanks to all the mentors who gave us valuable feedback; and thanks and above all congratulations to Seedcamp’s wonder woman Reshma Sohoni for organizing such an impressive and popular event.

The Next Web is Europe’s top Web industry event, featuring a closely watched yearly start-up competition: the Paypal X Startup Rally. Past Rally participants have included today’s web industry stars Nevibes, eBuddy and Mendely. Competition is notoriously tough – 245 startups vied for one of the 25 finalist places this year.

We were thus delighted to learn today that English Attack! is one of these  finalists , as voted by The Next Web jury of internet industry opinion leaders, venture capitalists and web industry bloggers. The nomination comes on the heels of our finalist status at the Plugg pan-European startup event in Brussels in March (see one of our first posts on this blog) and our selection to present at the recent Tech Crunch Paris and upcoming Seedcamp Paris events: exposure that is resulting in good name and concept recognition for English Attack! on the European start-up scene. All we need to do now is convince the two billion people around the world who are learning English to register and start being active members on the site!

The Next Web will take place in beautiful Amsterdam from the 27th to the 29th of April, drawing over 1,000 participants. The following day, the 30th, is Koninginnedag (the Netherlands’ national holiday) so the closing evening of the event promises to be, in film director / food snob Michael Winner’s words, “historic.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    .

Part of trading the corporate life for a start-up existence is the discovery of brevity as an art (and survival) form. The European start-up scene has embraced the Silicon Valley “elevator pitch” presentation style whole-heartedly, integrating its super-concentrated format into start-up events and competitions on this side of the pond.

Our first experience of elevator pitching (the public speaking equivalent of shoehorning a novel onto a matchbox cover) was at the PLUGG 2010 European start-up competition in Brussels this March, where we had the honor of presenting English Attack! to a live audience for the first time, alongside 18 other European start-ups selected from among 125 candidate companies. The two-minute limit imposed by the PLUGG organizers seemed impossibly short to us given our enthusiasm for talking at length about our vision for entertainment learning, the EFL market, and the functionalities we are implementing on the site; but after all was said and done we engaged with the radical pruning process required by the format and learned to appreciate the process of distilling multiple, complex content areas into a few core messages.

Following PLUGG, the three-minute format at Tech Crunch Paris was a luxury (a whole 50% more time in which to present); yet if anything our presentation was even more concentrated: just five slides (good training for any upcoming TESOL Conference pecha kuchas!)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX2rmVgAYyo

For a good laugh, check out Sasha Baron Cohen as Ali G (his other alter-egos being Borat and Brüno) as he attempts to sell his concept for an air cushion-powered skateboard to a skeptical investor.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azRzqI3BJ2A

Following our recognition as one of the top 20 European tech start-ups and our related appearance at the PLUGG 2010 event last week in Brussels, English Attack! has received the further honor of being selected to present at the Tech Crunch Paris event next Wednesday. The event, organized by Tech Crunch Europe editor Mike Butcher, will be held at the Silicon Sentier venue La Cantine. Unlike PLUGG, where we had two minutes to present our company, at Tech Crunch we have the luxury of a whole three minutes!

Applications to join the Beta Program at English Attack! can now be made via the English Attack! website. Simply click on the “Join Our Beta Programme Today” link in the orange box on the site’s home page; fill in your details, and we will get back to you in a few days via e-mail to confirm your registration and grant you access to the site.

We are over the moon at the news that English Attack! has been named as a Finalist in the 2010 PLUGG competition for European technology start-ups. Many thanks to EdTech guru Kirsten Winkler for mentioning us in her popular and always well-informed blog.