U.S. West Coast Journey – Ep.3 Why Silicon Valley can be a startup heaven. (2024)

Silicon Valley, often hailed as a paradise for entrepreneurs, provides critical markets, funding, and team resources that attract global entrepreneurs and investors. Investors and entrepreneurs alike drive new business models and embrace failure as valuable learning experiences, encouraging experimentation and innovation. Elon Musk once said, " Failure is an option here. If things are not failing, you are not innovating enough." The entrepreneurial culture of Silicon Valley emphasizes encouraging experimentation and not punishing failure, a concept that has been pioneering and nurturing ideas and creativity.

The local ecosystem supports startups with rich funding and networking opportunities, enabling entrepreneurs to showcase their ideas and products on the international stage. This open and inclusive culture attracts talents and innovators from around the world, making Silicon Valley a global hub for entrepreneurship. Accelerator organizations like Plug and Play and Draper University support promising startups, facilitating international resource connections and assistance in global product exposure. With the right investments in seed and angel rounds, returns can reach 300-400 times, attracting more investors and entrepreneurs into the startup ecosystem, creating a positive cycle.

Moreover, Silicon Valley encourages diversity and respects new ideas, fostering an environment where entrepreneurs are willing to learn from, share, and inspire each other's ideas, and adapt quickly to changing environments. Legendary investor Tim Draper also emphasized the importance of exploring the world and understanding different fields, sometimes the best ideas are discovered inadvertently. The entrepreneurial culture of Silicon Valley attracts the world's finest talents, providing young people with opportunities to explore entrepreneurship in a highly capital-intensive environment. Large companies here respect the ideas of small companies, willing to invest in and acquire innovative products, and some companies even allow employees a small portion of work time to pursue their interests. In this atmosphere, Silicon Valley is not just a hub for startups but also a place that inspires potential and imagination.

In recent years, new tech giants and startup accelerators like Tesla and Google have created a new positive culture—optimistic young graduates full of ambition, aiming to change the world, not just to make money.

Smart Capital is Taiwan's largest angel investment community, primarily assisting in connecting promising startups with angel investors who are willing to support entrepreneurs. In recent years, it has actively expanded strategic cooperation opportunities with markets in the U.S. West Coast, Japan, and Southeast Asia, hoping to connect Taiwan with international markets and make Taiwan one of the global cradles of key innovation.