Is San Francisco the New Epicenter of Silicon Valley?

For years it’s been an open secret – young entrepreneurs and tech-savvy folks who work for the big Silicon Valley conglomerates have been living in San Francisco while commuting to Silicon Valley. After all, does anyone really relocate to northern California to live in Mountain View?

Now it appears that many of these people also did not move to the Bay Area to commute. They’ve started companies in San Francisco proper – not 30 or 40 miles south on the 101 freeway in Palo Alto or San Jose, traditional epicenters of what’s typically considered Silicon Valley.

According to the San Francisco Sunday Examiner, San Francisco has been “beating out South Bay cities for venture capital, boosting key sectors and creating a hotbed of growing firms.” Software companies, social media, gaming, green tech and biotech are leading the pack of industry sectors attracting the VC dollars.

Good news for the entire innovative tech industry in the Bay Area (which includes Silicon Valley and San Francisco): “investors poured nearly $3 billion into Bay Area companies in the past three months – a 100 percent increase from the first quarter.” More than $283 million went to companies located in San Francisco. (Read more)

Australians on Building a Brand in the US

The Advance Lounge Chair Series in Los Angeles last week featured a panel of Australians with experience on building a brand in the US. Some great first-hand tips for Australian entrepreneurs considering the US market.

For more videos from Advance, please click here.

Why Australian Entrepreneurs Should Give Silicon Valley a Try

Guest post by Elias Bizannes, chairman of the DataPortability Project and a promoter of Australian technology through Silicon Beach

Last year I took a position with Vast.com in San Francisco. As a passionate supporter of Australian technology and its place on the global stage, I’ve also come to the realization that we can’t begin to conquer the world from Australia. We need to take advantage of the open door policy Silicon Valley affords Australian entrepreneurs. Why? Let’s start with the talent concentration. Two examples to illustrate:

1) Language: In Silicon Valley people operate on a different level. It is the technology capital of the world and the people here live and breathe tech – 24/7. They talk about run rates and burn in a way that demonstrates the way they innately know the industry average, like how people know the weather during different times of the year.
2) It’s a magnet: The Valley draws from around the world a certain personality type. The Aussies who come here are no exception. The Bay Area has one of the highest concentrations of university graduates in America, and the world. The people are smart here, they are competitive and they are hungry. Immersing yourself in this culture, simply through osmosis you start evolving your own abilities. Within a short time, you find yourself talking about how to start a business to talking about building a billion dollar business.

A year later, I’m more convinced than ever that the best way we are going to move Australia forward into having its own Silicon Valley-like ecosystem is by having our best brightest people move here for a few years. After a generation, we’ll have the talent concentration we talk about in Australia. And the Americans won’t mind how much we’ve borrowed from them.

ANZA TechNet Brings Guidewire Group’s G/Score for Innovative Startups to Australia for First Time

We’re excited to be bringing the Guidewire Group’s exclusive startup assessment tool – the G/Score – to Australia for the first time this month as part of ANZA’s Gateway to the US introductory workshops in Australian capital cities, 23 August – 1 September.

Developed by leading global startup advisory firm, Guidewire Group, the G/Score assesses a startup’s progress in seven critical business activities. The G/Score has been used in Europe, Asia and the US – but not Australia. The ANZA workshops mark the G/Score’s debut Down Under, and Guidewire Group CEO Chris Shipley will personally score each workshop participating company. Space in the workshops is limited to just 80 Australian companies ready to explore US business opportunities as part of the ANZA Gateway to the US program.

The G/Score combines the expertise of Shipley and her Guidewire Group team, who have assessed over 20,000 startups worldwide in the last 20 years. Companies deliver a 5-minute presentation, and the G/Score is applied to rate the company on commercial viability, execution, team and business model.

“The G/Score benefits startups because it’s a transparent analysis that focuses on achievement and execution and prescribes a path forward to business performance. Partners and investors trust the unbiased methodology to shorten the upfront analysis and decision-making and accelerate time to engagement. Most importantly, it provides startups with actionable, unbiased feedback about their strengths and opportunities,” said Shipley. (Read more)

‘Mad Men’ for Startups

USA Today business reporter Rhonda Abrams watched last week’s season 4 premiere of “Mad Men” with a group of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. And why not? Season 4 of this hit TV show about life at a Madison Avenue advertising agency in the swinging ’60s kicks off with a startup launch of its own. What did the new firm Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce do right?

• Balance team strengths.
• Think “out of the box.”
• Move fast.
• Stay flexible.

And what did they do wrong?

• Rent expensive offices.
• Overdependence on one or two customers.
• Lack of staff diversity.
• Partner with people you don’t trust.
• Single tasking.

Read the full article, “Mad Men offers good business lessons” here. Hat tip to the Dateline Media blog for capturing this first.