I went to San Francisco and all I got was a load of ideas for promoting entrepreneurship…
February 25th, 2010 by PeterEnterprise UK is supporting the Clean and Cool Mission and I was lucky enough to join the delegation out in San Francisco, courtesy of the excellent people at Polecat and the Technology Strategy Board. It was real eye-opener – here’s a few observations:
1) We just don’t seem to have the same eco-system for entrepreneurs as they do in the Valley.
Yep, nothing new to say but I’d never really experienced it before. “Entrepreneur” really is a badge of honour out here. You’re cool if you’re starting up; everyone is extremely friendly and willing to meet – the Birches of Bebo fame epitomise this – really wonderful and generous couple; there’s something in the air for sure. This is also evident in the VC community – with many of the market leaders spending time to share advice and ideas with the Mission Delegates.
2) They are all in it together
We wrote about this in the Future Face of Enterprise, but there is a real appetite for working together, networking, sharing ideas, meeting up out here. Yep, course its competitive – but they all seem quite friendly too! You can almost see the social networks, connectors, and nodes linking it all together – Julia French and Susan Best just two examples. Social capital and who you know is everything. That’s why the UKTI out there are so useful for any UK firms looking to hook up.
3) Brits are too formal and too slow to act
Our emails are too long and crafted; we don’t have the same urgency to act after meeting contacts; our powerpoints have too many words; we need to lose the ties and open the top-button. (If you can’t Tweet it; just Forgeet it) This blog probably will get ripped apart. Short attention spans perhaps – but then again maybe Pareto has a point…
4) The UK can be world leaders in clean-technologies
The 19 companies on this mission can all be viewed here. Thanks to world-class research, entrepreneurial ambition, flaming good ideas and innovation – we have the potential to lead the world in Clean and Cool technologies. The VCs seemed genuinely impressed with the companies who are out on the mission. The Government-backed Technology Strategy Board doing a grand job in seed-funding some of these amazing companies and helping them grow, and supporting the Clean and Cool Mission to support their trip out here.
5) Investment’s there for clean and cool innovations
We had some amazing insights from people while out here, not least from the excellent guys at Orrick, HP Labs, the Serious Materials CEO, Kevin Solace, Tony Seba at Stanford University and many of the VCs that joined us at various points.
So first off, serious investment is still available for clean and cool technologies despite the economic conditions. Companies like HP and their HP Labs are helping the supply chain by investing serious amounts in innovation and new technologies.
Second, VCs are making long-term investments in clean-tech companies – this is pretty essential in the market where manufacturing can take up serious years of dedication and investment.
Third, clean-tech isn’t just a future, it’s the future. It’s not just a moral choice about the environment but increasingly an economic choice. I spoke to one VC who described his time 20 years ago where he felt like he was banging his head against a brick wall about clean tech (now people can bang their heads against recycled hemp and straw fabricated walls instead). The ever-insightful John Elkington and the other panellists at the Sustainable Cities debate describe this better here.
There are still plenty of challenges and opportunities it seems too
• My perception was that clean tech remains a male dominated world. How can entrepreneurship (and engineering, science, manufacturing etc) open the doors up for more female participation?
• Lots of focus and investment has understandably been given to supply side energy problems – where big shifts need to be made to shift to a zero-carbon world. However this means there is potentially still a gap in terms at influencing behavioural change and consumer action to support these large scale changes. How can we galvanise consumer support for a better future?
• How on earth can anyone pick the disruptive technologies that are going to be the key to our future? It’s a vast and growing sector. There are so many things we could do – with water, waves, solar, wind, fuel cells, electric motors. Who on earth can hazard a guess as to the ones that will make the biggest difference (guess that’s where VCs come in…)
That all said there are plenty of entrepreneurs at the heart of looking for clean and cool solutions; turning innovative concepts into real and fundable business propositions. Check just some of them out on the Mission and keep tuned to see as these exciting technologies emerge and grow over the next few years. I’m just glad that lots of people in the UK are already using their entrepreneurial ideas to sort out the environmental mess we seem to be in!
February 26th, 2010 at 9:59 am
Some good stuff here – and some horribly sweeping generalisations. Personally I think no bad thing in the blogosphere.
But we are what we are. Our success will be based on developing our sense of self and our communities and relationships – not by trying to ape something that has worked for some people in some places.
You can’t change one culture for another. We have to learn to work with, and develop, what we have got.
March 1st, 2010 at 10:25 am
cheers Mike,
yep – some seriously sweeping generalisations indeed!
I agree that we dont want to mimic Silicon Valley (we havent got the right weather for a start) but there are definitely lessons to be learnt.
In fact, I think its true to say that those in the US were pretty impressed by the commitment to clean technologies being made in the UK and the way that regulation is driving innovation.