I decided to attend Carolina Connect this year and learned a great many things. Most
prominent: Asheville is not Silicon Valley, despite the business development push to become Silicon Valley. For a region to flourish the way Silicon Valley or Boston does there is a mix that needs to be present in order for innovative startups to have the resources needed in order to grow. The recipe:
1. An innovative, research, high-profile college ( Think Stanford or MIT ) to foster innovation and spark next idea thinking :: Asheville does not have a technology powerhouse school.
2. Willing and eager, risk happy investors :: ding there too for Asheville. Investors here tend to be conservative and skeptical about new technology.
3. Talent poll: We may have that in the creative and arts sector, but without a highly competitive high technology college, we do not have the numbers here, either. Ding, ding, ding
4. Culture: Probably the biggest inhibitor, the Southern Appalachia is conservative, almost to a detriment and risk-asserse to exploratory business endeavors. Victor Hwang and VC from California smiling said that investors out in California say “It takes $20 million to train a technology CEO” and that a “a string of failed companies indicates an entrepreneur is getting closer to their break-through.”
OK – what is the remedy?
I think it is to admit our strengths and weaknesses. For all our technology weaknesses, we have genuine potential strengths that could foster business growth and brand recognition for our region as a hot-bed for social/conscious capitalism and community focused business.
Look at the coopertive effort underway to attract Google Fiber, our spirit is greater than any other region in the country right now and this speaks to the fabric in which we weave in the mountains of WNC in terms of generosity, getting involved and working together.
Translating that spirit to business could transform the economic landscape here from “me” to “we” and raise all ships and become a blue print for other communities around the world.
WNC could be to triple bottom-line results what Napa Valley is to wine or Virginia is to Lovers’
Are you ready?
Tags: capitalism, carolina connect, conscious, social, we
You do know what you’re doing, so keep at it.
Thank you!
David.
Great comment Sandy. Thanks for sharing your sentiment.
Change will need to occur with entrepreneurs walking this talk of “we” and influencing the business leadership institutions of our region.
I think at a policy level it is easy to say: “Let’s attract big tech companies”, the harder think is to define HOW we will nurture this CSR business climate for mutual benefit and regional branding.
It can be done, but defining the how I think is the next step.
I really like your question about the remedy. There are very, very few places that have the exact characteristics of RTP or Silicon Valley- whether you are speaking about VC funding and/or research funding.
You are absolutely correct in stating that the region has to build on its unique strengths. Your GoogleAvl example points to some of the great strengths of the region- and some of our most underutilized assets- Asheville’s people, their ideas and their community commitment. I was blown away by the quantity and quality of ideas at the Town Hall Meeting. We can’t argue for our limitations- our deficits- and we can’t ignore them. But we can focus on weaving the networks of our fragmented regional innovation system. We can address the gaps in our entrepreneurial pipeline. How about beginning to focus on entrepreneur development instead of industrial recruitment? How can we bring this discussion to a broader civic dialogue, because this is crucial.
Thank you for this post. Thought-provoking and so necessary.