The silicon valley in the US is famous for its entrepreneurial ecosystem and numerous successful startups that the valley has produced in such a short period of time. After having interacted with some of the founders in the valley and reading this article by Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures – a venture capital firm, I would like to share some of the common views/themes that emerged about the silicon valley mindset:
- It’s the passion towards a vision with a mission that defines the entrepreneurs in the valley. In the words of Vinod Khosla:
In my view, it’s irreverence, foolish confidence and naivety combined with persistence, open mindedness and a continual ability to learn that created Facebook, Google, Yahoo, eBay, Microsoft, Apple, Juniper, AOL, Sun Microsystems and others.
- Silicon valley is not built on the ‘deal mentality’ of the Wall Street. An acquisition may be a safety net, a way to free yourself or learn to pursue another bigger or more interesting vision, but those are only tools rather than goals of the true Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.
- It is about technology, creativity, productivity and pace of innovation that defines the silicon valley.
- In general, the people, the entrepreneurs are brilliant yet foolish (as it seems to others), self motivated, visionaries who want to solve the real problems of the world and provide a great experience to their customers.
- It is ultimately about the support of entire ecosystem for entrepreneurship which includes VCs, Angels, startups, mentors etc., the entire system trying to optimize the best possible support for the new venture.