Category: Startup Ecosystem

17
Oct

What makes a powerful startup ecosystem?

Startup ecosystems are a key driver of economic growth of a country. There are many components which makes a successful startup ecosystems. In this video I am visiting London and explaining my perspective on entrepreneurial ecosystems globally. Europe does not have a silicon valley, but I think it doesn’t need one. Europe has many unique startup ecosystems where entrepreneurs are building the digital future – the sum of these innovation hubs might outperform silicon valley in the future.

Starting a company is difficult and takes a lot of entrepreneurial qualities, such as perseverance, resistance, and passion. In the digital age you can start a company anywhere in the world. Being successful is not related to a specific location nor country anymore. You can even be a digital nomad and still build a thriving company. But what I have seen during my trips to some of the most powerful startup ecosystems is, that it is much easier to be successful in these entrepreneurial hubs than on a lonely island at the Maldives.

Startup ecosystems are like a magnet, bringing together the key elements for every entrepreneur to succeed. From my perspective a thriving startup ecosystem needs four components:
1. Knowledge: The right education, life long learning programs, mixed with the mindset of sharing knowledge and exchanging their concepts and business ideas with others.
2. Infrastructure: With infrastructure I mean everything you need to reach your entrepreneurial goals and do your work. This includes super fast internet, inspiring work spaces, accelerator programs and corporate startup programs etc.
3. Talent: To be successful you need to right people around you, as co-founders, developers, key sales people or smart growth hackers. During every stage of the company you will need different qualities and specialities of people. But startup ecosystems are like a magnet for good people. That’s why some of the best people decided to move to these startup hubs (e.g. entrepreneurs who moved to Silicon Valley, such as Andy Bechtolsheim from Germany, Jan Koum from Ukraine, Larry Page from Michigan USA, Elon Musk from South Africa).
4. Capital: Startup Ecosystems have a dense network of Venture Capital Investors who are supporting entrepreneurs during the life-cycle of their companies, from seed-stage to growth-stage.

Watch my #Vlog from London where I am talking about “The Power of Startup Ecosystems”: