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  • From: Bill Gargan <billg AT wgaprc.com>
  • To: InterNetWorkers <internetworkers AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: the triangle as startup-friendly region
  • Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 20:58:13 -0400


I say Amen to Steve's position, in most respects. Silicon Valley is the
result of basic
research paid for by the feds and serving to create the overpriced but so far
effective
weaponry that we all love to hate. California gained defense money as it
gained
congressional seats.

As for where the money VC goes, VC people control that because its theirs.
Unfortunately,
MBA programs don't teach sharing. In fact, it is a tenant of these
depositories of what
passes for knowledge that sharing is for suckers. When a company convinces a
group of
capitalists that they can make a 1000 percent return, and they do, the
investors come to
regard the company with fondness, but not before. If you haven't got this
kind of track
record, don't expect a knock at the door.

Nobody owes the Triangle anything. It's just a place with people in it, like
everywhere
else. I suggest we stop waiting and whining for what we think we deserve and
go get what
we can.

Or consider working for the government.

Bill Gargan
WGA Public Relation Counsel


Steven Champeon wrote:

> Something that many people forget about SiliValley is that it wasn't
> intended as some pioneering experiment in VC-funded startups, or an
> incubator for the driven entrepreneur when it first started attracting
> attention. It was the home of a few big companies' West Coast offices,
> such as Fairchild Semiconductor, who is still based in Maine IIRC. Sure,
> it was a new office, and several key employees went on to found little
> companies like Intel, but the Valley got its start with the full resources
> of the military industrial complex and some very large research and
> development institutions behind it.
>
> Anyway.
>
> I'm hoping that this group can gradually change the attitudes of local
> investors and VCs and entrepreneurs - who think, for the most part, that
> once they've used local resources for their ill-funded startup phase, it's
> time to move on to the "big time" and use big name firms in NYC, Atlanta,
> DC, and so forth. I've worked with or am good friends with many people
> from those firms, (USWeb/CKS, iXL, Razorfish, USi, Strategic Interactive,
> Studio Archetype - now Sapient, etc.) and they're rarely doing anything
> that local firms can't do, are usually more expensive and less willing to
> commit their top resources to RTP-based firms, and are not often used
> again past the first project. Many of them staff up too fast, using any
> contractors they can find, and guess who gets sent to work on the jobs
> that aren't in the company's local area.
>
> I'd like to sound a wakeup call that lets local investors know that they
> don't have to go outside the Triangle for quality work, anymore than they
> have to go outside for quality employees.
>
> It's all about changing attitudes and forming long-lasting bonds here in
> RTP. It's ridiculous that when my team and I were looking for community
> a couple of years ago, we had to join mailing lists in SF and NYC. Our
> Web design and development mailing list has over 750 members, and I'd say
> of that, only a dozen or less are from the Triangle, /including/ the folks
> who work for hesketh.com. At least partly as a result of the list, we're
> better known in Australia/New Zealand, Great Britain, Russia, Brazil,
> Israel, Sweden, France, etc. than we are in RTP. We have clients in NYC,
> Tel Aviv, London, DC, Atlanta, and so forth, as well as local clients,
> but we still encounter a great deal of reluctance on the part of VCs to
> use us on the same projects that - once they hire a Big Name Firm - the
> Big Name Firm farms out to us anyway :) It's silly.
>
> So let's make some noise and change some minds.
>
> Steve
>
> --
> business: http://hesketh.com ...custom medium- to large-scale web sites
> the book: http://dhtml-guis.com ...Building Dynamic HTML GUIs from IDG
> punditry: http://a.jaundicedeye.com ...negative forces have value
> personal: http://hesketh.com/schampeo/ ...info, projects, random stuff
>
> ---
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