tjp

There are some schemes, nothing quite as advanced as Y combinator. - Seedcamp http://seedcamp.com/ - Launch48 Launchpad http://www.launch48.com/launchpad/

But there are lots of places one could hang out and work on an idea: - Accelerator London: http://www.accelerator-london.com/ - London Hackspace: http://london.hackspace.org.uk

Shameless self-promotion, have a look around here about London based startup resources / opportunities (look at the schmoozing list!) - http://londonstartups.co.uk/

The good news is that there are very few native speakers in London :).

I'm still nowhere, but three things helped me a lot at the very beginning:

1. BBC iPlayer http://bbc.co.uk/iplayer - it may not help a lot, but is good fun :).

2. I put my CV online - the very next minute recruiters started calling. They're 99% completely useless (even more if you're not looking for a job, haha), but you can have the same conversation over and over again :).

3. Chatting in the pub. The circumstances are the absolute worst, so if you manage to get across anything in the pub, you will be much better off under better conditions.

What really caught my eyes is the Christmas prediction. I used to work for a startup that ended up belly, hmm, sideways, and the process a -lot- longer than I expected. Money ran out in November. In December, they laid off 10%, and then there was always someone to cough up some money to make the whole thing going, until June, when the company was bought up (and I said goodbye) - it took another 6 months for the new owners to decide to get rid off the team. It may have been lucky for us, but generally: belly-up takes time.

But, it doesn't really change the fact that your bosses appear to be not the nicest people in the world.