Silicon Valley touches down in Oxford

 

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By Alun Williams

Posted on 21 Nov 2006 at 17:47

Silicon Valley came to Oxford University yesterday, for the sixth time in this annual event, and two clear themes arose: the advisability for would-be entrepreneurs to Go West and plug themselves into the Silicon Valley network, and the threat posed by Google to the traditional funding strategies for online start-ups.

Among the West Coast attendees at the Said Business School were successful start-up founders, such as Reid Hoffman, CEO and founder of Linked in and formerly of PayPal, and Alex Walsh CEO and founder of Photobucket, technologists such as Chris Sacca, Google's Head of Special Initiatives, and venture capitalists, such as Allen Morgan, MD of Mayfield, one of Silicon Valley's oldest VC firms.

In a series of panel discussions, master classes and 'Garage Innovation' sessions, MBA students and UK start-up kingpins mixed with some of the West Coast's finest. The message, however, was that Silicon Valley is still the place to beat when it comes to opportunities and resources for starting and developing new businesses. Whether it be the attention of venture capitalists, the pool of technical talent available or the general ecosystem, the original template has not been bettered.

Other countries try to replicate, more or less successfully, the conditions that make northern California a technological hothouse. But although the Internet can bring people closer together and sources of funding are more widely available around the globe - the VC-funding available to the Estonian-based Skype was often cited - the Silicon Valley sun is still the best for nurturing start-ups.

The old chestnut of national 'culture' was brought up. Specifically, that the entrepreneurial-oriented West Coast is not afraid of failure, which can even be seen as a badge of honour let alone a prelude to success. Risk-averse societies such as Japan and Germany, for example, were cited. Why are there relatively few Japanese among the Indian, Chinese and Eastern European entrepreneurs that find their way to the Valley? asked Morgan in his masterclass.

Where the UK falls in this spectrum was left unspoken. Google's Chris Sacca did observe later, however, that he had been asked 'What school did you go to?' more times in the last few hours than he had in the previous year in California.

The continuing prevalence of start-up funding in the geographical area, whether from 'Angel' investors or more established sources and the compound effect of available technical expertise were also cited. As Allen Morgan described it, one might almost imagine that you couldn't go to a party without bumping into a venture capitalist or miss the uber-geeks clued up on the cutting edge development of technology. Anyone who has spent a wind-swept afternoon wandering around San Jose - the self-styled capital of Silicon Valley - won't easily recognise the picture, but the gist was clear: the major players all know each other, either as friends or former colleagues on past projects. Forget technology, the strength of this social network should not be underestimated.

Someone who initially disagreed with the necessity of upping sticks to make their business dream into a reality was Photobucket's Alex Welch. Speaking in another master class he told how he held out in Colorado in the early days of the company, which required re-mortgaging his house three times. He only opened an office in Palo Alto when the company was established. When the subject of YouTube was raised, specifically their success in attracting massive VC funding, he laughed wryly but complimented the company on their 'cool technology'. The fact that Flickr is based just a couple of blocks away, however, does suggest quite how close-knit this network of businesses is.