From being one of the most feared words tied to risk and economic bubbles, today's startups are more buzzword-rich and exciting than ever - not far from being the next rock stars. It used to be that if one wanted to be an entrepreneur or work in a startup, the entire society (starting from one’s parents onwards) looked disapprovingly. Thankfully, this is no longer the case - mainly thanks to Silicon Valley, which true to its reputation has been encouraging innovation and has spawned one of the largest startup cultures in the world.
Silicon is Eating the World
This has become such an inspiration that cities world over compare themselves to Silicon Valley - and are often nicknamed the 'Silicon Valley of ...', or "Silicon Beach" in LA and even "Silicon Alley" in NYC.
However, despite the hoopla, most of these cities barely scratch the original in terms of innovation or the venture capital ecosystem. This is due to a number of reason, from local culture to government policies to the economic situation of the country.
But is it at all possible to emulate the culture of Silicon Valley? We hear of companies emulating the Silicon Valley startups (e.g. "the Uber of...," or the "AirBnB of....") all the time, and many leading Valley-based investors have set up offices across the globe - so why is it so hard to emulate the entire ecosystem?
There are some countries that have thriving startup ecosystems - from entrepreneurs, to universities, supportive governments, easy funding, and more. These countries are hotbeds for the latest technology - the type of technology that has the potential to change the world. Best examples of such clusters would include the US, Europe and maybe Israel.
On the other hand, in some countries (notably in many Asian and African countries) although there are local entrepreneurs who are highly talented and trying to innovate, but external factors tend to stymie the growth of innovative startups. This ends up fostering the ‘lookalike’ startup ecosystem, which are essentially startups that are similar to the hot startups in Silicon Valley (such as Groupon or Yelp).
It is definitely going to be hard to replicate the Silicon Valley culture anywhere else, but the essence of this culture should be taken, and that’s the spirit of innovation and willingness to take risks. If we can take this spirit to our cities, for example in my city - Chennai, India, I am sure a lot more innovation can be spurred and ground breaking technology can be developed.