Cambridge is full of innovative start-ups and the main thing they need is money to help them grow. That’s the perceived wisdom but having attended last night’s Cambridge Network Open Meeting on Growth Capital I think it needs to be challenged.
The whole event, held at Robinson College was about getting money. But despite engaging presentations from the likes of bankers Kleinwort Benson, venture capital companies Amadeus and Atlas Venture as well as economic think tank Z/Yen the audience was dominated, not by hungry start-ups but by lawyers, accountants and PR people (myself included). A back of the envelope calculation was that just 16 per cent of people there were start-ups. Obviously you need an ecosystem to develop any technology cluster, but the balance seems all wrong.
So the question I’m left with was – where are the future Cambridge giants, the next ARM, Autonomy or CSR in embryo? Are they in their sheds busy inventing or simply not worried about gaining the investment they need to grow? Answers on a postcard please……
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Where are all the Cambridge innovators? http://goo.gl/fb/m7EE (@ChrisMeasures)
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
My blog – where are the Cambridge start-ups hiding? http://bit.ly/cLvqaU
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
Venture Capital is always risky but if market research had been done correctly, you will earn a lot*”;
VC isn’t necessarily the issue with Cambridge. It’s the businesses and the Business models that could be the issue here. We’re talking high risk business models, built on potential products and even prototypes that have (in some instances) yet to be market tested. The products could quite feasibly be world leaders and completely innovative.
Cambridge itself is still in it’s infancy when it comes to competing against Global leaders like California and Silicon Valley. Growth in Cambridge’s innovation has been significant over the past 20 years, but given that businesses take 10 years to really develop into recognised brands, I think there’s some way to go yet. My other thought? Is it the business leaders, behind these potential brands/ products that need nurturing? After all, it’s the people behind the product/ brand that really drive it’s success, not the product or brand itself.