Beyond Silicon Valley

Start up ecosystem development

It has become globally appealing to start referring to any start-up ecosystem as being a sort of Silicon Valley, with various names of ecosystems across the world, paying homage to this area in California.

In Africa alone, we have Silicon Cape in Cape Town, Silicon Savanah in Nairobi, and a few others.
I have also witnessed this in Europe, and more especially in London.

It is true, Silicon Valley has started a great revolution from 1958, with start-up companies that have revolutionised the world, improved the human condition and created new levels of wealth.
My fear however is our general misunderstanding of this pivotal time and the actions that took place, in order to make this all happen.

The Valley could as easily have been called something else, the timing as the epi-centre of the, then emerging Semiconductor industry, mushrooming there got things started.
New mindsets on equity distribution and sharing with employees started gaining traction, new start-ups started emerging, and needed a new type of capital structure, that is more risk accommodating, and a handful of actors were able to pioneer, yet another industry, build next to and in conjuction with that of the silicon valley, the venture capital industry.

The story of Silicon Valley is one of a symbiotic relationship that needs to come into effect between venture capital and entrepreneurial endeavours. Where a rich capital pool is able to unlock unimaginable entrepreneurial talent, that will yield great businesses.
Furthermore, these new entrepreneurial opportunities that are unlocked, will yield more economic prosperity, job creation and increased possibility of new start-ups. Start-ups that will identify new and better niched solutions.

This further will lead to more growth and prosperity.

If entrepreneurs are truly the new freedom fighters of our time — new age venture capitalists are the struggle songs that sustain them through their revolution.

It is therefore not in the name, but in the ecosystem development that our salvation comes from.
We need to build an ecosystem that allows for the effective growth and development of entrepreneurs, gives them access to financial capital and entry into commercial networks and participation in value chains.

All we can do is grow this pie, and in so doing, we can SAVE our society.