There wasn’t any central planning involved in the creation of Silicon Valley so I’m always surprised to see that method proposed to foster a similar setup elsewhere. This is not to say a deliberate attempt to engineer a hub is necessarily a bad idea, Ireland seems to have achieved it with TechHub, simply that the organic alternative probably produces better long term results.
London is lucky in that one has grown up this way in Old St. Silicon Roundabout is home to a number of different startups, most notably Last.fm. We know this area well as it is where our developers are based and it is quite likely we will join them when we get office space, therefore I consider my self an honorary member.
On top of being home to a cluster of startups Silicon Roundabout has other natural advantages. It is close to the City which means easy access to high quality professional services crucial to making Venture Capital run smoothly. What hasn’t yet been done is to organise the yearly bonus flow into an angel network capable of matching Silicon Valley. Complaining that we don’t have a Google and all the freshly minted millionaires that go with doesn’t get us anywhere, we have to work with what we have. What we really need is a way to get these younger city workers who understand the web with the smart hackers who need backing. In Open Coffee we have the model, all we need is a link between the two worlds.
And we do have advantages. Firstly much better equity markets. Unburdened by Sarbox it is far easier to IPO a company on AIM or Plus Markets than it is on NASDAQ. This is not to say it is easy but it does offer an alternative exit to acquisition. Secondly access to media companies. Links between startups and media companies will become increasingly important and London has far better access. The nearest cluster of media companies to Silicon Valley is in Los Angeles 300 miles away. As time goes on content will become increasingly important and maybe by being closer together we can avoid some of the misunderstandings that have plagued others and build even better services.
We may not have Google and Stanford but we need to forget about that and concentrate on adapting Silicon Valley’s methods to our strengths.
Pic: Ewan M
