There Are Two VC Industries • Hacker News Board

Re: There Are Two VC Industries

#21

Post by bcurdy » Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 9:44 AM UTC

Swizec wrote: post #7

tspare wrote: post #6

Since the capital requirement is no longer a large barrier to entry for web startups, I am wondering this mean: - a startup should stay in stealth mode longer in order to give it a bigger legs up on its possible competitors - silicon valley connection to VC money becomes less critical and the team makeup for execution becomes more important. This may mitigate some of the advantages of starting in the valley. What do…

Working on a web startup in Europe the big majority of advice I get is saying "Go to the Valley". The thing is, in Europe, nobody takes web startups seriously yet. The web is still seen as something that neighbour kid does perfectly well. Why start a company based on that when some kid can do it for a fraction of the price and just as well? In the Valley, I hear, the attitude is a lot different and if nothing else th…

I guess the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence... Sure, people in Silicon Valley usually have a great attitude towards the web and entrepreneurs but it's also cut-throat competition out there. Don't believe that being based in the valley alone will make your life much easier. If you already have a complete team, a minimum viable product and some traction, then you'll be able to meet there people who know how to build up your audience and maybe get funding. There's definitely more experienced people there per square meter than anywhere else. But it's also a very expensive place in terms of housing/office space and talents.

Europe might not be as web-friendly but there has never been a better time for startups there. Think Seedcamp in the UK, startup bootcamp in Danemark, Hackfwd in Germany and many, many more.. There are loads of people in Europe taking startups very seriously.

At the end of the day, users don't care if you're based in Singapore, London or San Francisco. Also, you should be able to get an iPad not too long after anybody else in the US :)

Re: There Are Two VC Industries

#22

Post by eru » Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 1:40 PM UTC

mjfern wrote: post #14

This article raises an interesting point. However, I would argue that the startup costs have fallen across the board, whether you're a software startup or a startup in another field. First, it's much less expensive today for startups to obtain key services due to the prevalence and availability of offshoring. Second, new technology enables many startups to handle some services in-house, whereas before it required hir…

Your second point: Isn't Google AdWords an example of a good third party service that replaces an expensive in-house specialist (or hired outside specialist)?

Re: There Are Two VC Industries

#23

Post by jkaljundi » Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 6:24 PM UTC

Swizec wrote: post #7

tspare wrote: post #6

Since the capital requirement is no longer a large barrier to entry for web startups, I am wondering this mean: - a startup should stay in stealth mode longer in order to give it a bigger legs up on its possible competitors - silicon valley connection to VC money becomes less critical and the team makeup for execution becomes more important. This may mitigate some of the advantages of starting in the valley. What do…

Working on a web startup in Europe the big majority of advice I get is saying "Go to the Valley". The thing is, in Europe, nobody takes web startups seriously yet. The web is still seen as something that neighbour kid does perfectly well. Why start a company based on that when some kid can do it for a fraction of the price and just as well? In the Valley, I hear, the attitude is a lot different and if nothing else th…

Still we have great successes like Skype & Playtech, or on earlier stage Spotify in Europe, just to bring a few examples. There are thousands of other exciting startups.

Seedcamp had 10+ events this year with 20 selected startups presenting at each and hundreds applying to some of these. That's up to 1-2 thousand ambitious startups out there. Each of the countries, even the smallest ones like Slovenia and Estonia, have tens or hundreds of exciting teams.

Valley has huge pluses for growth. At the same time, it has cut throat competition for getting noticed or even getting meetings with investors.

Getting traction depends on product. In Valley you understand, how competitive it really is to get traction.

Re: There Are Two VC Industries

#24

Post by evilhackerdude » Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 7:16 PM UTC

bcurdy wrote: post #21

Swizec wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working on a web startup in Europe the big majority of advice I get is saying "Go to the Valley". The thing is, in Europe, nobody takes web startups seriously yet. The web is still seen as something that neighbour kid does perfectly well. Why start a company based on that when some kid can do it for a fraction of the price and just as well? In the Valley, I hear, the attitude is a lot different and if nothing else th…

I guess the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence... Sure, people in Silicon Valley usually have a great attitude towards the web and entrepreneurs but it's also cut-throat competition out there. Don't believe that being based in the valley alone will make your life much easier. If you already have a complete team, a minimum viable product and some traction, then you'll be able to meet there people w…

Especially with CDNs and distributed infrastructure providers even latencies are becoming less of a problem. Technological conditions can only improve in the long term.

Re: There Are Two VC Industries

#25

Post by pfmendez » Fri, Sep 17, 2010, 8:53 PM UTC

bcurdy wrote: post #21

Swizec wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working on a web startup in Europe the big majority of advice I get is saying "Go to the Valley". The thing is, in Europe, nobody takes web startups seriously yet. The web is still seen as something that neighbour kid does perfectly well. Why start a company based on that when some kid can do it for a fraction of the price and just as well? In the Valley, I hear, the attitude is a lot different and if nothing else th…

I guess the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence... Sure, people in Silicon Valley usually have a great attitude towards the web and entrepreneurs but it's also cut-throat competition out there. Don't believe that being based in the valley alone will make your life much easier. If you already have a complete team, a minimum viable product and some traction, then you'll be able to meet there people w…

While I develop my first prototype in Mallorca I´m observing what's happening in the continent and speculate about the emergence of a fuzzy system of VCs, talented geeks, developers and researchers, with the same virtues of Silicon Valley. I dare say that the event here in Europe will be a Silicon Landscape instead of a Valley. We have the funding and the technical systems. The economic one will develop slowly. I see the main constraints within the policy-political system, which is based on command-and-control and top-down hierarchies, making it very difficult to emerge from the bottom.