Harplessblog
Opinions of an inexperienced techy!
Sunday 25 November 2007, 2:51 AM
Why is there a shortage of UK tech entrepreneurs?
Since Tim Barners-Lee's invention of the World Wide Web, almost all the cool web stuff has come from America. From early services such as Ebay and Amazon to Google, Facebook or any number of web services, the founders are American based.
So, are UK kids just uncreative?
thats unlikely, in my opinion its in the culture; like the movie industry, we've become acustomed to good things coming from America, so we wait.
Also, it seems as though its much harder to get funding in the UK. UK investors are more cautious with their money.
By contrast, in Silicon Valley, VC's will through money at anything in hope that one of them will be a big hit, and that strategy seems to work. Take Peter Thiel for example; since PayPal, he's invested in several startups, one of which hapens to be Facebook, whose recent valuation makes him a billionaire by virtue of holding a 10% stake in the company. That would more than make up for investments lost in unsuccessful startups.
Another possible contributor is the relative ease of getting a well-paying job in I.T. for example, as i type this blog entry, i see a news headline at the top of my profile page, it reads: "demand for tech graduates still strong"
Twitter and Bebo are some of the UK startups that have achieved success, but even they've had to move to Silicon Valley because its much easier to make it if you're based there.
Tuesday 20 November 2007, 12:01 AM
The credit crunch may actually inspire new entrepreneurs!
I was reading techcrunch, as i do daily when i came across the title: "Will the credit crunch inflate the internet bubble"
the entry cites a survey carried out on the people most affected by the fall out in the financial markets, due to the US mortgage crisis. The survey studied 862 people, 56% of which were considering starting their own business within the next 12 months, most of them in the tech area.
Are we about to witness an array of creative ideas or are we dealing with a bunch of desparados inspired by the "be your own boss" campaigns, who assume the internet is an easy way to make a buck?
lets just wait and see!
The author also mentions the 'internet bubble' being inflated, in my opinion, there is no bubble; not many startups do IPOs, most are backed by VC's, therefore if the business fails, the financial implications are only felt by the gullible VC and 'misguided/unlucky' entrepreneur, unlike the original bubble where companies were publicaly traded..
to read the techcrunch post see: techcrunch
