

What's Not wrong with the London startup scene... - chrowe
http://www.magnatemag.com/2012/04/whats-not-wrong-with-the-london-startup-scene/

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untog
Stop comparing London to Silicon Valley. It's a waste of time. I moved from
the UK to New York a few years ago (before the startup scene really got going
in the UK) and you can't compare New York to Silicon Valley, either.

However, every place has strengths that Silicon Valley does not. Both New York
and London are very well connected to other industries like media, banking and
fashion. They're actually great counterparts to each other- London being a
gateway to Europe, and New York being a gateway to North America.

I'd love to set up some sort of intercontinental exchange programs for NY+LON
startups. Companies offering desk space to their transatlantic cousins for
mutual benefit. Let me know (contact details are in my profile) if you'd be
interested in something like this- I want to get to know some more startups
"back home" in any case!

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benreyes
Something not quite but similar to the exchange program for New York City is
'Adopt a Hacker' - <http://www.adoptahacker.com>

One to check out. I would like to see a similar programme for London.

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rayhano
There are so many pieces on what is wrong with the London scene, because the
real scene (full of crazy people) is in Silicon Valley. You cannot compete
with the insane people there who are happy to destroy capital and jobs in the
pursuit of notoriety, peer adulation and the odd $1bn exit.

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psb217
You seem to be ignoring the central role played by London financiers in the
largest global destruction of "capital and jobs in the pursuit of notoriety,
peer adulation and the odd $1bn exit" in the last 50 years. In other words,
there's a perfectly adequate bankroll, but they happen to prefer poker over
blackjack.

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rayhano
Sure, but tech is small-fry talk compared to finance. Want to talk finance and
we'll have to up the chit-chat to A-league economics... are you game?

Tech is easy. It uses machines to make light of manual tasks. It helps to find
efficiencies. Add money into the mix and it creates a gold rush. Is Silicon
Valley more than a gold rush where the guy selling the spades is getting
seriously rich while once in a while some idiot or other hits a rich seam and
then everyone wants to build an instagram... sorry, I mean mine in that
place...

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photon137
Plenty of things are wrong with the London startup scene - Silicon Valley has
the advantage of being close to great universities where you can recruit great
talent (not that these companies don't go to the East Coast to recruit).

London doesn't have that, at least from a technical talent perspective - the
area that comes close to matching that description in the UK is Cambridge (or
Oxford, to some degree).

Secondly, even if you have people with good talent available, many of them see
the London finance machine as their destination of choice (though they may not
admit so openly). The finance culture has seeped into the startup culture as
well - many of them see the finance companies as their potential clients (so
that's not surprising) - but that has led to a gatekeeper culture that is
prevalent to a lesser degree in the US (maybe I'm wrong here).

Lastly, the level of risk-aversion is generally higher in the UK than that in
the States - the positive energy on the West Coast is _tangible_.

How many APIs have you seen coming out of London - and frameworks people can
build upon? That is, raw technical products for the heck of it - not travel
websites, shopping portals or phone-apps. Those are the things that form the
bedrock that show the underlying passion of the startup community of an area.
London (and the UK) sorely lacks that.

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iuguy
> London doesn't have that, at least from a technical talent perspective

Are you sure? By which I mean are you aware that 2 million people pass through
heathrow each day, London oscillates between 9 and 13 million people a day,
it's the main gateway to Europe from the states and a financial world capital.
If that doesn't attract talent from _around the world_ I don't know what
would. Sure, plenty of people would rather work at a bank than a startup but
it's the same anywhere. The difference is the sheer number of people, not to
mention local universities like Imperial and UCL, not forgetting other
universities with niche specialisms like Royal Holloway and Westminster with
information security.

> Secondly, even if you have people with good talent available, many of them
> see the London finance machine as their destination of choice

As I've mentioned earlier, some would rather work for a bank than a startup,
but there's plenty in London that doesn't directly involve finance. If it
comes across that finance companies may be potential clients, it's because
they have the money to buy the products London startups can build and there's
lots of them.

> Lastly, the level of risk-aversion is generally higher in the UK than that
> in the States - the positive energy on the West Coast is _tangible_.

I can't speak for the west coast or the states but this varies greatly. We
have things like the prince's trust, the Technology Strategy Board, SEEDA and
innovateuk amongst others. If you pick the right niche to get into then people
will practically throw money at you to solve their problems. I will happily
concede though that if you don't pick the right niche there is a level of risk
aversion though but things like Seedcamp and HN London meetups are challenging
that.

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sparknlaunch12
"It’s almost a daily thing now, reading blog posts from people sat behind
desks somewhere in the world talking about “what’s wrong with the London
startup scene” to drive traffic to their site. Consider this post two-fingers
up to those people."

Touche!

Silicon Valley is unique and will always be. Trying to replicate this scene
just won't happen. Fortunately places like London are so diverse (Americans,
British, Brazilian... ) and things are happening.

You can find like minded people anywhere. If you have the enthusiasm and are
willing to work - the money and people will find you.

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sbierwagen

      ... talking about “what’s wrong with the London startup 
      scene” to drive traffic to their site. Consider this post 
      two-fingers up to those people.
    

Two-fingers up?

~~~
thackerhacker
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_sign#V_sign_as_an_insult>

~~~
petercooper
Maybe I live a sheltered life, but it's very uncommon nowadays compared to the
single finger, no? At least, it seemed far more common back pre-2000.

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TimOkh
This is such a real look at it. The last line about following the followers...
yes.

