TechStars is a mentorship-driven accelerator founded by David Cohen, Brad Feld, David Brown and Jared Polis. Its 13-week programs in Boulder, New York City, Boston, Seattle, San Antonio and – from this year – London are incredibly competitive. Less than 1% of companies that apply for TechStars are accepted. Those that are flourish. 92% of TechStars alumni companies are active and have benefitted from mentors including Tumblr founder David Karp, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, Union Square Ventures’ Fred Wilson and HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh Shah.

TechStars On Tour will give startups attending the Web Summit the opportunity to get expert advice from Luke Beatty, the Managing Director of the TechStars programme in Boulder, and Jon Bradford, the Managing Director of TechStars London. Luke is the former Vice President and General Manager of Yahoo!, where oversaw Local, Flickr, Groups, Answers and the Yahoo! Contributor Network. He founded Associated Content which was acquired by Yahoo! in 2010. Jon was the co-founder and CEO of Springboard and has acted as an advisor to many multi-company accelerators from Montreal to Moscow.

The TechStars On Tour events will be workshops where you’ll get tips, tools and tricks to ensure your startup makes the most of the Web Summit experience, from truly nailing your pitch to making the most of investor meetings and taking your networking to the next level. You’ll also get invaluable advice on vital skills an early stage startup needs to master including getting exposure, raising a round and recruiting great people.

TechStars On Tour will be visiting the following cities:

Paris – Monday, October 21st

London – Wednesday, October 23rd

Berlin – Friday, October 25th

Cork – Tuesday, October 29th

We’ll be following each event with a Pub Summit, one of our free networking events designed to bring local startup communities together. Head here to find out more about being a startup at the Web Summit and how to get your place at TechStars On Tour.

Until this week, I fully believed that rapid action needed to be taken to fill the glut of tech vacancies. Newspapers, radio experts and opinion columns all seemed to be in agreement: we have a tech skills shortage in Ireland, and we need to address it immediately.

However, I’m no longer satisfied with this argument.

I say that despite the fact that a record number of attendees from all over the world will descend on Dublin this October for the Web Summit, some 7,000 business people. They include the CEOs of many of the world’s fastest growing tech companies. Many of those companies are opening new or expanding existing operations in Ireland, including Dropbox, LinkedIn, Twitter, Airbnb, Facebook and more.

My new found caution, stems from an academic statistician, who lives in my house. He’s not interested in opinions or headlines. He’s interested in facts and statistics. He’s largely removed from the fog of quixotic patriotism that sometimes blurs policy debate.

Over tea last week, he posed two simple questions, the answers to which raise serious questions for anyone with strongly held opinions on what we are to do about the job shortages in the tech sector.

His first question was: Does Ireland currently have above or below the average number of people employed in the high tech sector as compared to the rest of Europe?

The answer: According to Eurostat, the statistics show that Ireland is not only above average, it’s already employing more people per capita than anywhere else in Europe in the high tech sector. In fact, as of 2011, Ireland was the number one high tech employer per capita in Europe.

Eurostat is the European Commissions’ office for statistics. It’s a credible source, but we should always be careful in considering the composition or methodology behind any set of numbers. Disraeli once cautioned “there are lies, damn lies – and statistics”. Nevertheless, the numbers in this instance, if not certain, are certainly revealing as to the likely composition of the workforce in Ireland as compared to the rest of Europe. And worth serious consideration.

My statistician friend’s second question was equally revealing.

He asked: Does Ireland currently have above or below the average number of students in courses related to IT as compared to the rest of Europe?

The answer: Again according to Eurostat, Ireland is towards the very top of the league table in computing, maths and science. Germany is the only significant country ahead of us, and only by a fraction. We are light years ahead of the United States, home to Silicon Valley, and most of the rest of Europe. 

Those answers lead to a third question, and a slightly uncomfortable one given our recent past. If we already employ more people per capita in the tech sector than anywhere else in Europe, and are already towards the very top in terms those currently studying to work in the sector, just how much more of the house do we want to bet on this one sector?

We’ve a history of betting big on singular sectors, from the potato to the house.

Not so long ago, many of us were sure we’d outsmarted the rest of the world, and we collectively doubled down on property. We heeded the headlines that demanded more architects and auctioneers. As experts called for more courses to be introduced, and for incentives to be increased, our politicians duly obliged and we remained largely silent. There was no significant debate.

Then the property bubble burst.

I watched a documentary about food a few weeks ago. The chief nutritionist from one of the world’s leading manufacturers of yoghurts predicted people would be consuming a lot more yoghurts in the near future. I laughed out loud at the time, shouting at the TV: “What a ridiculous conflict of interest”.

It was so obvious, yet if I’m honest I never found myself shouting at the TV in 2005 when yet another Irish bank economist predicted live on national television that more people would be seeking mortgages in the near future.

In the world of technology, something similar is happening right now. Rewind just just over a decade ago, and the talking heads in tech, the CEO’s and the experts, assured us we needed to double down. They were wrong.

Today, however, our experts assure us that “this time it’s different”. And yes, in some respects they are completely right – “this time it is different”.

Today, as compared to 1999, the cost of starting a technology company has plummeted. Distribution has multiplied tenfold, not just because more people are online, but because hundreds of millions of people now have smart phones. And that will soon be billions of people.

Yet something’s niggling at me. Facts and statistics. Those facts and statistics show that Ireland, for its incredibly small size, is already heavily invested in tech. If we are to use the above statistics, we already employ more people per capita in the sector than almost anywhere else, and are currently training far more than almost anywhere else. So, if we’re to increase our investment in the sector, training more people and increasing sector incentives, perhaps we first need a more serious debate. Let’s tread with a little more caution.

I’m a huge advocate of the sector. I wouldn’t have spent the last three years building the Web Summit, if I didn’t believe there was a huge opportunity.

That said, if we were to have a balanced national debate about betting big on the yoghurt sector, would we allow ourselves to be swayed by yoghurt manufacturers or even their chief nutritionists.

I think the same applies in tech. Let’s learn from our recent history. Unless we begin examining the underlying statistics, trends and facts in a more frank and objective manner, we risk running head first into the bright lights of another bubble.

@paddycosgrave 

UPDATE: The latest unemployment statistics for graduates in the UK show that unemployment is highest amongst computer science graduates. Far more than any other degree. Don’t believe me? Download what’s traditional referred to as Table 3 from the latest DESTINATIONS OF LEAVERS FROM HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE UNITED KINGDOM published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency in the UK.

1. You’re gonna get some hop ons

An incredible startup idea is the Bluth Company stair car, you’re gonna get some hop ons.  The minute you start getting some success, copycats will spring up. Treat them like unwanted passengers; keep an eye on them but only in the rearview mirror.

2. Know when you’ve made a huge mistake

You’re going to make mistakes, so own up to them quickly.  There’s no shame in a well-executed pivot.

3. Not all disruption is good disruption

4. Build a team with the right skills

A technical co-founder with killer coding chops? Yes. An amazing designer? Hell, yes. Someone who studied 18th century agrarian business? Um……

5. Avoid made up job titles

Got any more startup friendly pearls of wisdom from Arrested Development? Share away in the comments or tell us on Twitter. 

Week 1

Gothenburg, Sweden

Try…Akvavit

Traditionally paired with pickled herring, Akvavit is basically grain or potato vodka flavoured with dill or caraway. Producers add other herbs and spices to create different varieties. Drink it with a nice dark beer and maybe even learn a snapsvisor – a traditional Swedish drinking song.

Stockholm, Sweden

Try…Rekorderlig

Swedes are serious about their cider. By law, Swedish cider has to have at least 15% juice by volume. If it doesn’t, it ends up tagged with the embarrassing label “beverage of a cider character”. Cider from Sweden tends to be sweeter than varieties from the rest of the world and often comes flavoured with berries or other fruit.

Oulu, Finland

Try…Koskenkorva

First introduced in 1953, Koskenkorva is produced by the state-owned Alko company (has there ever been a better name for a booze business?). The grain vodka is Finland’s most popular spirit. Though it’s best served cold, you can also drink it mixed with Coke (a Kossukola), carbonated water (a Kossuvissy) or an energy drink (a Kossu Battery).

Helsinki, Finland 

Try…Sahti

A traditional Finnish beer, flavoured with juniper berries and filtered through juniper twigs, Sahti has a distinctive banana flavour. The fruity taste is thanks to the production of isoamyl acetate by the yeast, the same chemical used in banana sweets. Archeological evidence suggests Sahti has been brewed since the Viking era and it was even the subject of several academic treatises in the 18th Century.

Week 2

Moscow, Russia

Try…Putinka

Recommending vodka in Russia is a tricky one so we’ve gone for the most appealing pun. Putinka is made by the state-owned Moscow Distillery Crystal company and named in honour of President Vladimir Putin. Since its launch in 2003, it has brought in annual sales of over $500m. A copycat named after Putin’s successor Dmitri Medvedev was distinctly unsuccessful.

Kiev, Ukraine 

Sample…Horilka

Horilka seriously packs a punch at 80 proof. Appropriately, its name is dertived from “hority”, the Ukrainian word for “burning”. Though there are many different types of horilka, the name is usually used by people outside the Ukraine to refer to pertsivka, a version flavoured with peppers and sometimes honey.

Week 3

Istanbul, Turkey 

Try…Raki

Anise-flavoured and ferociously strong, raki is Turky’s national drink. While it’s usually made from grapes, you can also find versions that use fig. Though traditionally taken straight, adding water causes raki to turn milky-white and it’s often referred to as lion’s milk (aslan sütü) or “the milk for the strong”. Who doesn’t want to be a lion?  

Tel Aviv, Israel

Go for a…Goldstar

A kosher pale lager, Goldstar has been produced in Israel since 1953. Along with Maccabee, also produced by Tempo Beer Industries, it accounts for 60% of beer sales in the country. It won the a Monde Selection gold medal in 2007 and was named Israeli Product of the Year in 2011.

Edinburgh, Scotland

Get a…whisky

If suggesting the right vodka to choose in Moscow was a minefield, choosing the right dram to enjoy in Edinburgh is even trickier. The first mention of Scotch whisky occurs in the Exchequer Rolls of Scotland written in 1475 and by the 1800s there were more than 200 distilleries. The number has declined significantly since then but there’s still hundreds of varieties to choose from.

Athens, Greece 

Try…Tsipouro

Ouzo might seem the obvious choice but it’s no longer as popular among Greeks as it once was. At 45% ABV, Tsiporouro is just as strong and just as much of an acquired taste. Made by distilling pomace – the residue of the wine press – it was originally produced by Greek Orthodox Monks. Make sure to avoid the anise-flavoured version – it’s vile.

Disagree with our choices? Let us know on Twitter. And tell us what drinks we should recommend for Germany, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Italy, Portugal, Spain, France and the Netherlands in part 2. Find out more about the Pub Summits and apply for tickets here. 

The NASDAQ Opening Bell will take place in front of a live audience of over 7,000 and we’ll have dozens of TV stations carrying the ceremony live. We’ll also be giving select Web Summit attendees the chance to join us onstage. Look out for more details soon.

Bringing the Opening Bell to the Web Summit is a sign of just how significant the event has become for the tech community worldwide. We were floored by how quickly the first 1,000 tickets for this year’s Summit were snapped up. A final batch of 2-for-1 tickets will go on sale on May 30th – just a week from today – and you can apply for a voucher here ahead of general tickets becoming available.

The Web Summit has grown from humble beginnings in a lecture theatre at Trinity College to a festival with multiple stages and events attracting thousands of people from across the world. Having NASDAQ recognise the Web Summit as the platform for tech companies in Europe is an extraordinary privilege.

We’re putting together an amazing schedule of more than 300 speakers for October including the Niklas Zennstrom, founder of Skype and Atomico; Phil Libin, CEO of the firm behind one of today’s hottest apps – Evernote;  Wordpress co-founder Matt Mullenweg; Hailo co-founder Jay Bregman; Eugene Kaspersky of Kaspersky Labs; Rina Onur of Peak Games; soon-to-be-space traveller, WPP board member and tech investor Esther Dyson; as well as Digg founder turned Google Ventures partner Kevin Rose.

Scott Belsky, who sold Behance to Adobe in 2012 for a reputed $150m, well-known Fab, Uber and Blackjet investor Shervin Pishevar and blogger/Google Glass evangelist Robert Scoble will also feature. You can read about all the speakers we’ve revealed so far here and we’ll have more exciting announcements in the coming weeks.

Round 2 starts today: we’re releasing a final 250 2 for 1 tickets next Thursday, 30th May. They’ll be priced at €300 each, or €600 in total, and are limited to the first 250 redemptions. After that the prices double. Simply apply for a 2 for 1 voucher here by Friday, and we’ll be sending further details out next week.

In the meantime, today we’re announcing our Startup Opportunities at the Web Summit. Last year over 250 startups from around the world came to Dublin to exhibit, and this year we’re expecting 800 or more, who’ll be divided into 4 tracks – Basic Exhibitors, Alpha, Beta, and START 150. You can read all about it in the startup section on our site, with info on exhibiting, networking, investor meetings, and more. You can also apply to exhibit, check out our previous startup attendees, and register your interest for our brand new startup competition called PITCH, which we’ll have more details on in the coming weeks.

Apply for a 2 for 1 voucher.

First up we’re delighted to reveal that Niklas Zennström, a long time friend of the Web Summit, will be returning to Dublin this year. The founder of Atomico and co-founder of Skype, Kazza and Joltid, he is one of the most accomplished entrepreneurs and investors of today. To date Atomico has invested in more than 50 companies on four continents including Rovio, Jawbone, Fab and Klarna. Beyond his work at Atomico, Niklas also co-founded Zennström Philanthropies, where he is actively involved in combating climate change, improving the state of the Baltic Sea and encouraging social entrepreneurship.

If you’re as fascinated in building communities and how creative ideas spread as we are then you won’t want to miss our next speaker, Scott Belsky. He co-founded Behance, the leading online platform to showcase and discover creative work in 2006 and served as its CEO until it was acquired by Adobe in 2012. He’s now Adobe’s Vice-President of Community and Head of Behance. The platform is used by millions of people each month to display and find talent, powers portfolio display for LinkedIn, AdWeek and many other sites and 10,000+ personal websites via its ProSite Service. Scott is the author of the international bestseller, Making Ideas Happen, and serves as an advisor and investor for companies including Pinterest, Uber and FiftyThree.

It’s no surprise that Robert Scoble is among the first people to put Google Glass through its paces in the wild. An author, blogger and Startup Liaison Officer at RackSpace, his greatest role is always as a technology evangelist. Through his blog, Scobelizer, he has showcased thousands of innovative new startups. If you’re looking for the next big thing, it’s likely that Robert has already found it. At Rackspace, he’s building a community for people “fanatical about the internet” called building43.

If you want to get under the skin of Silicon Valley and inside the heads of some of the world’s most iconic entrepreneurs, David Kirkpatrick is your man. An author, journalist and media entrepreneur, he penned The Facebook Effect, a definitive history of the birth of Facebook, which was published in 30 countries. He was for many years senior editor for internet and technology at Fortune and is the founder and CEO of Technomy Media, which host the Technomy conference. He writes regularly for Vanity Fair and Forbes.

With his incredible track record as an entrepreneur and investor, hearing Shervin Pishevar speak will be on most startups’ to-do lists for Web Summit 2013. Now the co-founder of Sherpa, he was previously at Menlo Ventures – where he is still a venture advisor. At Menlo, he worked closely with Uber, Warby Parker and Fab, led its investment in Tumblr and helped launch its $20m seed fund. Previously, he was chief application officer and GM at Mozilla Corporation having spent most of his career as an entrepreneur and investor. He founded Webs.com (sold to Vistaprint for $117.5m), Social Gaming Network (merged with Mindjolt) and Hyperoffice. As an angel investor, Shervin has backed over 40 companies including Klout, Aardvark (sold to Google), BlackJet, Gowalla (sold to Facebook), TaskRabbit, Milk (sold to Google) and Rapportive.

Stay tuned for many more exciting announcements soon!

We’ve taken the time to talk to some of our seasoned Summiters who’ve flown from around the world in previous years to Dublin. Based on their feedback and our insiders’ knowledge of Dublin, here are the most essential things you need to know.

Important caveat: If you like all things tech by day, but get nervous about spending a night out in a city like Dublin which has more live music venues, nightclubs, bars and pubs per capita than anywhere else in the world, then the Summit is sadly not for you. In Dublin, by law* you are not permitted to go straight from the Summit to your hotel room each evening to do “important follow ups” with investors, media, possible hires, startups or otherwise. It’s Ireland for the love of god, you do follow ups over a pint whilst watching locals eating raw potatoes with their own bare hands.

*Please read this post on Irish sarcasm if you are American.

1. Where to Stay

2. How to Get Here

3. Where it is

4. Getting Around Dublin

5. Things to Do and See

Where to Stay

Dublin has its fair share of great hotels that cater for every price bracket. In other words, there’s something for everyone on every budget.

Two of our recommended 5-star hotels and firm favourites among attendees – The Shelbourne and the Four Seasons – are already sold out for the week of the Web Summit.

But if you insist on only the finer things in life and like the buzz of one of our glitzy recommended 5-star hotels, we suggest the Fitzwilliam Hotel in the heart of the city centre. However, they are down to about a dozen rooms.

For those who enjoy the buzz of a massive hotel and the excitement of late-night drinks in the lobby bar, we recommend the huge 4-star 500 bedroom Burlington Hotel which is just a 5 minute drive or 15 minute walk away from the Web Summit venue, or the wonderful 304 room 3-star Bewley’s Hotel which is just 3 minutes walk. All of these hotels will sell out far in advance of the Web Summit, so we advise booking these particular hotels early.

We’ll recommend more hotels in due course, and there are lots, so please don’t worry about not getting a room somewhere. Dublin’s a big city.

For a complete list of hotels in Dublin go here.

If hotels aren’t your style, AirBnB has plenty of options.

Getting Here

By Plane: Our fair city is very accessible by plane, Ireland is home to Europe’s favourite low cost airline Ryanair after all (most Irish people simultaneously love and loath Ryanair). But there’s also the somewhat more upmarket national airline Aer Lingus and all other major international airlines have routes to Dublin. For a European city, flights to Dublin from major hubs around the world are surprisingly cheap.

We recommend Skyscanner (a pick’n’mix flight aggregator) to find the best deals from your hometown. You can get direct flights from anywhere in Europe, plus a number of cities from the United States, and Canada, and other major hubs like Moscow, Abu Dhabi, Dubai and elsewhere. For anywhere that doesn’t offer a direct flight, you can easily book your two flights and transfer in one purchase.

By Boat: You can also get a boat to Dublin Port or Dun Laoghaire – a beautiful harbour just 15 minutes drive or a 10 minute train ride from the venue. Ferries come from Holyhead and Pembroke in Wales, Liverpool in England, and Douglas in Scotland. There’s a special rail and sail deal direct from London, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and a range of other cities straight to Dublin, starting at €39. You can also get a ferry from France, but to be honest, the plane is way easier.

From the airport: Most attendees will land at Dublin airport. It’s located in the north of the city, with taxis and buses to the city centre. A taxi should take 25 minutes to the city centre at a cost of between €20 and €30 depending on the time of day. Alternatively, we recommend a direct blue bus called the AirCoach for €10 return. It stops in the city centre, close to all major hotels, and tends to be used by business people. The AirCoach bus leaves every fifteen minutes from outside the arrivals hall at Dublin Airport and will drop passengers to the doors of all our recommended hotels outlined above.

The Venue(s) 

For the 3rd year running, the Web Summit will be taking place in the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) a glorious building in the heart of one of Dublin’s most beautiful areas. It dates back to 1731. Each year we’ve expanded the amount of space that we use and this year we’re just going to take the whole damn thing. Don’t worry, we’ll have plenty of maps so you don’t get lost.

This year there’ll also be a number of other Web Summit events around the city – ranging from seminars, workshops and hackathons to gigs, music events, parties, open dinners and other networking events. Last year we held the first Web Summit by Night – taking over 10 of Dublin’s coolest pubs on Dame Lane, right in the city centre. It’s returning this year and we’ll be expanding it to three times the size. We’ll be taking over something like a square mile of pubs in Dublin.

While you’re here 

Getting around: Dublin has a comprehensive bus service, the Luas tram service, and a Dublin bike scheme which operates around the city centre. HitTheRoad.ie provides some very handy public transport directions from A to B. And yes, Hailo is in Dublin and is widely used. It’s been a godsend.

Things to do: Dublin is of course one of Europe’s favourite spots to visit, and for good reason too. The cultural scene is incredibly rich, with an abundance of galleries, many of which are free to visit, a thriving theatre scene, and great gigs to go to every night. For some of the more bohemian options Dublin has to offer, check out LeCool. 

Of course, no visit to Dublin is complete without a visit to the home of the black stuff – The Guinness Storehouse. The Old Jameson Distillery is worth a visit too.

That should be enough to whet your appetite for now, but we’ll have a more comprehensive guide on Dublin’s best attractions soon. In the meantime, you can find out more in guides from The New York Times, Lonely Planet and Timeout.

We look forward to seeing you here.