The Largest Risk in Silicon Valley is Taking No Risk
Why the Economic Downturn Will Spawn Hundreds of Startups
Hundreds of new startups are likely as a result of the economic crisis and a rise
in unemployment among software engineers. The simple reason is that unemployed
software engineers will have the time to band together to work on new projects.
That's exactly where blogging software as Six Apart's Movable Type came from Flickr,
Delicious and many other successful startups. They were all born in economically bleak
times.
Today it doesn't take any capital to launch a "Web 2.0" startup. You don't need to own
a server, you just need a couple or four developers, a good idea, and a friendly local coffee
shop with free wifi.
People's layoff packages can easily support a six month development runway and by the
end of six months, the economic conditions will have likely improved. In six months time it
will also be easier to get financing from angel investors to expand a promising startup.
It's worth the risk. In Silicon Valley the largest risk you take is by taking no risk at all.
By Tom Foremski
from October 6, 2008 post at
www.SiliconValleyWatcher.com
Hundreds of new startups are likely as a result of the economic crisis and a rise
in unemployment among software engineers. The simple reason is that unemployed
software engineers will have the time to band together to work on new projects.
That's exactly where blogging software as Six Apart's Movable Type came from Flickr,
Delicious and many other successful startups. They were all born in economically bleak
times.
Today it doesn't take any capital to launch a "Web 2.0" startup. You don't need to own
a server, you just need a couple or four developers, a good idea, and a friendly local coffee
shop with free wifi.
People's layoff packages can easily support a six month development runway and by the
end of six months, the economic conditions will have likely improved. In six months time it
will also be easier to get financing from angel investors to expand a promising startup.
It's worth the risk. In Silicon Valley the largest risk you take is by taking no risk at all.
By Tom Foremski
from October 6, 2008 post at
www.SiliconValleyWatcher.com
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