Accel's Rich Wong says Australian startups should resist the lure of the Valley
The respected US VC, and early Atlassian investor, says there are advantages for businesses in not being sucked into the Silicon Valley bubble.
Conventional wisdom in Australian startup circles has long been that local businesses looking to go global will eventually need to make the move across the Pacific to Silicon Valley. But Rich Wong, a partner at Accel, one of the more respected funds in the US venture scene, and an enthusiastic investor in Australian startups, has a different take.
“To build things that are meaningful generally takes time,” Wong tells Capital Brief. “When you come on a regular basis [to the Valley] to learn about the different hot ideas but you don't have to always live in that shiny pebble environment and sort of keep chasing what's next, you can focus.”
There are some exceptions, he says, like specific areas of deep technology, where you need a critical mass of people collaborating together and access to world-class research universities that the Valley is renowned for. But overall, he thinks the US VCs that are still pushing the line that startups need to be in the US are “probably going to be on the wrong side of history over time”.
Wong emphasises that it is still important to stay connected to the Valley and visit frequently, which remains cemented as the epicentre of innovation. “It's important to know who's the rising star, who's hot and all that,” he says. “You don’t get that if you're only in Bucharest or Finland or Australia. But you also don't want to have to live that day-in day-out in my opinion.”
