There was an interesting little piece in the NBR the other day: “Silicon Valley doesn’t care if you’re a Kiwi”. The person interviewed in Silicon Valley (Edith Yeung) said that basically the people over there are so multinational and most likely immigrants so they are not about where you are from it is all about the quality of the idea. A couple of the key quotes:
“If you tell me you have an Uber-like company for a particular market or another food delivery company, it’s likely we would not invest. Not because it’s not a good business, but because it’s going to be the 20thor 30th version of the same thing, A lot of entrepreneurs show me their product and they’re excited. But it’s really not about the product because if the founder is good, I’ll assume the product is good. The key thing is the person understands how the market works, along with the overall competition and their exact place in the world.”
I thought one of the more interesting and challenging other quotes was: “A great chef doesn’t always make a great restaurant owner”.
A few good points to pick up on there and apply to our own unique contexts – for us that is as we both deal with our clients in this area and also as we explore an idea for a new business ourselves.
