Stop Trying to Replicate Silicon Valley

A few weeks ago, I participated in a panel titled, “Building Realistic Ecosystem Dreams”. The goal of the session — part of a day-long conference focused on Alberta’s tech ecosystem — was to discuss and debate what a realistic future for the local tech ecosystem could be and how best to support it’s growth.

It was a fantastic conversation that covered a wide variety of topics. Of course, it was only a matter of time before someone asked the well-meaning but inevitable question,

“How can we make our tech ecosystem more like Silicon Valley?”

I’ve had the privilege of working with dozens of startup ecosystems around the world, and I can say from experience that along with death and taxes, one of the certainties of life is that every politician, journalist and armchair entrepreneur thinks that their city can be (and should be) the next Silicon Valley. There’s Silicon Alley, Silicon Beach, Silicon Slopes, Silicon Wadi, Silicon Glen…

You get the point.

While I completely understand — and support — the desire to build entrepreneurial ecosystems around the world, I’ve always found it odd how many people think it’s possible to replicate Silicon Valley. We don’t think that way about any other industry (when was the last time you heard someone ask, “How can our city be the next Wall Street?”).

Of course, there are plenty of organizations that are more than happy to sell the Silicon Valley dream to anyone who will listen.

“For the low, low price of [redacted], we can drop a shiny new ACME™ accelerator in your city and it’ll be instant success!”

…

“Well, no…we won’t actually invest in any of the companies that go through the program…”

So if we can’t replicate Silicon Valley, are there opportunities to leverage it to foster the growth of global entrepreneurial ecosystems?

Absolutely.

First off, despite my cynicism when it comes to replicating Silicon Valley, I believe wholeheartedly that there are lessons for other ecosystems to learn from Silicon Valley. In fact, that was the original premise behind the first generation of startup accelerators.

There have also been countless books written to encapsulate various aspects of Silicon Valley’s culture and best practices, from The Lean Startup and Zero to One to The Cold Start Problem and Secrets of Sand Hill Road. There’s also Brad Feld’s excellent book, Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City and its follow-up, The Startup Community Way, both of which offer a cornucopia of lessons from “the Boulder Experiment” and its impact on startup ecosystems around the world.

Which brings us to the million dollar question: what can governments do to support local entrepreneurs if “bringing Silicon Valley to a town near you” isn’t the answer?

They can send local entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley.

“But wait,” you might be thinking, “don’t governments already do that…?”

Sort of.

Governments, corporates and other ecosystem supporters around the world have been sending entrepreneurs on tours of Silicon Valley for years (Canada was one of the pioneers of this, with the C100’s “48 hours in the Valley” program nearly 15 years ago). But that’s not what I’m talking about.

Last month, the Scottish government did something almost unheard of: they paid for 12 startups to relocate to San Francisco for a month as part of the country’s Tech Scalar program.

To be clear: the Scottish government didn’t pay for a startup tourism trip, as many governments do (“Next, we’ll visit Google’s cafeteria…”). Nor did they fly the entrepreneurs all the way to Silicon Valley only to make them sit through a program run by compatriots who travelled to Silicon Valley with them. Instead, they did something revolutionary: they gave the startups office space…and let them work.

It may seem like an exaggeration, but in backing this initiative, the Scottish government made a mental leap that few governments around the world have ever made: they stopped being scared that their entrepreneurs might stay in Silicon Valley and instead focused on the long-term benefit of helping them to work there.

The Scottish government successfully overcame a globally-shared insecurity that is deep within many countries’ cultures: a fear that, if given the opportunity to spend time in Silicon Valley, their entrepreneurs will choose not to return. While there’s definitely some validity to the worry, ultimately this short-term thinking is the economic policy equivalent of an insecure boyfriend who doesn’t want his partner to go out or do anything for fear that they may leave him.

Here’s the thing: if governments really want to accelerate their tech ecosystems, they should be encouraging their founders to travel to Silicon Valley in order to learn from and work with the best. Sure, a few might stay. But the vast majority won’t for a wide variety of reasons. And guess what? Those who do stay will learn a ton while they’re in the U.S. And a good number of them will one day repatriate home and bring back with them the knowledge and experience they gained. And for those who choose not to return, where do you think they’re going to open their first remote office…?

Of course, it’s understandably difficult for politicians worried about getting reelected and corporate executives trying to get their next promotion to support this kind of long-term thinking, but it can be done.

And all it takes is a plane ticket and some office space.

Not a program. Not a detailed itinerary. Not another tour of Google’s cafeteria. Just a plane ticket and some office space.

Imagine the ROI on that.