

Any South African news.YC'ers? - iotal

Are you from SA? If so, have you submitted an application for YC? Your thoughts on getting to Silicon Valley?!
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markcpt
Yes, I'm a fellow South African, and while we've not submitted an application,
I'll be heading to Silicon Valley shortly to have a second go at launching a
startup there. Feel free to get in touch. markcpt-g-m-a-i-l

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papasmurf
Does Kenya count - located in SF though and dabbling intermittently with a
number of ideas ksjhalla @ g-m-a-i-l if there are any Africa based Silicon
Valley meetups or anything .. :)

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pistoriusp
Haaai guys!

And I thought I was completely alone... How many of you are considering doing
something in RSA? Are you guys in the States?

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markcpt
Our dev team is based in Cape Town, but our head office, including sales and
marketing, is moving to Silicon Valley (San Francisco to be specific). Mark
Shuttleworth was the exception to the rule - if you're not in Silicon Valley
you're limiting the odds of success. Anyone else here in Cape Town at the
moment?

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iotal
Ja, UCT B.Bus.Sci first year! I agree re: Silicon Valley, everything from
coding resources to VC is restricted here, and the fact that there seem to be
only a few of us registered on news.YC is in itself indicative of the
different environemnt here. Vinny Lingham and Eric Edelstein seem keen to
start some sort of Angel Investing scheme, but I can't see anything ever
really equating to the environment in California. As PG says "places that
aren't startup hubs are toxic to startups. You can tell that from indirect
evidence. You can tell how hard it must be to start a startup in Houston or
Chicago or Miami from the microscopically small number, per capita, that
succeed there." I'm going to apply to YC for Jan 2009, will hopefully have
some cool stuff under the belt by then!

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pistoriusp
I can assure you though, that Cape Town is years ahead of Pretoria.

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ochiba
I'm also from ZA. I'll consider applying after I've finished my degree ;)

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jamescoops
It's all about the Mxit guys in SA - lightyears ahead

