Don’t Be Silicon Valley

I’ve spoken with hundreds of community leaders around the world, and I can’t tell you how often I’ve heard a university staff member or economic development official say, “We want to be the Silicon Valley of this region.”

While aspiring to something great is understandable, this approach is problematic for a number of reasons. The first reason is simply a matter of expectation setting. Even major cities from Milwaukee to San Diego have a hard time coming even close to doing what Silicon Valley is doing, so setting a goal of “next Silicon Valley” is really setting an initiative up for failure.?

The second problematic element here is that startup ecosystems grow and evolve naturally.?

While community leaders can certainly influence this, it’s not like a group of musicians choosing their sound and achieving it by emulating their heroes. While community leaders have a huge role in developing a startup ecosystem, they have to work with what they have. If you only have the ingredients for jalape?o cornbread, you cannot make brisket instead.

Startup ecosystems develop because of their own unique histories and cultures. The kinds of startups people create, how founders lead their teams, etc, are all influenced by an incredible myriad of factors.?

Startup ecosystems even have their own cultures that trickle down to company cultures. When I lived in Austin, TX, I noticed there were general differences between startups in Austin compared to those in Silicon Valley. One such difference was life-work balance. I’m generalizing here, but Austin startups often respected life-work balance, where Silicon Valley startups did not. This was a reflection of a more laid back culture in Austin that blossomed around Willie Nelson and an incredible music scene.?

There are a lot of ingredients that play into what will define your startup ecosystem, but the most obvious ones are culture and industry.?

{Coming Thursday, Industry}