Global talent gets attracted to Silicon Valley because it celebrates failure, says Indian American entrepreneur

Silicon Valley: Talented people from across the world get attracted to Silicon Valley because it celebrates failure, an ecosystem that is found in no other parts of the world, an Indian American entrepreneur has said.

The world wants to be here in Silicon Valley. Right from the emerging economies to the Western economies, everybody wants a pie of Silicon Valley, Mateen Syed, advisor and investor to startups told PTI in an interview.

"It’s very simple. It’s not about geography. It’s not just about technology. A lot of people fail to understand this...Here as you must have heard this mantra many times, that failure is celebrated,” he said.

“Not because you fail, (but because) you will not repeat the same mistake again and the learnings you get from that mistake could be in corporate, the next venture. People (here are) willing to take a risk on you. There is no collateral when people invest in you. Just the mind they are investing in,” he said.

People in Silicon Valley invest in your capability and in your potential in the future, he said.

"And they don't take any collateral back from you except of course equity in the company. But there's nothing to hold onto for the money. If you go to banks or other lenders, you have to have collateral. And the mind is the only collateral you're putting on the table (in Silicon Valley).

"So that risk, and of course that risk is, is smart money, the money comes with tonnes of experience of people,” he said.

Syed who participated in the Silicon Valley event of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015, said that the investors not only bring in investment but also domain area expertise that makes a startup succeed in the field.

“That is why it (Silicon Valley) is very unique and that is why it could not be replicated anywhere else in the world,” he said.

India, he said, is at a cusp where it is going to be the global leader.

“There is no doubt about it. India will continue to emerge and grow. Nobody can stop it, regardless of which government you support or don't support. It is not about the government. Government can only facilitate growth. They cannot stop or change the pattern of growth. It's going to continue,” he said.

Talking about the startup culture in India, he said India has the largest young population in the world and very brilliant people yearning to take on the world.

"I travel a lot to India. I talk to a lot of young startups and young students across India. I see the vibrance, I see the energy. Where I think we have to be very careful is I see a lot of avarice in young people. They think because of these unicorns it has become a sexy thing to do a startup,” he said.

"If you're not good at anything, then you become a startup. No! The people that we hear about in Silicon Valley who have dropped out of college to build multi-billion-dollar companies are very, very few. They're naturally very smart people, who apply their minds and energies to singularly focus cause. We cannot take that as a role model, apply across the board and yet say it's okay to fail.

He said a startup is like any other enterprise and one has to be singularly focused on the value he is creating in a market.

"Either you're disrupting or bringing value to your customer. If the customer is not willing to pay, you don't have a game. On that, I've seen that, instead of focusing on fundamentals, there's too much hype around it. We should cut that hype," he said.

For long-term growth and sustainability and for India to emerge as a leader in startup space and innovation, there is a need to remain very grounded and look at fundamentals.

“India has to take the lead. There's no question about it. But what is important for me is, can we go down to the basics and understand the fundamentals of how to become a good engineer, a good technician, a good marketing person, and a good CEO? And how do we get those things, fundamentals grounded into our youth and then grow from there?" Syed said.

"Avarice; I use that word because it's all about money, chasing money. And that is not good here," Syed said.

“Otherwise, I think all the ingredients are there. We have the finest education system in the world going back 70 years," he added.

"And now you see, across Silicon Valley, is there any company where you don't see, an Indian in a CXO position? It's hard to find that company, right? It's a great achievement for us. And we should continue this progress," he added.