Silicon Valley in Malaysia?

I originally posted this on the WebCamp Malaysia Facebook group. I think I should really write a proper post about this.

Vishen Lakhiani from MindValley posted a challenge on the WebCamp Malaysia Facebook group to try to start a 1M fund in Malaysia in order to help grow the Malaysia local entrepreneurship. There are some interesting opinions on that thread. If you are Malaysian entrepreneur, you should really read it.

Most of the people on that thread were trying to argue how we could resemble Silicon Valley and move the success model of Silicon Valley into Malaysia. Personally, I think that there are a few flaws in that argument. In this post, I will list a few examples that I experienced in Silicon Valley which will never happen in Malaysia/Kuala Lumpur.

• Ex Successful Startup Founders
  Walking down University Avenue, Palo Alto, you see billionaires/millionaires along the street. These are the people who started successful companies that went IPO/are acquired for millions. They can invest in your startup(50k/100k) over a short tea time with you(if you are really good obviously).

• Partnership
  If you want to work/partner with any company, it is easy in Silicon Valley because most of them are already here. Someone you know in your network might already know the CEO of that company. I bet you that I can get to someone easily within 2 levels of my network.

• Tech Support
  Stumble upon a bug in one of the open source softwares you are using. Go to any related meetup here. Most of the time, you can meet the creator/contributor of the software you are using and ask him the question you have face to face.

• Talent
  There are about 200k(maybe more) engineers in the bay area. There are top schools like Stanford and Berkeley pumping out top-tier talents. How many engineers who could actually write code in Malaysia/Kuala Lumpur?

• Peer Support
  Having a down day while working on your startup. Never mind because your fellow friend is not that good too. Peer support is important. This was the part I enjoyed the most while I was in YC. 25 startups supporting each other in one batch, why not?

• Early Adopters
  People in Silicon Valley are willing to try out new stuff. Come and visit the restaurants in the bay area. They are already using some new stuff from some random startups that I bet you have never heard of before. In Malaysia/Kuala Lumpur, you might have to spend some time on teaching them how to use the browser properly.

• Silicon Valley Mentality
  In Silicon Valley, investor takes about 1-5% of your company on the 100k he puts in your company. In Malaysia, investor takes 20% of your company on the 100k he puts in your company. In Silicon Valley, there is usually a 10-20% options pool for employees who join the company. In Malaysia, you are lucky if you get some options when joining a company. When a company goes IPO in Silcon Valley, everyone is happy. In Malaysia, only the founders and the investors make money.

It is not impossible to create such model in Malaysia/Kuala Lumpur, but, it takes time. And, funding markets develop in reverse, you need one big success like the early Hewlett-Packard to work all the way to the mature funding markets in Silicon Valley today.

So, who will be the Hewlett-Packard in Malaysia?

Photo taken by sierra2u.