There was a great piece of American football sports journalism a few years back where the reporter described training with a professional team only to keep on getting knocked down by his own side as they ran into position.
As he said, it wasn’t because they were trying to but just they were so quick and on such split-second timing that he was slow and out of position almost immediately.
In the week following the NY Giants victory in the Superbowl, it seems an apt analogy for people visiting California and its Silicon Valley.
Or, more pithily, as one experienced corporate venturing manager told me: “You are just a babe-in-arms here”.
His comment referred to the general level of thinking and idea generation by so many of the Bay area residents versus that found externally. The explosion of ideas and talent from the local universities and research institutes as well as the numbers and quality of serial entrepreneurs and investors means the area is unsurpassed in terms of the value it creates in a comparable area and population size. Silicon Valley Bank estimates about 1,200 start-ups were formed last year around the Bay and the concentration of talent is the primary reason why even East Coast-based companies, such as IBM, have their innovation or venture heads near San Francisco.
The challenge for us as a publishing company to expand to Palo Alto from our Madrid, Shanghai and London bureaus later this year and more broadly for corporate venturing units from around the world to build their presence is simple: “Why should the locals care that you are here?”
There is a long list of companies setting up incubators, offices, having innovation units and other ways to tap into the ideas and disruptive companies concentrated around San Francisco and plenty of the non-Californian companies visited the IBF Corporate Venturing and Innovation Partnering conference this past week as part of a broader trip to meet the local ecosystem. But far fewer of these nascent operations seem to have much of an edge from their businesses that they can bring to be accretive to the existing community. This challenge of differentiation or being useful is only going to increase as the number of corporate venturing units step changes in number over the next few years. The rate of growth from about 350-400 in early 2010 to more than 550 currently to an estimated 5,500 by 2015 means first movers have an advantage while being noticed will be a huge challenge – as Dave McClure from 500 Startups said at a NVCA evening reception: “Having money or even being smart is not enough.”
Hiring an experienced local and listening to their advice is one way but risks potential cultural clash or the recruit otherwise lacks the political clout within the organisation to have her recommendations listened to.
For us with our Global Corporate Venturing and Global University Venturing trade titles it was about waiting until we had two years worth of global data and analysis in complementary areas to existing services and a trusted party status without conflicts of interest to bring to an often inward-looking clique of Valley insiders. We might still fail to get a visa or be welcomed so I’m open to thoughts and suggestions for what we can bring to help.