How to build your own Silicon Valley and keep your soul

It’s the everlasting question that cities and countries around the world have: How to grow their startup, technology and innovation ecosystem, but remain authentic to their origins.

They want to be like Silicon Valley and many have used that name for themselves: Silicon Alley in New York City, Silicon Beach in Los Angeles, and, my favorite, Silicon Roundabout in London.

I’m actually sitting in Tirana, Albania right now hoping they name their tech area Silicon Pyramid after the dictator-built museum that is being turned into an IT hub.

But are they there yet? The quantitative and qualitative measures say no.

I’ve visited over 100 early startup ecosystems, as well as invested in over 100 international startups and even though there are intelligent and resourceful founders everywhere, the majority of the world’s startup unicorns are based in the US at 54 percent (CB Insights, 2017).

Only China is closing that gap with 23 percent. After China it’s India and the UK at 4 percent each, then Germany and South Korea at 2 percent each.

It’s also worth noting that no other country has three or more private companies valued at over $1B.