Forbes Business Council’s Post

Silicon Valley: The Birthplace of Innovation and the Spirit of the West Silicon Valley is the undisputed epicenter for startups, generating roughly 30% of global VC funding. Yet, the story of its origins is as captivating as it is seldom told. 👨💻 💰 For those eager to discover the roots of this iconic region, I highly recommend Tom Wolfe’s essay, “Two Young Men Went West,” found in his book “Hooking Up.” 📌 In this essay, Wolfe chronicles the journey of Bob Noyce, co-founder of Intel and the visionary often credited with ‘inventing’ Silicon Valley. The narrative takes us through the unique blend of ambition, innovation, and the quest for freedom that shaped the culture of this extraordinary region. 🎯 Noyce and his contemporaries were driven by more than just technological breakthroughs—they sought a lifestyle that broke free from the constraints of the East Coast's corporate rigidity. They wanted independence, flexibility, and the freedom to think outside the box. This spirit of the West, with its emphasis on creativity and disruption, became the bedrock of what we now know as Silicon Valley. 🥇 💥 If you're curious about how Silicon Valley became synonymous with innovation and the free spirit of the West Coast, Wolfe’s essay is a must-read. Happy reading! 📚 #SiliconValley #Hookingup #TomWolfe #BobNoyce

☢️ Silicon Valley's existential question is ACTUALLY plaguing GLOBAL VC too: To build or to balk? 🌟 Lost in the Quest for Easy Wins: Our brightest, lured by low-hanging fruits, forget the quests that truly matter. Remember, true innovation doesn't lie in incremental updates. I've been following the writing of the Founders Fund team for a while, but it was good to re-check Trae Stephens and Markie Wagner's essay: "Choose Good Quests" (thanks Jakub) 🚨 A Moral (and soon financial) Failure: Choosing comfort over challenge is Silicon Valley's silent crisis. With the world at a tipping point, opting out isn't just a personal loss; it's a collective failure. But it's also financial: backing AI-powered accounting tools, yet-another-payment-SaaS, or better CRMs, won't yield anymore the venture-scale returns needed to justify VCs' obsession with them. 🛣️ The Path Less Travelled: The quests that changed the world—space exploration, the discovery of penicillin—weren't pursued because they were easy, but because they were necessary. 🔍 Good Quests vs. Bad Quests: A good quest uplifts humanity; a bad one keeps us static. Where do your efforts lie? What kind of investments will you make? What kind of companies will you build? 🌍 The Role of Investors and Innovators: We're at a junction. But I do object one thing to Founders Fund: it's not JUST Silicon Valley ─it's the whole world! And Europe has been particularly lethargic compared to both the US and China to react to this need for change. Now the wind of change started to blow. Investment and number of companies in Deeptech, Defence, Energy, Medicine and Hard Tech are going up. But not enough. Going from 10 to 30% of venture euros deployed is good. But not enough until it's the other way around! Why is it assumed digital has to be the elephant in VC? As Silicon Roundabout Ventures we are fighting for the reverse: 70:30 Deeptech ✊ Do we continue down the path of comfort, or do we dare to tackle the hard, impactful problems? #Deeptech #VentureCapital #LimitedPartners #VC

In a recent breakfast at our Athens offices, we hosted Neil Rimer, the visionary mind behind Index Ventures, for a roundtable discussion. Various themes surfaced during this enlightening exchange with Neil Rimer and 15 of the most promising Greek tech founders, from navigating legal complexities to grappling with economic intricacies and embracing global ambitions. In my latest blog, I delve into the key themes explored in this enriching roundtable, unraveling their significance in navigating the obstacles and opportunities that await Greek tech founders. #venturecapital #greektech

This Week in SaaS we're covering VP candidate JD Vance and wether or not it's impacting tech voters. And while vance's VC experience gets brought up, it was quite brief and has been described as "limited" by industry insiders. 1️⃣ Vance began his VC career in April 2016 at Mithril Capital, a firm co-founded by Peter Thiel. He worked there as a principal until early 2017. 2️⃣ In March 2017, Vance joined Revolution, a VC firm founded by Steve Case. He was involved with the "Rise of the Rest" initiative, which aimed to invest in startups outside of traditional tech hubs. He worked here until late 2019. 3️⃣ In December 2019, Vance co-founded Narya Capital in Ohio with Colin 2. He continued to be associated with Narya until he shifted his focus to politics in 2021. Does this matter to all you tech voters? Does it sway anybody? It's interesting how we shy away from talking about tech's influence on politics and politic's influence on tech. It matters. As operators we all know how important incentives are. PS: be cool in the comments or we'll all laugh at you. #thisweekinsaas #politicsonlinkedinohno #tech #technews

We're often misguided or lead to believe things pertaining to public matters, depending on the narrative of certain media agencies. Through this, many across the globe have formed a negative opinion on Donald Trump and his potential return to the White House. This includes those who work in tech and some of whom have been victim to layoffs however, according to the founders of one of the world's largest venture capital firms his re-election is believed to be more favorable for tech, specifically the startup ecosystem. Would it sway your vote if you were unemployed? #politics #technology #election #techstartups #ai

What industries does Silicon Valley ignore/underinvest in? Here are my top 5. What am I missing? 1. Waste management. 2. Prisons. (This is Palmer Luckey's idea, I'm stealing it here.) 3. Construction 4. Stock Market 5. Healthcare A couple notes: Stock market: 50% of stock/bond market trading should be by Silicon Valley startups. Why aren't the best quant/algo funds in Silicon Valley? No one trying to compete with NYSE/Nasdaq Healthcare: There are a bunch of startups in this space, but not nearly enough. It's 17.3% of GDP on it's way to 25%. Regulatory capture scares founders away. What does SV over invest in? Productivity SaaS software (cuz it's such a great business!)

1. Yes to better diversity of events that are not always 5-7pm. As both a parent of a 9 year old and a caregiver of an elderly parent, I find myself opting out of many valuable events that could benefit my company because my family has to take precedence. Not just a want, an absolute need. 2. Yes to better coordination of events, of knowledge, of databases. So much of what founders, business builders, knowledge workers is there for the taking. Just buried or missed under layers noise and jazz hands. Let’s streamline this ****. What about a centralized database of EiRs and Fractional SMEs too while we’re at it? 3. Yes to kindness and generosity of time with founders. Always. Thanks for this William Johnson

Chasing the latest tech trends can sink your new business faster than you think. In the race to stay 'cutting-edge,' many startups lose sight of their core mission. Remember Google Glass? Cool tech, but where is it now? Instead of hopping on every new wave, focus on sustainable growth and customer needs. What if your true competitive advantage lies in perfecting the basics rather than adopting the newest tech? Resist the allure of shiny objects. Focus on what truly matters. Is your business built to last? Share your thoughts below!

The CFOTech market is worth $25 billion a year. And around Palo Alto, my firm, Born Capital, is the only VC firm building portfolios of CFOTech companies. No fund has ever specialized in the CFOTech space before. 53% of CFOs want to speed up digital transformation so they can make quick decisions based on data. Investments are high on the list, with FP&A leading the way. The CFOTech market is booming, and the role of the CFO is expanding. Half of the startups in our portfolio are based in San Francisco, and I love getting to know them in person. Being in Palo Alto is amazing for meeting other investors and going to local tech events. The Bay Area is a fantastic place to grow your network and stay connected with the latest tech trends. Innovation drives the Bay Area’s economy, making it the world leader in tech advancement. This success comes from creating new business models and redefining industries. The Bay Area thrives due to its infrastructure, finance, and unique culture of innovation. There’s a great energy you feel when you're here. The entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Bay Area is like no other. Here, innovation isn't just encouraged; it's a way of life. Networking is important; it opens doors to opportunities that may have otherwise been out of reach. Your network is your superpower. You can find the right people, secure funding, and build partnerships. And building a community is about creating a supportive environment where people can connect and grow together. A strong community can drive hyper-growth for companies and deepen engagement with customers. Failure is not seen as a setback but as a stepping stone to success. In the Bay Area, it's understood that failure is part of the journey and can lead to greater innovation and resilience. -- P.S. I'm Wouter Born, a CFOTech entrepreneur, investor, and advisor. I'm also the co-founder of CXO Software (exit 2018) and former head of M&A at insightsoftware. I share daily CFOTech insights, business lessons, and personal learnings to help you get better at life and business.

If you’re between $2 mil - $100 mil revenue this is the last week to bypass the $3,000 entry fee to Super Founder Global Network 🚀 If you’re under $300k you can save the $300 entry fee. The entry fees will stay long term because they are a big part of increasing the probability of top tier peers who have achieved a level of business success. But we wave them just once for launch because it won’t impact the long term culture of this focused and diligent community. SFGN is a simple Slack channel where you can ask questions from the best, partner, close deals/customers and get funded. Imagine you can talk to, partner, close deals and/or get funded by people who were at, serviced or are at Visa, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Amazon, Nike, Redbull, PepsiCo, Pacific Capital Partners ($80 billion AUM), Techstars, Gartner, Fundingstack, Nobody Studios, VC, PE and more. Extremely rare top talent & funding sources all in one room. It’s like having 70+ advisors for one monthly price…actually…it’s exactly like that. Without giving up equity which makes it VC and Venture Studio compatible. With all the Heads combined you could be funded or at your next scale level in 30-60 days if insights, execution details and short latency actions are all that are slowing you. The longer you stay the more you grow. SFGN is made for $1 million execs as much as it is for $300 million execs. In SFGN you know your peers have put forth “at least” $147 to say “I’m $147 serious about this multi-million $ journey”. Each tier is “relatively low” to ensure a minimum level of seriousness. All Super Founder events outside of slack are a free starting point for anyone not having $147 in their bank yet. SF is a cross of accessibility and seriousness through the tier system that everyone can move up through by utilizing what is available at each tier. No one on the planet is making high-quality, high-scale founders/execs/teams and companies at scale reliably. No matter how many people are connected (investors/founders) there just isn’t a big enough supply of high quality high scale founders/execs/teams/companies. It’s the ecosystem perspective. Up-leveling rapidly is the core solution. In a unit economic, high quality and incentive balanced way. We pay the customer acquisition costs to pull all the high quality people together, up level them dramatically further and they 1. Produce/grow exponentially and 2. Are available for partnering, hiring, funding, becoming customers, getting customers and growing faster in SFGN than than they ever were prior 🚀 Sign up at sf-gn.com to reserve your spot. We’ll temporarily pause sign ups if we get too full because we are here to dramatically and truly change the world and that means ensuring the best experience in the SFGN slack channels. Which has conversation unit economics to ensure are the highest quality. This is going to be world changing and full of world changers …let’s get started 🚀