Why UK startups should stop trying to be US startups
not100percentaccurate.com
not100percentaccurate.com
If people are asking whether they should spell it colour or color, that's probably the reason they are not doing well! What a ridiculously pointless thing to worry about.
For me there is an elephant in the room regarding UK startups not achieving the same sort of success as they do in the US. It's quite simple. People in the UK are far more risk averse than people in the US. It's a completely cultural thing, and it's not going to change any time soon.
It's presentation. It doesn't want to be top on your list but if the majority of your market is en-US then it seems a little silly to write in en-GB. The voice of your prose and your online presence can be an important part of the confidence a user has with your proposal/product. Moreover US America still carries a "cool" factor in some places that Her Brittanic Majesties domain and subjects do not.
I can't say that's been entirely my experience, but I've certainly heard it voiced a few times.
"To succeed UK tech companies must find the rich vein that defines the area that they are in or defines them as individuals. The thing that makes them interesting. It might be a genre, a technology, a specific problem that needs solving in their lives, a cultural phenomena (for ages SMSing was not popular in the US) or a style"
I've somehow ended up in Silicon Valley, and the difference in aspirations is immense. To some extent, people dream of running companies far before they are capable of doing so - but this is what, over time, lets them build the fearlessness they need. By getting used to being out of your depth you can focus on making your enterprise a success, rather than how scary it all is.
The irony is, with private health insurance and a limited welfare system, the penalty for taking a risk and failing can be a lot worse in the US than the UK. There's just some key cultural difference. It's the same aspect of character that makes Americans less afraid to strike up conversation with strangers.
You're assuming something about what happens when you fail in the US that isn't true.
> But growing up in the UK, ambitious young engineers dream of going to work for Microsoft or having a successful career within a big accountancy firm.
That "UK dream" is the US backup plan.
Seriously - health insurance and welfare isn't one of the things on my "what happens if I fail" list because I'll just go get a job.
Oh, and the health insurance costs aren't actually that significant. I know, because I've had the backup plan fail and had to do them out of pocket. Since I'm "old", I'm pretty much a worse case.
It may well be easier if you're "old", since you've already had a chance to establish a career and make yourself hireable - but I can imagine it takes some balls to try to start a business immediately after graduating (or instead of going to college) unless you have a pretty good parental safety net. However, we see it all the time from US kids - and not so much from the UK.
You're assuming something about age discrimination....
> I can imagine it takes some balls to try to start a business immediately after graduating (or instead of going to college)
Huh? Why are you assuming that a youngster is less hirable/desirable after the biz that they start fails? They're not, they're more hirable/desirable, at least in the US. (Of course, if they weren't very hireable before, that may carry over, but we're not talking about those folks.)
> unless you have a pretty good parental safety net.
That's not particularly relevant.
You know, the BBC calculated that only the top 30% of taxpayers are net contributors. There are 30M income tax payers in the UK, so that means 85% of the population get more out of the system than they put in. Rather than being grateful, they resent the 15% who give them everything for not giving even more. That is why in the UK, people keep their heads down.
I'm not sure this guy understands how much of the English-speaking internet is produced by Americans, especially relating to technology. I'm from the UK, and a huge proportion of my media comes from the US (hasn't this been the case for a really long time anyway?) Even programming language tutorials have words like 'awesome'. The Brits aren't faking it, they've adopted that language because they've heard it so often.
It's silly to tell people to stick to one set of social norms because of their place of birth. Every culture is a mishmash. And anyway, the internet is making culture less dependent on geographical location.
I'd probably go so far as to say they've [we've] adopted that language becuase that's the culture we're living in. I live more in a culture that approximates US American culture, heavily skewed that way, by virtue of the internet, than I do in British culture.
Like you seem to intimate so long as we've been the poorer cousin WRT receiving media money this has been the case. We get a version of USA culture via movies and games and TV shows and books and the internet. If they amount to any substantial part of your life then you're living in that culture to some extent.
/ramble
'Whats toxic is that this then becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, teams get funding because they look/sound the part. This means that there are more teams that succeed that fit the stereotype and on we go creating Tigertailz instead of the Beatles.'
Morgan is using metaphors to show how UK startups need to be themselves. Instead of aping US startups as much as possible in every way they can (for example: dress sense and language), they need to be themselves, focus on developing their own styles whatever that may be.
American culture's been slowly infiltrating the UK for decades (I don't have a problem with that), why should a particular group of people suddenly start rejecting it?
I think the key point is not being afraid to find your own path. In the start-up world the Valley dominates everything - there is a huge push to get to California or you're not going to achieve anything big. Governments around the world want to make 'the next Silicon Valley', leading to 'silicon roundabout' in London which is an attempt at the superficial trappings of the Valley without any of the substance.
People are starting to realise that the big VC-funded start-up isn't the only way to go - and people outside the US are starting to see that modelling themselves after American companies and American ideals isn't the only way to go either.
It's quite possible to be unique and have your own voice even if you are inspired by dressing and talking like Steve Jobs.
I see tremendous similarities between the startup culture and the extreme sports culture. Both tend to reject conventional methods of rewarding people with "status" (i.e. family background) and focus instead on meritocratic measures like ability / performance. Issues like nationality tend to also become less relevant as people travel around frequently. Thus it is not surprising and, is actually welcome, that a universal vocabulary has emerged to connect startup'ers wherever they might be based.
Of course, I accept that the author has a point about slavish imitation being a bad strategy. In extreme sports circles, no one likes the guy who turns up with all the kit and the lingo but without the skills, so the key lesson to UK startups is probably best summed up as: focus on walking the walk, before we start talking the talk.... ;)
(Separately, the Beatles might have emerged from Liverpool, but they were hugely influenced by a number of American acts, and indeed were involved in a virtual creative arms race against Brian Wilson at one point.)