Who Wants to be like Silicon Valley Anyway?

Silicon Alley, Silicon Beach, and every other wannabe city around the world that thinks they are Silicon of wherever. This is such a preposterous notion as all cities and places around the world have their own unique and intrinsic values that can yield great businesses. I believe if anything that cities around the world can learn from Silicon valley, is to take what you have and make the best of it — in your own way. Take what you do best, historically, based on your natural resources and amplify them with technology and the passion to succeed and give back to your community.

I like to use the metaphor that people, resources and startups are like wine. The quality and taste of the wine are dependent on many factors. The region of the world, the quality of the soil, the weather, and the vineyard all have an impact on the taste and provenance of the product. eg. Silicon valley is great for talented software and VCs, and they tend to make algorithmic, tech heavy products. However, if you are a fashion tech company. I wouldn’t go there; as you will find it to be a desert for the design and sensibility that you need, not only to build your product, but to find people who like this type of business and the VC’s/investors you will need to scale it. They just won’t get it or be interested. This is more of a New York or London proposition. Boston for robotics and Biotech, London and Hong Kong for Fintech etc etc, I’m not saying that they don’t exist in these places, but each is well known for some specific verticals based on the human capabilities and the institutions that they house.

I’m here to argue that that the design of the team and the organization is the key to startup and enterprise success as all the skills, insights, and capabilities are going to come from the people, as well as how they are aligned with the market opportunity, and to extend this, where they are located or where they choose acquire resources: capital, talent, vendors and customers. Many times, and especially in this day and age, these components are not available all in the same place.

I believe it will serve you well, to think hard about your environment and the team that you are building along with the market you are trying to compete in, or create — and to be well versed in the mostly intangible science, and it is a science, of human resources and capital( as it extends much farther than the internal psychology of the enterprise) and with capital I mean; “stock”; the inputs into your company that provide it with a competitive advantage that will set it on a specific trajectory.

For anyone that is interested in getting deeper insights into this aspect of startups and organizational design, my basic 101 book course is:

1. “The 5 dysfunctions of a team” by Patrick Lencioni
2. “Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman
3. “Good to Great” by Jim Collins
4. Startup Communities” by Brad Feld

Aligning the human and community elements of your company and starting on fertile ground, in a robust ecosystem that has a taste for your product, is a major component to what will help you gain traction and set you on your campaign.

Many cities, or one close by to you has an ecosystem, it may not be well defined, but it is there, and if it isn’t, that’s your opportunity to be a leader and to define it.

Entrepreneurs, as well as investors conceiving their companies and or deciding their investment thesis, should aim to maximize the value of their ecosystem and create sustainable businesses that are representative of their markets and natural advantages.