The Web Mission Debate

April 22, 2008 | Event Report | Spark Clients

There lots of talk in the blogosphere this week about the Web Mission trip and whether or not it’s basically a confession by UK companies that they “need” the Valley to be successful. Web Mission is a group of 20 UK startups who were brought together by Oli Barrett to take a trip to the bay area with the goal of networking and learning, timed with the Web 2.0 Expo. The critics, with Ryan Carson taking the lead in this post, are saying that the companies should have stayed put because everything they need to build a business can be found in Europe. Mike Butcher from TechCrunch UK posted a response, with which I’m more inclined to agree.

Having been in London for almost a year, I’ve met with a huge number of companies, entrepreneurs, investors, and others in the tech scene here. It seems that the most serious startups know that they can build a big business in Europe (with Skype, MySQL and Last.fm as great examples), but that they also can’t ignore Silicon Valley as an important and influential part of the tech world. To do so just to prove a point would be foolish. When you encourage open communication, instead of criticizing it, you get a very positive exchange of ideas, which benefits people on both sides of the ocean. At the end of the day, London is not Silicon Valley and it never will be. Nor should it try to be. The European tech world has its own unique advantages and should focus on playing up those, rather than worry about whether it looks like they’re too in love with the Valley. Sarah Lacy’s been writing about this topic a lot lately. She has a good post on her blog, and a great column on BusinessWeek.com.

At the end of the day, people have to decide for themselves what makes the most sense for the success of their business. For some, that may be a trip to the Valley. For others, it may mean spending those hours on a recruiting trip through Europe. Knowing many of the CEOs involved in Web Mission, I think they are smart and savvy enough to figure out what’s best for their companies. And they’re too busy focusing on customers, sales, employees, and products to care about what their actions may or may not signify to an outside observer.

-Rachel

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