Re: UKNM: Silicon Valley In Trouble?

[Sean Phelan]

Sajid wrote:


>If you've had any exposure to the VC culture in the UK, chances are

>that you may have looked to Silicon Valley as a utopia where your idea

>is more likely to get funding. Indeed, Keith Teare went over there to

>set up Centraal who are behind RealNames.

>.....article summaries clipped.....

>Dark clouds ahead? I hope not as the Valley has been the engine room

>of the new Internet revolution. I suspect that the hardware

>manufacturers are going to come off worst initially, but I suspect

>that we all may feel the chill. But if companies in the area are

>losing their competitive edge, does this open up opportunities for us

>this side of the Atlantic? Just a thought...


No, I don't think there are dark clouds ahead for silicon valley and

other US-based VC start-ups at all.   There is a really, really vast

pool of venture capital, and there is vast, consistent demand for tech

IPOs. Those are the two key components.  See the Wall Street Journal

Europe over the last few days for evidence of a ready market for IPOs.


As far as opportunities for "us", I think we either work in country-

specific markets or the global market.  If you work in the global

market, then you should probably be raising funds in the US and also

planning your exit strategy there - the US has the lowest cost of

capital, biggest management and professional skills pool, biggest...

everything you need.  If you are working in a country-specfic

market you probably want to raise funds and plan an exit in the

same country, and currency, as your customer base.


Cheers

Sean

=============================================================

Sean Phelan

seanmultimap [dot] com

     http://www.multimap.com

phone (within UK): 0171 433 0460      fax (UK): 0171 209 5194

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