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| Sergey Brin at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit |
Why would you
come from California to Rio de Janeiro to study software developers?”
This is the question Yuri Takhteyev, the author of "Coding Places: Software Practice in a South American City," was asked while explaining to a US consular officer why a Russian born in Vladivostok would be seeking an American Visa in Rio de Janeiro.
This proposed question communicates to readers that our society is not highly educated on the potential of software and technological development in peripheral countries, leading to the assumption that most individuals do not understand the potential of business growth in smaller cities such as the Kitchener-Waterloo region. It is this lack of knowledge that continues to lead investors, entrepreneurs, and employees to more popular, well-known, and established cities such as the famous Silicon Valley located in San Francisco, California.
This is not to say that Silicon Valley shouldn't receive tremendous attention for the name its built in being one of the most developed, well-running, expensive and thriving cities, in terms of tech-startups. The point is that it might be time to move to other locations to mimic this development. In other words, the trend development in Silicon Valley has passed, and its time to catch a new wave in other regions. For example, investing in property in the Waterloo region is of great interest for real estate advocates, due to its promising potential for future booms in property value. This wave of property increase has long passed in the GTA region, with house pricing being insanely out of price range for most individuals. On the topic of pricing, Silicon Valley is overpriced and overpopulated, making it difficult for new ventures to develop.
In an article called, "Sergey Brin: Don't come to Silicon Valley to start a business," Brin advises entrepreneurs worldwide during his speech at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in 2016, to avoid the trek to San Francisco by looking elsewhere for locations to develop business ventures. He believes that Silicon Valley is step two in the development of any venture. In other words, it is a prime location to travel to once your business has gained some traction, in terms of popularity, cash flow, and stability in the market. Therefore, Yuri Takhteyev suggests that we may have much more to gain by looking at software development in unlikely places or high tech work in the "wrong places" (Takhteyev, page 1).
If you examine Sergey Brin's statement, it creates the suggestion that Waterloo has the potential to be classified as a region that helps entrepreneurs grow their ventures, before they make their move to Silicon Valley. If Waterloo finds difficulty in building its name as a major tech-hub, whose not to say it can't be seen as the region that supports entrepreneurs in creating, developing, and gaining traction for their ventures? This would ensure traffic into the city, and may lead to many individuals deciding to open businesses in the area afterwards. This dedication to helping entrepreneurs would assist the Waterloo Region in creating a name for itself, which could lead to its eventual prominence as a major tech hub down the road.
What do you think? Do you think this could be the first step in developing Waterloo as the next Silicon Valley? Why or why not?
Bibliography
D'Onfro, J. (2016, June 24). Sergey Brin: Don't
come to Silicon Valley to start a business. Retrieved from Business
Insider :
http://www.businessinsider.com/sergey-brin-on-starting-a-company-in-silicon-valley-2016-6
Takhteyev, Yuri. Coding Places: Software Practice in a South American City. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012.
Hey Rachel,
ReplyDeleteI definitely think this could be a major step in developing Waterloo as the next Silicon Valley. With such an excellent work culture and outlet to talented individuals from surrounding Universities, I believe operating a startup in the KW region is a viable option as opposed to Silicon Valley. Especially since the cost of acquiring and keeping, for example, an engineer from the University of Waterloo, would be much cheaper than doing so in Silicon Valley.
Not only that, but the states is in for some major political and economic reform due to Trump. Less startups are going to be willing to uproot to the US. The only issue with the KW area is it does not yet provide the perks that some of the other tech clusters of the world do. Take into the environment, social and cultural atmosphere of KW. Just the warmth of some of the other places makes me envious.
DeleteHey Rachel,
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kevin and think that Waterloo definitely could become the next Silicon Valley. RIM has shown that there is a great work culture in the Waterloo Region. Again, reiterating what Kevin said, due to Waterloo having tons of knowledgable university students looking for work while in school - or even after, the start up costs would be low. Take MowGo SnowGo for example - a Laurier student came up with an Uber like snow and grass removal company and was able to succeed due to the low costs. Rather, if he were to try and start his company in the city of Toronto, the costs would be much higher - thus having a lower success rate. Now, once the company has created enough profit in Waterloo it can grow and approach the larger cities once a financial base has been created. Thus, yes I do think this could be a large step towards developing the Waterloo Region and could succeed at a greater rate due to the lower costs compared to larger cities.