The best place to set up your startup
That's quite a question. I certainly know the best place isn't Hamar. Innovation Norway at Hamar appearently don't think we're innovative enough to earn more support.
So we are moving to Oslo, and staying in La Vila in Spain.
But I'm proud to tell you we've received offer to incubate in Silicon Valley and Berlin. And we have to decide. I, personally would prefer New York, but we have to look at the people who want us. This will be tricky indeed!
A post from VentureBeat by John Backus has the whole story. Here is a part:
So we are moving to Oslo, and staying in La Vila in Spain.
But I'm proud to tell you we've received offer to incubate in Silicon Valley and Berlin. And we have to decide. I, personally would prefer New York, but we have to look at the people who want us. This will be tricky indeed!
A post from VentureBeat by John Backus has the whole story. Here is a part:
Number two is Boston and third is Washington D.C.
John Backus is a co-founder and managing partner at early-stage VC fund New Atlantic Ventures. He blogs at http://navfund.com/blog/.
Now’s a good time for startups: VCs are investing more money now than they have since the recession hit. But do you have to be in Silicon Valley to get the contacts, staff, and VC attention you need to build a venture-backed company?
There’s no doubt, Silicon Valley is frequently the first choice for startups. And there’s a reason why: 39 percent of 2010 venture capital dollars were spent there, according to the National Venture Capital Association and PricewaterhouseCoopers. But the second largest region is along the I-95 corridor on the east coast, which attracted $6.8 billion, or 31 percent in 2010. And there are several great places for venture-backed startups there.
The best place to start your particular business ultimately depends on the field you’re in, but clearly, it’s best to stick to the coasts, because that’s where the money is.
Since much has been written about Silicon Valley, let’s look at the major startup ponds on the opposite side of the country that VCs are fishing right now.
1. New York
Over the last five years, New York’s share of east coast investments has increased from 18.3 percent in 2005 to 33 percent in 2010, almost doubling. What has fueled this? Digital media and e-commerce. And how have those industries performed? Over the same five years, net internal rates of return in these sectors have been 29 percent, according to the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association. New York is on a roll.
The city has always served as the hub for sectors like entertainment, advertising, fashion and media. Now it’s all going online in entirely new ways. A startup called Moda Operandi offers couture online right off the runway. With a little over $1M from our firm, Aslaug Magnusdottir, a former McKinsey consultant, left New York-based Gilt to join forces with Vogue contributing editor, Lauren Santo Domingo. They just launched their business at Fashion Week in New York, signing on elite designers like Thakoon, Proenza Schouler and Narciso Rodriguez. Another startup, Solve Media, lets advertisers replace CAPTCHAS (those distorted letters you enter to prove you’re a human) with their brand slogans when consumers log in to watch a TV show, for example. Founded in 2009 by Todd Lieberman and Ari Jacoby, it received $4M in a first round of institutional funding from our firm, along with First Round Capital, AOL ventures and IA ventures.
If you have a brilliant Web model like these, wrapped around the Big Apple’s industrial legacy, consider starting in New York.
