Where best for tech entrepreneurs: Europe US or Asia?

Three veteran tech entrepreneurs with global experience - Martin Varsavsky, Loic Le Meur and Joi Ito - discuss with me whether it is better to start a tech company in the US, Europe or Asia.

All three have strong links to Silicon Valley, but only Loic is currently launching a company there.

Loic moved from Paris to San Francisco last year to launch Seesmic, a community for video conversation. San Francisco has been treating Loic well and from his level of enthusiasm it does not sound like he will be moving back to Europe anytime soon.

“You can succeed in Europe, but only locally,” Loic said. “You are more likely to have a global hit if you are based in San Francisco.” A European website must be translated into 22 languages in order to reach the same potential audience as an American website in English.

A further advantage of the US, Loic added, is the network effect. “In San Francisco everyone is just one block away and you can meet them for coffee.”

Martin, whose latest company is Fon, insists that Europe has one great inherent advantage due to lifestyle: “I do my work and then when I go home, I am here in Europe.”

The issue of US vs Europe is one that Martin has considered deeply and has now concluded that it comes down to an issue of lifestyle. “You really have to make a lifestyle choice to see where you set up.”

While the US might have a larger market, Martin said the exchange rate of what he calls the “peso-dollar” means that American companies are making much of their money in Europe.

Japan offers a fairly large and affluent homogenous market, but Joi Ito still tends to invest in the US and Europe.

A key difference of dynamic is that companies can more easily go public in Europe, while US companies look to be acquired. This changes the dynamic under which they are operated.

Technorati Tags: menorcatechtalk2008, menorca, Loic Le Meur, Martin Varsavsky, Varsavsky, Joi Ito, Joi, seesmic, fon, digital garage, techtalk

Technorati Tags: Entrepreneurs

Bobby Chinn: Hanoi Chef extraordinaire, character of Vietnam and now author

Congrats to Bobby Chinn for publication this month of his recipe book Wild, Wild East.

For those who have not yet had the pleasure, Bobby stars in a television show about Asian cuisine and runs my favorite Hanoi restaurant. Creatively enough, he calls the place Bobby Chinn. Bobby’s restaurant serves some of the best food in Hanoi and is filled with resident characters of Vietnam.

The biggest character of all - of course - being Bobby and his book is certain to reflect that:

Vietnamese food is the new hip – light, fresh, clean and healthy – cuisine. Who better to delve into its secrets than the most vibrant and renowned exponent of modern Vietnamese cuisine? Hanoi restaurateur and enfant terrible, Bobby Chinn.

Chinn’s first book, Wild, Wild East, gives the most comprehensive account of this diverse and exotic cuisine ever published in English. Sharing his passion for this unique style of cooking, Chinn takes the reader on a journey of discovery into what he believes to be one of the world’s greatest cuisines.

The book is jam-packed with recipes: There are classics such as Prawn and Papaya Salad and “Pho” Rice Noodle Soup, unusual dishes such as Rice Paper Wrapped Foie Gras on Apple Compote, Tamarind and Apple Jus, and plenty of Chinn’s own fusion-style dishes. In addition, the compendium is an authentic guide to Vietnamese food as it is eaten today. Special photography by award-winning photographer Jason Lowe and personal anecdotes from Chinn make this an illuminating culinary tour. Read about his first experiences of running a kitchen, how he found out the recipe for the secret sauce for grilled chicken, and his off-the-wall tales of the more unusual foodstuffs and ingredients.

Technorati Tags: Bobby Chinn, Hanoi, restaurant, Vietnam, Wild wild east

Robert Scoble after Podtech and his plans for Fast Company

Uber video blogger Robert Scoble announced today at LeWeb3 in Paris that he is leaving Podtech for greener pastures.

Scoble is best known for his blog, Scobleizer, which came to prominence while he worked as a technical evangelist at Microsoft. He co-authored (with Shel Israel) the book Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk.

I caught up with Scoble just after he left the stage and had him describe his plans ahead.

Scoble plans to join Fast Company or start his own company, with the intention of revolutionizing the video format by using top of the line equipment to live broadcasting via mobile phones and such.

Scoble fought against the notion of creating CNN 2.0, insisting that he wanted something entirely new, not something derivative.

More details in the video…

Technorati Tags: Robert Scoble, leweb3, Techpod, Fast Company

The Moving Circus

A video podcast with Loic in which we try to define a new generation who lives without the same connections and links of the previous generation.

Loic summarized:

We feel there is a new generation all around the World, a generation of people who feel more as citizens of the World than their own Country. We felt like trying to describe this generation’s values and called it “the moving circus”, a name Yossi Vardi originally used while we were talking about the fact that we keep seeing each other in all kinds of different events around the World, same cool people, same values, different places.

We tried to define the values of that “moving circus” culture:
-no office
-no boss (self employed)
-no Country (world citizen)
-no race (does not matter)
-no diploma (who cares)
-no smoking (has been)
-no hierarchy (OK, not much hierarchy)
-no political party (!!!, we care more about people than parties)
-no tie, no suit: casual all the time
-no monopoly, no center, everything decentralized
-no religion (not has important as it was before)
-no mariage (not needed to live together)
-in sync: no email, no phone, just IM, twitter, social software…
-no off-line: everything online, Gmail Google apps rather than MS Office
-no distance: it does not matter where you are
-no mass media: they are here but do not matter as much as before
-no fear of embarrassment or of failure: the “always beta” culture
-icons: Hans Rosling, Sergey Brin, Lary Page
-book: The World if Flat from Thomas Friedman
-entrepreneurial or self employed
-ideas over systems
-sharing ideas instead of keeping them secret (authority and power change from people protecting information to people sharing it)
-ethics: environment, …
-global citizen

There’s some reaction on Loic’s blog.

Technorati Tags: Loic Le Meur, moving circus, the moving circus