A tale of three cities

San Francisco..London..Berlin.

Three great world cities. On the google map of every connoisseur traveller. vibrant. iconic. happening.

Also home to the aspirations of your quintessential nerd. Home to the dreams of many an aspirant geek. Home to three top tech ecosystems.

I have had the privilege of visiting all three ecosystems and immerse into the world of startups and their richie rich founders. There is commonality of spirit and purpose across these ecosystems. Everything is possible. All business models are up for disruption. A constant stream of dollars, pounds and euros flow through the veins of the ecosystem. Designer cool workplaces of the future, as if timeported into the present.

People in these ecosystems believe they can change the world. Patent protection is not top of mind. A culture of openness and sharing permeates. Optimism and energy levels are unparalleled. And across all these ecosystems the entities are pretty much the same. A slew of investment vehicles from angels to VCs. Top notch universities nurturing the talent. Events to ripple the excitement. Co-working places. Cool coffee shops and hangouts of the physical variety. loads of startups with novel ideas. bootcamps, accelerators, incubators, corporate labs, et al.

I did however taste a slightly different favour in each of these ecosystems. The specific spices added to each dish left a distinct mark on the overall experience. 

The Valley is of course the undisputed King. No one else comes close. Someone remarked that the weather is an additional critical cog in the ecosystem. Perhaps it is. But overall, the ecosystem is mature in all aspects. One wave ahead of the rest of the crowd. Diversity is so embedded that no one even talks about it. Capital is a commodity and startups get a long rope to explore their passions, from one seed cycle to another. Core techy invention is at the heart. There are so many unicorns around that they are no longer the celebrities. The university-startup alliance is very strong. Corporates have thronged with their labs and incubators. Abundance of everything else except  real estate. Quite expensive to setup and run. Talent is difficult to attract but if you manage to, it is of super top quality. The valley leads and everyone else emulates.

London's silicon roundabout started as a good pun. However the ecosystem has taken off. The City may still compete for the talent but there is definitely a magnetic attraction to the tech ecosystem. The big fish have invested big time with their multi-storey campuses and co-working places. Tech interacts quite nicely with design and a number of ideas blossom at this intersection. Successful exists such as deepmind retain their iconic status and everyone still talks about them. Gov's facilitative role is quite visible and quite essential at this stage of the maturity curve. University-startup links exist but are definitely not as strong as the Valley. Weather however needs a business model transformation.

Berlin was a pleasant surprise. Very vibrant indeed. Bubbling with new found excitement. Much younger, much more hep, and with a lot of character. Everyone speaks about diversity with pride. An excellent inflow of talent from Eastern Europe and also from the rest of the world. Art nicely mixes with tech and creates quite a novel experience. Funds flow through the veins however at a rather placid pace. You get a feeling that there are many more women here than in others, but not sure if this is empirically the case. The ecosystem pretty much like a open, harmonious cult. Everyone knows everyone. Everyone ready to help everyone. Iconic cafes where dreams are crafted and networks formed. The character of this historic city adds an aesthetic appeal to the ecosystem which is second to none.

Quite an experience this. 

Seeing these iconic cities intimately from this uniquely nerdy lens. 

Quite an experience this.

Immersing in their ecosystems and understanding what makes them tick.

Quite an experience this.

Flowing in the startup passion of massively transformative purposes

Quite a tale this.

A tale of three great cities.