Comment by georgespencer | Hacker News Reader

Comment by georgespencer | Hacker News Reader

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> The UK will never be able to foster the same atmosphere as Silicon Valley. We're a conservative bunch and always will be; it's almost embedded in our culture.

I would agree with this if I wasn't seeing entrepreneurs who are breaking the stereotypical British attitude of "sell for £10m, kids to private school, consultancy gig until I'm 50 and retire". We have US-style founders over here who are trying to build amazing things. The venture community hasn't caught up, but I think after one or two larger exits for truly spectacular businesses (forget Zoopla, which is about as innovative as Amazon would be if it helped you check the stock of book stores which you still had to visit), the limited partners in funds will pile on.

> This isn't a problem because it means we're more prudent when it comes to investing hence why we rarely get VC/Angel investment for startups unless they have an already successful business model.

That's changing amongst the top tier of venture investors. Rentify (my business) couldn't process credit cards when we raised from Balderton, and the first board mtg of the year was focused on going for growth uber alles.

I agree that some in the UK lack the natural optimism of the west coast, but there are entrepreneurs here who fit the bill and I think venture will catch up on the whole.

Seed stage is different and I agree that seed investors are a lot more conservative in the UK. But from their perspective, look at the recent explosion of pre-venture startups in the UK, and the relative lack of expertise in discerning which is high potential and which isn't. Risk profile doesn't come into it (on the basis that all early-stage startups are high risk), but rather the seed community in London/UK has a heavy financial services bias, and therefore there's a paucity of expertise or even interest in tech.

> The best way to put it is: In the UK we mostly invest in 1 - n whereas in Silicon Valley they also invest in 0 - 1. After all, it's the birthplace of true capitalism.

I agree with this although I dispute the reasons, and the notion that it will never change.

> I would agree with this if I wasn't seeing entrepreneurs who are breaking the stereotypical British attitude of "sell for £10m, kids to private school, consultancy gig until I'm 50 and retire". We have US-style founders over here who are trying to build amazing things. The venture community hasn't caught up, but I think after one or two larger exits for truly spectacular businesses (forget Zoopla, which is about as innovative as Amazon would be if it helped you check the stock of book stores which you still had to visit), the limited partners in funds will pile on.

My suggestion wasn't that we aren't creating successful startups. My suggestions is that RELATIVELY, when compared to Silicon Valley, we are not fostering innovation. Of corse we are breaking through the barrier but we will always be risk averse and when compared to Silicon Valley, we will never reach the same levels of innovation unfortunately.

From just plucking figures from Google we can see that Silicon Roundabout has about 1000-2000 startups whereas Silicon Valley has more than 20,000 which is a ridiculous ratio.

> That's changing amongst the top tier of venture investors. Rentify (my business) couldn't process credit cards when we raised from Balderton, and the first board mtg of the year was focused on going for growth uber alles.

Agreed, I think it is changing but I really don't think it will catch up with SF VC. London is great for go-getters but when you go to SF you can raise money for an app that sends a "Yo". Don't get me wrong, it's not a good thing that you can get investment for the most ridiculous of ideas but i'm just trying to portray how risk averse we are as a population. Or maybe a better way to put it is that we take calculated risks.

> I agree with this although I dispute the reasons, and the notion that it will never change.

My suggestion that it would never change was a mistake. We will, as a population, become risk-prone but we will never compare to Silicon Valley. I think we will always be less likely to invest in 0-1's.

What's ironic is that the British are known for their innovation and inventiveness and yet here you are making the outrageous claim we're not.

it's pretty stupid how these ridiculous, unfounded memes perpetuate on HN. Young founders are best (but there are regular article how empirically they are worse), SV is the only place that has innovation (but clearly aren't).

The funny one I read a year or two ago was that no EU startup had ever sold for $100mill, which was utter nonsense that 5 secs of googling proved wrong, but was being repeated by various SV journalists.

>What's ironic is that the British are known for their innovation and inventiveness and yet here you are making the outrageous claim we're not.

I don't think that's what askinakhan is saying. He/she is basically saying that there is way too much Venture capital in the valley, which basically means that a lot of ideas get funded, even if a majority of them are crazy ones. This lack of capital splurge in the UK makes it harder for startups there, so they have to be more careful...and this is what he/she is saying might lead to lesser innovation.

Isn't that an argument that the UK market represents far higher returns on investment and thus a much stronger startup scene i.e. the crap has been weeded out?

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