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Taking Risk

tomblomfield.com

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Re: Taking Risk

#21

Post by lordnacho »

petesergeant wrote: post #4

I have degrees from two of the universities he mentioned, and am currently in the process of raising. He says both: > I don’t think it’s any longer about access to capital. but also: > many UK investors take an extremely risk-averse view to new business - I lost count of the times that a British investor would ask for me a 3 year cash-flow forecast Which I think are in conflict. I feel like my biggest take-away from…

I think this is the answer. Ambitious people in the modern startup world move to the US, because that's where the ecosystem is.

It's like asking why do the best Brazilian footballers move to Europe.

Re: Taking Risk

#22

Post by reedf1 »

I considered a startup after university in the UK. The talent arbitrage is absurd, physics grads with 1sts from top Russell Group unis fighting to be paid £30k/yr. For me it came down to security, life is expensive, rent is expensive. I didn't have a spare parental garage to setup five computers - I barely had room in my flat for one desk. I barely had money for that flat let alone internet, and food. I had zero capital, as in literally zero. The plan was to get an entry level job to provide some base line, but that base line never really provided enough life security that I felt comfortable leaving the system once I was inside it.

Re: Taking Risk

#23

Post by ggm »

Bankruptcy laws and social mores massively different.

In the UK to go bankrupt is to be painted with indelible red shame dye. In America... going bankrupt means you are closing out the book on one failure to try another.

Re: Taking Risk

#24

Post by monsecchris »

Why bother starting anything in the uk, the taxman will just take any proceeds. The moment I get an opportunity to move to the USA I’m heading over there to continue my business.

Re: Taking Risk

#25

Post by varjag »

davedx wrote: post #20
osullivj wrote: post #2

US has more hi wealth families that can support startup kids, like Gates, making learning by failure more practical.

Citation needed? The UK certainly has plenty of upper-middle class families. This is nothing to do with family wealth and everything to do with business culture.

The UK is a class society much closer in nature to East Asia than the United States. Wealth accumulation is still to a great extent occurs along the stratified classes and they ain't sending their kids to engineering schools.

Re: Taking Risk

#26

Post by surfingdino »

colesantiago wrote: post #6

The UK isn't really known for being an ambitious nation when it comes to the startup ecosystem. For jobs, unless you're working in finance in London, for tech salaries (except for FAANG) it is simply no surprise that it is so low on average [0] that isn't even worth it. What is more damning is that I saw an internship in the US earn more than a job posting of Head of Cyber Security at the HM Treasury which is $50-57K…

Wealth in the UK is in the hands of the landed gentry and getting investment is about who you know and who your parents were. I worked for a number of London startups and the CEOs were surprisingly often public school/Oxbridge trust-fund grads (you learn to recognise them after a while) and always part-funded through some gov grant, one even openly admitted that his startup doesn't need to make money, because his dad is an investor in the startup incubator they were a part of. The HR lady was married to a City lawyer and spent more time collecting artworks for their house than dealing with pesky distractions like paying people on time. London is great if you are of the right pedigree and want to set up a bank, an insurance company, or a payment processor. Not so great if you want to copy Silicon Valley. I tried to get people interested in projects I worked on and there is zero of the US enthusiasm or trying to connect you with the people who might be able to help you.

Re: Taking Risk

#28

Post by Shrezzing »

> I don’t think it’s any longer about access to capital

The link provided as proof for this comment is Wayve receiving a $1bn injection from Microsoft and Nvidia [1].

The $1bn raise is not the concern of a budding 23 year old graduate leaving Imperial/Cambridge/Oxford. They're looking at the first £100k capital to see them through the first few months. In the UK, the scene for the first capital injection is far weaker than in the US, which has an inevitable downstream impact.

[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crgypzg4edvo

Re: Taking Risk

#29

Post by hedgehog0 »

DeathArrow wrote: post #15

It would be more interesting to not consider just US and UK, but the whole world. Lots of new startups might come from Asia. Eastern European startup scene is interesting, also.

May I ask which countries in east Europe would you consider to be good and convenient, esp for foreigners (non-EU)? When I visited Budapest I like it there, but don’t know much about the tech scene.

Re: Taking Risk

#30

Post by SeanLuke »

> Along with UCL, these British universities represent 4 of the top 10 universities in the world.

... according to QS Global Surveys. A disreputable organization who won't open their data and whose rankings are based at least 50% on reputation surveys (!!), of which only 2% or so are responded to. Is it worth mentioning that it's based in England?

I'm not saying the US should have more institutions. I'm saying that it's highly unlikely that four of the top 10 institutions worldwide are British.

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