Start me up - A cluster of start-ups in east London is thriving. All they need now is a big success
TO SPAWN the next Facebook or Twitter, first launch a start-up contest. Promise the winner a sizeable equity investment, say £1m ($1.6m), and let firms from all over the world compete. Among the entries there will surely be a hit. This is the idea behind the Million Pound Start-Up competition put together by Digital Shoreditch, an event organiser. More than 1,000 hopefuls from 77 countries have signed up.
Read the article at: http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21587268-cluster-start-ups-east-london-thriving-all-they-need-now-big-success-start-me-up
Given the insights
proposed by the article, what are the key drivers to succeed within a business
ecosystem?
What have been the
major trends start ups within the London Tech City had benefited?
Group: WhatsApp
RispondiElimina1
“The ecosystem itself is still a start-up. And it takes time for it to grow,” this said there are many key factors to succeed within a business ecosystem; the most important is the business idea and also the easiest way to make this idea work, another important feature is the entrepreneurial mindset and support; big investments play an fundamental role (that's the reason why fast-growing firms to list now only need to float 10% of equity, instead of 25%). Technology is surely important (cloud computing and free software) to try, invent and develop these new ideas.
A relevant requisite is surely a suitable environment in which ideas and thoughts can freely circulate and in which the government applies liberal and advantageous policies.
Entrepeneurs need to be boosted in all the procedures involved in start ups' creation.
In this view the Tech City is becoming "a sort of Silicon valley" because during last years the british government has provided all the plausible resources to the entrepreneurial ecosystem,making it attractive..
2
There were many start ups within the London Tech City, in fact it has already produced some promising operators: for example “Last.fm” (2007), a music website (that was acquired by CBS Interactive), A dozen other firms are seen as promising. Other than King, candidates include MOO, an online printing business, Mind Candy, another online-gaming firm, and Wonga, a short-term lender that is also an interesting fintech firm. The trend is focusing on the technological aspect of the modern firms, not the classic ones like it used to be.the trend is moving towards the technological firms with a general increase in the number of technology, with respect to the classical firms.
Group: ReJa
RispondiElimina1. There are some main points that affect the business ecosystem to succeed such as:
1) Investment: money is always important to make sure one can enter and survive on the market. More money then until now is need to be invested in the business ecosystem to make sure that it is well functioning.
2) Regulation on immigrants: a government should make sure that the barriers within their country for braindrains are open. So this human capital flight can be brought in and concentrated in their territory.
3) Fiscal policy: new firms are often under pressure because of the fiscal policy in that country. If individuals would be able to pay less tax in exchange to invest in new businesses, the economy would get a boost.
4) Time: another important factor is to have time to process, the world wasn't built in a day either.
2. The major trends start ups within the London Tech City have been in online services and financial services acitivies such as show the examples: Last.fm (music website), MOO (online printing business), Mind Candy (online gaming) and Wonga (financial technology).
Tech City has benefited of the fact that it is very cheap to create start ups, thanks to technologies such as cloud computing and free software.
It may even become the Silicon Valley of Europe.
Group: PDF Management
RispondiElimina1. The key drivers to succeed in a business ecosystem are the following:
- Immigration. It is hard for firms to attract outside human capital due to strict immigration rules.
- Financing forms another barrier. The first financing is easy to come by but subsequent 'rounds' are more difficult. Furthermore, in London a relatively small percentage of firms manages to raise money for expansion compared to America's Silicon Valley.
- Investment plays a fundamental role as well. That is why the British government imposed regulation on the percentage of equity on which fast-growing firms have to float.
- The fourth and final driver is time. As: "The ecosystem itself is still a start-up. And it takes time for it to grow."
2. The London Tech City has benefitted from the attractiveness of London itself (due to lifestyle and the language). Furthermore, it has seen the benefits of the relative easiness to create start-ups compared to Paris in Berlin, that is.
Major start-ups have been Last.fm (music) which was acquired by CBS for 280 million dollars, Mind Candy (online gaming), MOO (online printing) and Wonga (financial technology).
All in all, London has the potential to become of major importance in global innovation.
Group: GO HARD OR GO HOME
RispondiElimina1) The article portrays several different points or key factors that explain how to succeed in a business ecosystem. These points are the following:
- "...newly enriched entrepreneurs become investors themselves, offering not just money, but experience." Investing plays a key role in achieving success in a business environment because is one of the first steps you take when you want to enter in a market or initiate a start-up. From this quote we can acknowledge how investing is not always related to money, but also to subjective factors such as experience.
-Time is also also an essential factor, because success is not achieved in a short-term basis. One needs time to fully implement proper insights on a business you are investing on.
- Horizontal Integration, which is the geographical expansion of the business. Once the business achieves recognition, its crucial to expand towards other locations.
- Restrictions for immigration. Variation and internationalization of human capital often acts as a beneficiary for succeeding in a business environment. However many countries are affected by strict restrictions and barriers for immigration.
2) The major start-ups which have benefited London Tech City the most are: Last.fm (music) which was acquired by CBS for 280 million dollars, Mind Candy (online gaming), MOO (online printing), and Wonga (financial technology). The major trend which has made these start-ups so beneficial to Tech City, is the intrinsic value of the city itself.
Group: DANELVIC
RispondiElimina1. According to the article, there is a series of key drivers for start-up firms to succeed in a business ecosystem such as London’s Tech City. First of all, new successful companies must also play the role of investors in order for other start-ups to have the opportunity to thrive. An important monetary contribution is vital in order to start a profitable business and the idea behind the Million Pound Start-Up competition is great. Nowadays, it’s also important for firms to exploit trends such as the one taking place in London. Another key factor is the experience and knowledge of entrepreneurs, and having a very much alive and growing ecosystem clearly makes it easier to attract young talent and investors, not only from the country or geographic area where the ecosystem is, but also from abroad.
2. Firms and entrepreneurs of various different sectors are evidently benefitting from the emerging London Tech City. The most significant sectors are the online and high tech sectors, in which benefactors of the size of Google and King are currently starting to invest. Financial and music sectors are becoming increasingly important too.
In conclusion, in the upcoming years London has a great chance to become a very powerful economic force.
Group: CB
RispondiElimina1.Time,this is the first key factor to succeed in a business ecosystem because the ecosystem itself is a start-up and it needs time to grow. It grows with experience,such as LondonTech and more in general London ,that after the first internet boom was full of entrepreneurs with more experience, it grows obviously with founds and with technologies that make cheaper create start-ups; but all theese facitors are nothing without talent: talent is rare and the supply for this job exceeds the demand; this is the reason why the next step has to be new immigration rules to import young talented engineers from other countries. Further the city must have a strong appeal to attract foreign talents such as London with its lifestyle and language.
2.The major trends start ups within the LondonTech had benefit are Last.fm,Mind Candy,MOO and Wonga thank to the appeal that the city of London has and cheaper costs.
GROUP: TRIPLE A
RispondiElimina1) According to "The Economist" the ecosystem itself, in which the economic agents operate, can be defined as a start-up and it takes time to grow.
In order to succeed within the business environment the firm should optimize many factors such as: financing the activities, building a strong leadership team, creating a network of experiences among entrepeneurs, finding the right location in which there is an incentive to enhance the entrepreneurial mindset, creating start-up schools and similar organisations, and building up the future ruling class.
2)The major trends start-ups that have benefited the London Tech City are: the music website "Last.fm" that has been acquired by CBS Interactive, KING, the online printing business MOO, the online gaming firm Mind Candy, and the fintech-firm Wonga.
GRASSHOPPER
RispondiElimina1. The key drivers in order to succeed within a business ecosystem are investment, technology, business environment, entrepreneurs and fiscal policy.
Investment plays a vital role in order to succeed within an industry. Money is needed to enter a business and compete with rivals.
Technology is also useful in order for workers to work at their maximum capacity.
A flexible business environment allows workers to communicate between themselves, increasing productivity.
Entrepreneurs need to be pushed to do better, in order to improve worker's performance.
The fiscal policy also contributes to success within an industry. New firms are under pressure due to the fiscal policy present in the country. A more flexible fiscal policy would be key for success within a business ecosystem.
2. The major trends start ups within the London Tech City are the online services and financial services acitivies. This can be easily seen in Last.fm (music website), MOO (online printing business), Mind Candy (online gaming) and Wonga (financial technology). London Tech City has gained from cheap start-upsdue to the advanced technology. These technologies include cloud computing and free software.
London Tech City has the capabilities to become a very strong economic force.
Group: Mark Lauridsen
RispondiElimina1. During the last years, London's powerful position in global finance has been decreased. This means that it’s harder than ever, to raise money and attract investors, because investment banks in 'the city’ are more cautious than before the crisis evolved. Today it takes more to create a successful start-up, and i think the most important factor today is, to have people who can bring the company from idea to market. It might be too challenging for people with technical background and mind-set, to convince investors. In general very few technical minded people, doesn't have the required commercial understanding to market their idea or product. That is why the link between business-people and innovators should be one of the main aspects of this project. To organize a perfect start-up environment as the ecosystem is furthermore a great motivation for young entrepreneurs, and make the way from idea to success shorter. England has a great geographic position for attracting the right people to take part in a start-up project, as the time zone in which Britain is located, makes it possible to trade with both Asia and US in the daytime hours. This means that they will be able to attract investors from over sea markets, and not only from London.
The right people with the right experience are with no doubt the most important factor in a business ecosystem. To train people with technical and commercial backgrounds to collaborate might be most important in order to achieve successful start-ups. In addition to that point, i think its very important to select investors, who comes from former start-ups, as they have the skills and experience to advise the company, and not only to focus on their ROI.
2. The major trend of that has benefited the city is within the high-tech sector. We see a lot of innovation of online entertainment, such a music and movie streaming, which is the area, that have benefited London Tech City the most so far. Successful innovation from the London Tech City can become a very important factor for the British economy to get back its former strength globally. To sum up, i think the possibilities for London to build up a new 'silicon valley' are promising. The time zone, the English language and the position in the middle of Asia and US, makes a perfect environment to attract the right people and investors.
You are right, fiscal policies and institutional regulations have an huge impact on every business ecosystem and, for sure, investments may not only allow for the entrance of firms into a market, but may also boost their performance and the one of the related ecosystem. Anyhow what do many of you exactly mean by time, time as a key driver of success? Time may be needed to permit the development of an ecosystem as, like in nature, its organisms need to grow to be fully functional. However, it is in the firm's ability to exploit the opportunities that the other actors within the ecosystem provide them, or to take advantage of the subsidies, incentives, provided by the other stakeholders, or to simply be able to comply to regulations (which may facilitate or not an 'optimal' development of the business ecosystem). Time flows, and that's it: a firm may need to consider it, perhaps while struggling to achieve an advantage that is sustainable in the long term, may need it for its organisms to grow (and that's natural) but it is also true that time passes and business ecosystems collapse.
RispondiEliminaTime apart, do you think there could be any drawbacks in being part of an ecosystem?
Group Penguin Business
RispondiEliminaFrom the article a fundamental concept comes to light: when starting a new business managers may take into account a sophisticated idea: cooperation between firms. In other words, firms can be somehow “assembled” together and contribute in an interactive way to create a new business world, the so-called ecosystem. In this way it will be possible to create more value for everybody. This is what London’s Tech City aims at. In order to create an efficient ecosystem, it is of course necessary to be patient and keep on expanding step by step and in the fastest possible way, as London Tech is smartly doing through an impressive proliferation of start-ups in East London.
London seems to be the perfect city for such a business project, since it is “able to move faster than other European cities” and it is an avant-gard metropolis. Thus, geographic location is a key factor for innovative, creative and risky “experiments “such as this together with the fact that the open-minded view of England’s capital is a very positive starting point.
Other important factors that may lead to profitability may be economies of scale and economies of learning, a value chain reconfiguration, infrastructures, technologies and in this specific case also restrictions for immigration.
Regarding the major trends start-ups within the London Tech City had benefited, we could highlight the most important ones, which are: King, Last.fm , MOO , Mind Candy and Wonga. This start-up cluster is expanding more and more over time and London Tech City could really become an almost perfect ecosystem benefiting of all its proactive firms