I retired from personal blogging in July 2008.
But you can find me over at http://blog.xero.com.
Posted by Rod in TechBiz at 6:42 am on Thursday, 18 October 2007
Enjoyed talking to the SilverStripe guys last night on what it’s like for a Wellington tech person to head up to the Valley where, within a few words, people get exactly what you do, will give you a bunch of suggestions and debate on some abstract aspect on the core design of your thing.
And there are cafe’s and conferences full of people just like you. Passionate about creating a tech business. Absolutely normal.
I think that’s why this Blind Melon video from a few years ago is one of my favorites.
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OK - um - well I lived and worked in the Valley for over 20 years - I did a bunch of startups through that time (still work for one from here in NZ) and honestly that sort of openness is the exception rather than the rule - paranoia is rife, if you have a great idea you don’t tell everyone - even talking to VCs is a risk (especially talking to some VCs - the bad experience stories are endless).
Instead what you do is hunker down, fly under the radar and work hard, hoping that no one else is doing what you’re doing and jumping at every whiff that someone might be - it’s a tough time - and when the time comes to announce the result might be ‘ho-hum’ or you might be the next big thing for a day or a month (I’ve been all) - it’s a crapshoot, but one worth making IMHO.
Even once you are out of the closet you don’t talk without the OK from the marketting dept. (you’re NDA’d up the wazoo)
Don’t get me wrong, people do talk, and in public - I once had to tell the people in the restaurant table next to me that I worked for their direct competition - but other times I’ve just listened - and that’s what smart people do - talk a little and listen a lot ….
So I guess this is a plea not to be too naive about how people will treat your ideas - the Valley is full of sharks (my first boss embezzeled almost $1M from the next company he ran, now he’s a VC) - really bright ideas are free - once you let them go - but scarce - so do be carefull out there - walls have ears - make sure you have the jump on any competition before you open up too far …. remember those bright people in the Valley have way more ready access to investment than we do in NZ and can move faster as a result
In a world where everyone knows everything, there’s no shortage of great ideas . . just people who can execute.
Love that Blind Melon video! I’ve always had a soft spot for what I think is one of the best videos ever made.
As someone who worked for 15 years in Silicon Valley and moved to Welly three years ago, I do agree with what you say Paul. However, my experience was that the situation you described only happens in certain circles. Those circles are broad and encompass many people, sure, but I also think that it’s possible to hang and discuss freely with tech-geeks especially if what you’ve got on offer is a BSD-licensed product, as is the case with SilverStripe.
It is fun to see people make the SF-Welly connections in discussions as well as plane travel.
Would you agree that you personally, Rod, are considerably more open to discussion and knowledge sharing than most guys in your kind of position ?
This blog being an example, not to mention the speeches, the interviews, and the way you constantly try and give other software companies a leg up. Wellington ones, anyway …
That’s all good, great even - but I have to go with Paul on this one - you are probably the exception to the rule.
Interesting choice of words :
“Passionate about creating a tech business”….
A lot of us are passionate about creating technology and great software, rather than passionate about creating a tech business. That might sound like semantics but it’s a big difference to us.
No question that you yourself have been very successful at creating tech businesses, and all power to you. But I am passionate about creating great software, much more than I am about creating a business - that just doesn’t do it for me at all.
And James, I couldn’t agree more, there are a lot of people out there talking the talk but very, very few making it happen. That’s very true over here in London, in my experience….
The point the Silver Stripe guys and I was making is that in Silicon Valley you find that there are many people with the same interests and same stage as you. Just like the bumble bee girl.
well having just played devil’s advocate let me also say that the other side is also true - especially in the Open Source world - in fact that’s probably one of the great things about it - the kimono is open and people can talk and share stuff in a way you can’t in the non-OS world.
I was a part of the US Mac Developer’s scene for many years - it’s small enough to remind me a bit of NZ - everyone knows everyone else and there was always a healthy hacking/code sharing scene outside of the commercial realm (MacHack was always a blast in a way that an Apple Developer’s conference could never be). Same was true of the pre-Linux Unix world (Usenix conferences etc) partly I think because a lot of that crowd came directly out of academia or research labs and that got carried over into the Linux and OS world as it gelled ….
Even so there’s always been a very carefull line drawn in those communities around business … if money’s involved you are much more carefull about what you do and say - both for commercial reasons and IP reasons - I know I avoided jumping into the Linux kernel because I knew that my previous Unix insider knowledge was potentially dangerous (just look what damage SCO’s done with those sorts of accusations) - the same goes for MythTV at the moment even though I’m itching to hack up a FreeView box.
Shame she had to break into a walled garden to find “her kind of people” :-)
Let’s open those domains….
James,
You’re right. The difference between a great idea and a great business is execution, which is why money is important but good people are essential.
It’s easy to develop great ideas in NZ but very hard to execute from here.
“It’s easy to develop great ideas in NZ but very hard to execute from here.”
-> Hence make a good idea, then use open source to get the rest of the world to notice, love, contribute, and work in a virtuous cycle of support.
I also want to make a point about the “building a tech business” and “building a great piece of software”. There’s plenty of both of these types in SF, enough in fact, that there’s a sizeable portion of those who openly share. No need to quibble about one vs the other.
Paul; when I chatted to Rod last night at the NZ Open Source wards, we weren’t really considering talking about secrets, and having it stolen. Your point is taken; its obvious to me that many companies have taken ideas from others. I think what Rod and I was more getting at, was that you could have, like us, a working product, or company strategy, and people around you can immediately provide constructive insight.
Being “fairly young” (26) in Wellington, I feel fairly alone to have produced significant technical or business achievements… i.e. there’s the SilverStipers, a bunch of Creative HQ and related companies, like PlanHQ, and some great geeks without commercial motivations. There’s certainly a bunch of us. But that’s not a large culture of us. I deliberately use “alone” to contrast just how more common it is in San Francisco, where the number of like-minded twenty-somethings with major IT/startup roles made me feel a part of a thriving tribe. Like, imagine being being an African born here, and going to your home continent.
So, yup, Rod, great video.
Sigurd,
Absolutely we should share more of the strain and open up. We are about to do that with a new business called marketsDNA which has developed new insights into the way markets function. After years of slogging away up on Mt Pleasant in Christchurch and trying to work it all out ourselves and deal into the US market, we have decided to open up our data and invite others to join in. So rather than holding tight to our knowledge we are putting it out to the universe to see what happens.
http://www.marketsdna.com sometime in the next few weeks and let’s see how it goes.
Ref, the RePEc (Research Papers in Economics) might be useful to you. There are more than half a million research papers in Economics/Finance that are available to be downloaded from that site. Researchers from around the world have uploaded their papers to RePEc to be made available to anyone who is interested, even the NZ Reserve Bank research papers are found there. All sorts of Economics/Finance theoretical models and algorithms have been published relating to market dynamics could be found there, just do a search on the topic that you have in mind. I have come across lots of useful algorithms relating to financial derivative, equity, forex, shares, portfolio optimization , fixed-income security analysis which I ended up implementing for use in my online financial app.
Raf.. really wanted to look around your site and offer constructive feedback, but your site simply offers “Site Coming Soon”. I’ll try and remember to come back in a few weeks… :)
Thanks. I’ll send you a reminder :-)
Raf - you’ve got onto this wikinomics things haven’t you - looking forward to talking more about this one….
Right in the thick of it after 7 weeks here in the valley this time around with PlanHQ, 5 conferences, 26 new VC contacts, a new San Fran based biz dev/marketing person on the ground, strategic partnership on the boil in NY, this place is networked, lets you in if you knock at the door and stroll in, and expects to see you succeed.
You don’t ‘have a web company here’, everyone in the scene does, you’re straight to what excatly you do and where you fit in. People can quickly position you amongst the rest of the space, understand your competition and differentiation, provide some insight and probably half the time lead you into someone who can help or is relevant, the network works at the speed of your thinking.
I’ve had someone I’ve known for a week get PlanHQ quickly reviewed at midnight by A list bloggers and leading entrepreneurs and feedback in my IM and in my ears within minutes. You shift your pitch, change your communications and focus your product, and you know you’re not shaping your business alone, you’re with people who can help, this is what you need to succeed.
I live on frankness, you’ve got to be straight with yourself, and find others who will be straight with you on your biz, and there’s plenty of that up here.
As for NDA’s and sharing/not sharing your ides, most VC’s I know here have a no NDA policy, and unless you’re a well seasoned entrepreneur who’s got everything you already need to succeed, including money, you need to talk about your idea quickly, so people know you’re the one that came up with it, and to enable you to start executing, recruiting support, team members, finance, all the things you need.
Start with thought leadership, people back entrepreneurs here, if you’re the first to say something and it catches on, people will point back to you, no one wants the copycat, they want the source.
T
In my opinion the difference between there and NZ is that people (and most importantly potential employees) are wildly interested and supportive of tech startups because of the combined success of the region. They love the big ideas and entrepreneurial spirit because they’ve seen that previous success firsthand. It’s “social proof”. In the same way people here get into real estate investment because they’ve seen the “social proof” from people they personally know who’ve got results. I’m convinced that in NZ the only way to grow the social proof is for there to be multiple successes that infect the community in the same way they’ve had there. Hopefully what you guys (PlanHQ, Ponoko, Xero etc) are all doing down there in Wellington is continuing to build that in the way Trademe and Aftermail did, and that it infects Auckland soon too.