London's streets paved with gold for tech start ups ?
This is a guest post from TechCrunch by Scott Allison, Founder & CEO of Teamly, a productivity and people management tool which launched in beta in July 2010.
'I’m in that end-of-year mood, looking back and assessing how the last year has been for me, and one of the big decisions I’m reflecting on was my relocation in March of this year from Glasgow to London because of its promise as a startup hub. So what’s the reality? Was it worth it? And what does the future hold with the East London Tech City initiative?
After exiting my last business, abica, in October 2009, I took some time out and attended some inspirational events like the awesome Startup Bootcamp at MIT, and spent a couple of days with Zappos in Las Vegas. These experiences reinforced my goal to do something I’m passionate about, change the world for the better and create a global brand and business. I was also clear this new business was going to be a SaaS product, scalable and profitable. But where would I do it?
I hadn’t experienced what was going on in London for myself, but could see from where I was, just 400 miles north in Glasgow that London already had much of what Silicon Valley had. An ecosystem of ambitious entrepreneurs, startups and even some venture capitalists. So it was a no-brainer and I moved to London in March of this year. London has more than met my expectations, the ecosystem definitely exists, and through my membership of TechHub and attendance of events like OpenCoffee, Bootlaw, ProductTank, Drinktank, Minibar, Launch48, Leancamp, Geeknrolla and Silicon Valley comes to London/Cambridge/Oxford I’ve learnt from entrepreneurs and investors, and made good friends.
I was surprised and delighted when the Government announced their plans last month for East London Tech City, finally there is external validation of my move to London, and proof to show to friends, family and business colleagues back home who wonder why I moved “so far away” in London! What the Government has recognised, and what critics don’t get, is that it’s far better to build on an existing cluster, and make that stronger rather than try and start something new from scratch elsewhere for the sake of beefing up regional economies. Silicon Valley succeeds because of the critical mass there, but in Europe our tech scene is fragmented, and in a small country like the UK the temptation is to fragment even more. It’s appealing because we’re typically reluctant to relocate and successive Governments have often, quite sensibly sought to encourage economic development out of the South East. However, the reality is that yes, we may be developing products and services that can be consumed globally from any browser, but building this and making it happen, like any other type of business, relies on face-to-face contact and the bigger the ecosystem, the better. I wouldn’t have the friends I’ve got, and the support network I have if it weren’t for being here in London physically. Yes, you can build a great tech business anywhere in the world, but it’s just a lot harder if you’re isolated and on your own.
Being around other people leads to serendipitous things happening, like last week when I was invited to Number 10 to take part in a breakfast discussion about East London Tech City. This was the real-deal, the Government is working hard to listen and understand the issues and opportunities. Along with a handful of entrepreneurs like myself invited there were also representatives from corporates like Google and Vodafone, the investor community and even Facebook. We were split into groups and given some points to discuss and the management consultants McKinsey will present their findings along with their recommendations to Number 10 next month.
But London is not going to replace Silicon Valley, and I was glad to see the Prime Minister acknowledge that when he said, “Right now, Silicon Valley is the leading place in the world for high-tech growth and innovation. But there’s no reason why it has to be so predominant. Our ambition… is to help make East London one of the world’s great technology centres.”
Read on at TechCrunch