What makes Silicon Valley so innovative?

Three suggestions to the recipe of the secret sauce of innovation

Silicon Valley has fostered some of the World’s largest corporations that have changed the technology and the way we live. Companies like Apple, Google, Cisco, Oracle, Uber, Tesla, etc. is born here. What’s the secret behind this innovation that is disrupting one industry after another?

1. The high quality of knowledge coming from top universities like Stanford and University of California. In San Francisco Bay Area, more than 50 current Nobel Prize winners live here. But there are other great clusters of knowledge in USA (think of Harvard or MIT in Massachusetts), so high caliber knowledge cannot be the only reason? Let’s look at the second ingredients: 

2. The World’s strongest investment system. Venture capital in Silicon Valley are representing one third of all US investments in new enterprises. And probably also attracts too much capital, critics say, calling foreign companies or foreign investors “tourists” with “stupid money”. But there are also other areas like New York where there are strong venture capital communities within e.g. fin-tech, so cash abundance can also not be the only reason? Let’s look at the third ingredients:

3. The mindset and mentality of the multicultural environment in Silicon Valley. There is a strong willingness to share knowledge and ideas, not being afraid of protecting own intellectual property rights. Also there is a high degree of risk willingness. “If you don’t risk, you don’t gain”, a former Google employee explained. Failure is accepted and filing for bankruptcy is not stigmatizing. Talents apparently think bigger in Silicon Valley:

Innovation is enjoying breaking the rules. It’s aiming to disrupt, not just optimize. And it’s being impatient, making speed a disrupter in itself. Speed is everything. Fast forward.

Innovation Center DK in Palo Alto @ICDK_SV shared some of these insights of the innovation ecosystem in Silicon Valley. 

This article was originally published on LinkedIn.