Silicon Valley meets Silicon Fen
Source:Editor's Blog
I am a believer in the idea that getting people together makes things happen. That’s why I am so excited about today’s debate and tomorrow’s intensive series of meetings with a whole bunch of the top people in Silicon Valley. This is a case of the mountain – or rather the Valley, coming to Mahomet if I may be forgiven a tortured metaphor.
The gauntlet thrown down for debate at the Cambridge Union is: "This house maintains that Europe, not Silicon Valley, will become the best place to build the future billion dollar companies." It will be proposed by the doyen of UK technology VCs Hermann Hauser, Simon Cook of DFJ Esprit), William Janeway of Warburg Pincus and Index’s Neil Rimer.
The champions from the Vale of Disruption are the Linkedin entrepreneur Reid Hoffman, Allen Morgan of the Mayfield Fund, Stanford Professor Ramesh Johari and Bandel Carano of Oak Investment Partners, who also serves on the Investment Advisory Board.
Stanford comes up a lot. Silicon Valley grew up around Stanford University and many people are tempted to see the phenomenon being repeated around Cambridge. But let’s not look for a clone. Cambridge, Oxford and London between them can’t hope to build the critical mass, the infrastructure or the weather, alas, that you have in California. But it has stuff that Stanford can’t hope for either, as the debate will no doubt bring out. I’m looking forward to letting you know later.
As Kara Swisher (pictured), San Francisco’s voice on the Wall Street Journal and the co-moderator of the debate with the BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones, had to admit yesterday “Silicon Valley will be totally outclassed by the venue alone” – but then she calls the Chamber of the Cambridge Union “Harry Potter sounding”. It’ll be magic, trust me.
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