Entrepreneurs and National Dynamism
Entrepreneurs are at the heart of today’s growing economic power of various countries. Today lots of the new value created is coming from startups in research-oriented industries such as tech and life sciences. Attracting these minds has become a national priority to some leaders and to some nations like USA, Israel, and Singapore there is no need because the pool is already great.
Entrepreneurs Are The Real Marketers For Nations
Wait, WHAT???? Aren’t the politicians supposed to do this part? Isn’t that why we elected these leaders so that they can help our nation grow and thrive? The truth is yes…BUT it is a bit more complicated than that. Today’s politicians have so much on their minds. If you are the Prime Minister of Australia or the president of the US concerns such as healthcare, education, national security, helping retirees, affordable housing, and several other things occupy your mind during the day. The government does have to do their part to make sure that their nations are easy to conduct business in such as having good regulatory environment, a good legal system for dealing with disputes, and a competitive tax system as well as a good labor market of talented folks. However today the culture is a major way to create more entrepreneurs.
China, Israel, USA, and Singapore aggressively pushed people to embark on startups and build companies. The power of a nation and the relevance is based on their startups in these advanced industries such as tech and life sciences. Then the success of these startups and the founders can push the world to pay attention. The success of MercadoLibre brought attention to South America, Shopify’s success and Tobi Lutke’s praise of Canada showed that Canada was back in the startup world after the downfall of Blackberry and brought VC money to Canadian SaaS startups, Alibaba and Jack Ma showcased the attention to China, and there are many more examples. A great nation does need only a few stars to inspire everyone.
Culture and Local Talent
One of the best aspects of a startup ecosystem is its culture and local talent. The culture of America to take risks at all costs and also the local talent in startups really ignited the drive to build some of the best companies in the world. Today with research showcasing that proximity to your team or founders having a hybrid (remote + in-office) culture can play a role in your startup’s success. Some VC funds such as Founders Fund have started to prefer companies where founders are more in close proximity. So that only means that the more pressure is going to be on founders to find more talented people within their country’s borders. Local talent is becoming more important and so is the culture for entrepreneurship. If the culture is failing, then the company will struggle in that market.
Competition for Capital
Especially with this bear market right now and with less VC deals being done, there is going to be more of a fight for capital. Regions that have delivered great returns to investors such as in SE Asia, China, and the US have seen VCs raise funds dedicated to investing solely in those markets. This means companies in other markets will have to aggressively compete for capital and show that they can deliver the massive returns that VCs are looking for. There will be a battle in several markets for VC dollars. For consumer/B2C businesses we have seen more investors develop an appetite for emerging markets where more of the startups in EM nations are getting more capital. While countries that are in smaller markets that have more developed economies are being favored as breeding grounds for more B2B SaaS startups.
In the End…
These are some great observations. Will most more on this soon! It does remain to be seen regarding the massive potential lots of companies may be able to have all over the world.
