There is “something special” about this place — an Aussie-Eye View of Silicon Valley

Peter Sheahan, a writer for MySmallBusiness.com section of the Sydney Morning Herald has just returned from a couple of months in the States. And unlike a very popular previous post on this blog calling Silicon Valley “a graveyard” late last year, Sheahan finds that there’s “something special” about Silicon Valley in a story called “Where Geeks Rule”.

In the same way that everyone in Hollywood has a script or is talking about their next big pitch, everyone in the Valley has an idea and is talking about how to get it funded. Even now, in the eye of the GFC the Valley is still buzzing.

Sure, not like it does in boom times but the place still smells of opportunity and the inhabitants are on always looking for the next big thing.

Recessions are part economic and part psychology. The Valley has the psychology right, and we in Australia could learn from it.

What can be learned? Click here to read the rest of this piece.

“Silicon Valley is a Graveyard”

I’ve just read early-stage Australian entrepreneur Kevin Garber’s story about his visit to Silicon Valley in Australian Anthill.

For a quick trip to Silicon Valley, this is an insightful observation. For those of us who live it day to day and have done so for years, we see it as simply reflecting the reality of a high risk, high reward culture that Silicon Valley is.  A place where 1 in 10, if you’re lucky, get funded, and “great ideas” without a market will quickly die.

The bottom line is – you’ve got to be here, you’ve got to try those great ideas, yes, every single one of them, because it’s only when you take the risk that you’ll ever reap the reward.