Jun 07
Here’s a great article by one of my favorite writers, Guy Kawasaki, about how to reproduce what Silicon Valley is. I think Guy’s article, along with “How to be Silicon Valley” by Paul Graham pretty much sums it up.
So… why isn’t Montreal like Silicon Valley. To me, it’s fairly obvious:
- People are not driven. Nobody wants or even thinks about taking the risk of starting a company (and possibly failing). Quebecers like this 9 to 5 job, and they fear entrepreneurship. (Note that I said they and not -we- since I think I belong to the entrepreneur category!)
- There’s no elite engineering school. None. Nada. Every engineering school is average or plain bad compared to MIT or Stanford (or to most good American colleges).
- Success is not recognized in Quebec. Not only ain’t it recognized, rich and successful people are automatically believed to be crooks. “How could this guy buy this BMW? He must have ripped off someone off real bad or he must be selling crack!” As weird as it might sound, thats exactly how it is here.
I believe the first logical step would be to educate people about this thing called “entrepreneurship” and not to fear success. This alone won’t make Montreal the next Valley, but it sure won’t hurt.
June 9th, 2006 at 3:13 pm
Do you want to hear something interesting? OK, I will tell you:
It’s the same in Spain!
Everybody thinks you’re crazy if you start a startup… That’s not an easy path, but if you’re really sure, do it and don’t hear the discouraging voices
February 5th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Hi Carl,
I agree with a lot of your statements, but I also think there is more required for us to start to change the early stage entrepreneurial scene in Montreal.
I’m doing some work to help increase the angel investment scene and some local community projects to help aspiring entrepreneurs to network and meet.
Would love to get together at some point and compare notes on what Montreal needs to be more competitive.