Silicon Valley has achieved an almost mythical status in current business discourse. Even David Cameron, in a recent speech aimed at encouraging British entrepreneurialism, has pointed to the Valley as a blueprint for business success – one that should be encouraged and replicated here in the UK.
I have long since been captivated by the Silicon myth. As a founder of a UK-based website building company, I have also wondered whether the unique forces that collided to produce this unique tech ecosystem can ever be produced elsewhere.
Now that Moonfruit.com has its own presence in the US, we travel to the Bay Area frequently to meet potential partners, investors, and other contacts. I have begun to realise that so much of what we read and hear about Silicon Valley from London is dominated by only those voices that make it this far – and therefore, only a fraction of what it is really like to be there.
Building a Silicon reality
The one tangible truth I have learnt in Silicon Valley is this: you have to be in it to create a reality there. Far from being a new business phenomenon, Silicon Valley is now a mature, connected industry in its own right. It has its own history, its own nuances and its own set of skills. To say it is US-centric is an understatement; it is its own business society where everything is specific to the Silicon Valley scene.
For outsiders trying to live the dream, Silicon Valley can seem insular and impossible to penetrate. This is why, even to make contacts, you must go – regularly and in person. To make yourself known, you must first establish a presence and start to contribute to the ecosystem; it is simply not enough to make overtures from the outside. My business partners and I encountered this many times: we found it very difficult to pin down meetings in advance of travelling, or over-the-phone from the UK, and yet once you’re there meetings happen and things seem to fall into place.
Silicon Valley’s culture can be explained by its circularity and blurring of boundaries between contributors to the ecosystem. The culture has been predicated by all services – founders, investors, lawyers, bankers, PR – supporting the entire business lifecycle, overseeing success from idea and inception through to expansion, exit and even failure. Many of its inhabitants have been through this process several times and played several parts during their time so there is a common understanding between the players.
Intangible magic
On one of our trips to Silicon Valley, we worked with a lawyer who had been an entrepreneur himself in the first dotcom boom. Part of the circular culture, we realised this was common – many people who worked in third-party services, such as finance or marketing or law, were an intrinsic part of Silicon Valley in a wider sense, either as entrepreneur, investor or specialist.
This personal experience sets Silicon Valley apart from Silicon Roundabout or other business microcosms. Service providers in London tend to be part of a different corporate agenda, which often separates its industry from its clients. In Silicon Valley, there is a constant sense of overlap, in which third parties are truly working alongside their clients to contribute to the overall ecosystem. This is certainly unique.
When we asked our lawyer what made Silicon Valley so special, he referred to its “intangible magic”. For me, it sums up Silicon Valley well – a place that must be experienced to be properly understood and where even lawyers believe in magic.