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Silicon Valley has always been considered the Mecca of tech start-ups. Why Silicon Valley? Countries have been asking themselves this for years as the insistence on replicating the success of Silicon Valley becomes ever more alluring. Many have tried to replicate Silicon Valley but that has proven to be a herculean task. France, Norway and Malaysia have attempted to create an entrepreneurial rival but to no avail. There is no doubt that one of the keys to success is the relative ease with which a company is able to be started in the United States compared to the rest of the world and also the sheer amount of capital surrounding Silicon Valley makes access to funds easy but these strategies alone cannot explain why northern California has excelled, for many countries have duplicated these methods.
Regardless of all that Silicon Valley has to offer tech start-ups are beginning spring up all over the world. No one area has the concentration of companies like Silicon Valley but as the technology coming out of there continues to knock down barriers it is easier to envision tech start-ups having homes elsewhere. The closest rival to Silicon Valley, though distant, is Israel. This is certainly surprising as one may not expect Israel – a country with limited resources and hostile surroundings – to be a leader in the arena of technology. What may hold the key to Israel’s rise is its large immigrant population. Much like Silicon Valley the tech industry emerging in Israel is extremely diverse. This is the latest theory to explain the success of Silicon Valley and Israel seems to add validity to the argument.
Another concept as to why Silicon Valley is successful is government spending. The military spending coupled with research institutions has brought innovators to the area and compounding effect of that has been apparent ever since. This is again a similarity with Israel which helps lend it some credence as an identifiable factor. Chile has begun to employ the government spending model – albeit not military spending. Start-Up Chile is a government run program with the objective to attract entrepreneurs in the early stages of their businesses. The government issues a one-year work visa and $40,000 in funding to those who participate in the program. The program lasts six months for which the entrepreneur must reside in the country.
Innovation can take place anywhere on the globe the key is to build a collaborative culture. Silicon Valley happened more by chance than planning but in the effort to replicate the success many creative solutions have been proposed. Technology will continue to break down barriers and eventually the entire world will be a tech start-up.
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