We hear a lot about Silicon Valley and it’s unique eco-system for supporting tech startups. We also hear about organisations such as Y combinator that nurture very early stage businesses through to launch. Does Europe need similar support structures? I believe the answer is clear yes, but of different kind.
London is undoubtedly the startup capital of Europe, although there are a whole host of structural weaknesses in the support eco-system. In terms of nurturing there are too many sham ‘dragons den’ type contests and too few opportunities for long term relationship building. The formal funding mechanisms are also very weak in relation to those of Silicon Valley. Here, for example, VCs are dominated by investment managers from a financial background rather than experienced entrepreneurs. Furthermore, there aren’t enough angels who have experience of technology startups.
All this leads me to believe that we do need to strengthen the support eco-system for very early stage businesses. However, it is no longer all about funding. The low cost of technology and the ability to create markets at virtually zero cost through social media has reduced the need for early stage finance. The age of bootstrapping is with us, especially for creative internet based business propositions.
The emphasis is moving away from funding as the predominant focus to other support requirements. The most important of these is the ability to network efficiently with other elements of the eco-system. This is also one of the great strengths of Silicon Valley. It is a truism that in the Valley it is possible to go into any cafe and run into useful contacts who are happy to spare time to discuss and engage in interesting projects. In London the creative entrepreneur community is more fragmented and business does not flow so freely.
We are in the process of tackling these issues. We have set a goal to establish a support eco-system that can add value by bringing together entrepreneurs and link them with vital services. The web-site has been completely revamped to reflect this vision. We have added a number of services targeted at helping the emerging entrepreneurial community. Our events programme is also part of this philosophy. We are now running two major events per month with the aim of bringing entrepreneurs together with the collaborators they need to successfully launch their business ventures. This is particularly important in the bootstrap economy where it is essential to find business partners who will often work for sweat equity because they believe in the vision of the entrepreneur and the quality of the project.
Our next event on the evening 17th February is all about collaboration. This time between creatives and technologists. We are convinced that some very interesting business models will emerge from the fusing of these two communities.
Please sign up on the events pages and come and join us on Thursday. It will be a great opportunity to hear about all the initiatives we are launching.