I'm tired of the Europe vs Silicon Valley narrative. I agree with
@t_blom and others that there ARE problems with the UK & European ecosystem and it's incredibly frustrating:
(1) A complete lack of Series-A plus
#deeptech capital.
(2) Many investors who still don't understand how venture really works or who themselves have a scarcity mindset.
(3) Founders who are too timid of ambition (or lack the support or knowledge around them to run at their vision no holds barred; see my previous point) to go big or go home.
BUT we will never be The Bay area. The rest of the USA is not generally like The Bay area. Meanwhile there is plenty we can change about the UK and in Europe to leverage the amazing brains, engineers and technical IP we have. We just need to find the ambition and the will to do so. To vote in politicians who get it (can someone tell me where they are please? 😁 ) and in the case of the UK, dig up that Victorian "can be done" spirit and stop this wallowing in self pity "it's everyone else's fault" mentality and "woe no Empire" narrative.
I am as frustrated as Tom at the opportunities missed. I've lived in SF and understand that it's a unique environment where the sky isn't the limit, the Universe is. It's arguably the best place in the world to do business. We should learn from it. And I recommend EVERY founder spends time there, and in some cases they should move there.
However, I did my first start up in 1997. I raised my first angel tickets by sending faxes. Around 2012 I switched to investing because I was sick of dealing with VC's in UK and Europe who clearly didn't get it: they were all capital and no venture.
But if you are fed up with the status quo - do something about it. Tom has built multiple great
#startups. Could they have been even bigger started in the US? Maybe. But that's not the point - the point is there ARE investors like
@7pcventures and many others who will back the crazy ideas. We have for 10 yrs. And some of them you're only just about to see come out of their development to blossom. Others, like Magic Pony, Oculus, Flexport, Universal Quantum, Gensyn, you may have already heard of.
So, if you're a founder, go find investors who have an abundance mindset...and put the phone down or hit reply and "no thanks" on those who don't.
