Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Celebrity Investment: Road to Silicon Valley in India

When will India have its own Silicon Valley? This question baffles many. Not only in India but across the world, many governments want to replicate Silicon Valley phenomena.

While the physical infrastructure and the support network is easy to observe and replicate, one area, which is difficult to understand and even more difficult to replicate, is the culture of Silicon Valley.

One cannot define the culture of Silicon Valley in exact words but one interesting observation worth discussing- Lady Gaga invested in a startup in June 2011.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/05/lady-gaga-and-eric-schmidt-invest-in-a-startup/

In a way it sums it up the Silicon Valley culture. It is fashionable for even celebrities to start, work and associate with startups!

India has long way to go to achieve this kind of phenomena when celebrities will find fashionable to invest in startups. Imagine Shahrukh Khan investing in a next generation cloud computing firm!

Its not that Indian celebrities are not investing in business ventures, but they not investing in technology startups.

Where are celebrities investing in India? Well celebrities have invested in IPL Cricket teams and see how successful IPL has become in a short span.

I don’t know whether celebrity investing in startups is cause or effect of Silicon Valley phenomena. But I am sure whenever India reaches that stage of celebrity investment in startups, it will be fashionable to start, invest and associate with startup and India will be on the way of developing its own Silicon Valley. Shahrukh and others, please invest soon!