Over the past few decades, Silicon Valley has been such a powerful engine for entrepreneurship in technology that, all too often, it is considered to be some kind of panacea. Corporate executives seek to inject “Silicon Valley DNA” into their cultures, and policy makers point to venture-funded entrepreneurship as a solution for all manner of problems.
Why Some of the Most Groundbreaking Technologies Are a Bad Fit for the Silicon Valley Funding Model
VC is great for a few very specific things.
April 05, 2018
Summary.
While the Silicon Valley model has undoubtedly led to many hugely successful companies, it is far from universally applicable. In this piece, the author discusses the ways in which this model can fail to translate in other contexts. Specifically, he argues that the venture capital model works well when the primary risk is financial risk, but it doesn’t work so well when a business faces both technological risk and market risk. In these situations, there are just too many unknowns, and so grants or other models may be a better fit. Ultimately, every business is different, and will need a different strategic approach to developing its innovation.