The startup rate race

January 22nd, 2008

There’s an amazing post on Startup North which is stirring quite a debate in my opinion: Technological innovation is a race.

From the article:

When you meet technology people from Silicon Valley, you’ll notice that they are in a race. They’re in a race to get to work, to get food and get back to work, and to do whatever they need to do to be productive as much as possible. They’re in a race to raise more money than their competitors, grab talent from anywhere they can, sign deals and build big companies. They’re in a race to thrive.

I like this statement but I don’t like the way it starts: “when you meet people from Silicon Valley”. I know some people involved in startups (I am one myself) and I know most of us worked on xmas day and on new year’s eve. It’s a passion more than a race I think.

When you love something, you don’t mind doing it all the way. For example, I enjoy riding a bicycle but not as much as some of my friends who travel hundreds of kilometres “just because they like it”. Well same goes with working for a startup. Most people work 40 hours a week and simply don’t understand why some work crazy hours on their own startup. Well it’s just like the cyclist who travels hundreds of kilometres per day: they LOVE it. They want to see the end result just like the cyclist who wants to see its destination.

So are people from Silicon Valley “different” from us? I doubt. They are, and I admit, in a perfect environment much like cyclists from countries where it rarely rains and where it’s always warm. Does that mean Canadian cyclists are not good? That would be unfair to say. Good entrepreneurs might travel south just like professional cyclists. I also think that “Californians” are not necessarily better at entrepreneurship but rather that there is a large concentration of entrepreneurs and resources over there. This is the snowball effect. This snowball effect can be recreated anywhere. It’s not easy but it’s doable.

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