What the Scottish startup scene needs

I wrote this as a comment on SocialPenguin, but thought it worth republishing (in an edited form). It’s fully my intention when able to do so (i.e. not now) to work towards as much of this as I can.

The startup scene in Edinburgh is tight-knit and receptive. You can’t have an entrepreneurial scene that stretches across the whole of Scotland and still works; it’s too geographically spread. Companies need to be in the same building (yay for Appleton Tower), not the same country.

Even from my viewpoint here in Silicon Valley, which is around 50 miles north-south, you have a “San Francisco” community and a “Valley” community — the Valley community is even fragmented, but people make the effort to get to events in central places and co-work from a select few locations.

What we need in Scotland to echo some of the Valley feel is:
- Centralised hackerspace/coworking space large enough to support at least 100 entrepreneurs. Happy Hour every Friday, all local startups are invited. Mailing list for members. Standup “show and tell” demos every day.
- Bring EPIS back! And a similar YC-esque summer scheme targeted at students – do something meaningful in your summer holiday. Ideally lean-style, once compsci students cotton on they can make actual cash and wipe out their student loan in 3 months of summer work, they’ll all start doing it. We hope.
- More funding competitions and hackathon events with real sponsors and real prizes. Startup Weekend style.
- Role models that have actually made it, whether locally or from elsewhere with a good grasp of the Scottish scene and the challenges therein; when I was in Edinburgh there were a surprisingly small number of these around
- Similarly, advisors who have made it in the right sector (say, B2C web startups) and who have experience with Lean. Let’s get Eric Ries and Dave McClure in residence for 3 months, or the next best thing.
- Finally, forging links with angel groups that do invest in this kind of stuff and can overcome the geography, or a local angel syndicate that becomes well educated and aware of the huge opportunities in our space, so there’s a clear path to funding.

So, who’s with me?