Patrick Collison: Could Stripe have been started in Ireland?

As I'm sure Patrick knows a first degree of accuracy you could of course substitute "Ireland" for "outside Silicon Valley" and the point about acquisitions is especially well made.<p>Even in London we're seeing that the companies here are giving investor valuations that simply 1/5 of the valley and on most levels I have to say that I can't blame the investors for their pessimism as there are so, so few exits here.<p>Exits (large or small) perform three important roles for establishing a startup scene:<p>1. They create wealth for founders who are themselves much more likely to become investors<p>2. They create wealth for investors. Whether an investor is actually in on a deal or not this changes their attitude and their optimism and makes them more likely to invest due to the perceived good climate<p>3. As Patrick said, they increase the likelihood of high calibre individuals doing startups. Good people can do very well in other jobs and if they see the likelihood of success in a startup as being negligible, they'll stay elsewhere.<p>All of these three tend towards self reinforcement which is powerful. It's worth noting that none of them depend on the net P&#38;L from angel investment to be positive, only that the net gain in perception to be positive.<p>One of the simple reasons it's very hard to sell the types of companies we discuss on HN outside the valley is that to sell a company you really need to actually meet someone willing to buy a company. These things still tend to start face to face.<p>Outside the valley there are far fewer biz-dev teams and, perhaps more importantly, far fewer engineering teams. The types of companies that create a lot of wealth are usually product focussed and get bought by product / engineering teams. Most of those acquiring teams are based in the states. FB only has a very small outpost in London and while Google's is huge and does include engineering it's predominantly sales support and does not (as far as I know) make many purchases.<p>I was fortunate enough to be able to sell my last startup (Clickpass) but there is no way that would have happened outside the valley. For that reason among many others we're moving back out to SF in January. I love SF and I'm happy to move back but sad to leave London and my life here too. However I too have come to the conclusion that it simply doesn't make sense to be outside the valley, you just set the odds too far against yourself.

Domestic market size is also a huge factor. The market in Ireland and indeed many other countries is simply too small for a startup like Stripe to be viable. It would have to target international markets/the US from the get go with all the complications (regulatory and otherwise) that go with that.

I really don't understand. What will stop “tech giants” from buying startup in Ireland? What the difference? All majors are international corps and it's really doesn't matter where the promising company located, moreother Ireland is an english speaking country that's a huge bonus.

<i>But I’m not sure that asking whether Stripe could have been started in Ireland is the right question. Most technology start-ups don’t have to convince banks to work with them.</i><p>Then again.. difficulty getting banks to work with them is itself am instance of something. Confidence &#38; interest potential partners, customers, employees and such have in startups may be one of the factors making a place favourable.

Having never been there. Are silicon valley hires really that much better than those found elsewhere? The most ambitious surely. Perhaps very hard working (as a consequence perhaps). But really significantly more able?

The usual reasons, although i suspect the real stopper is #1 , regulations and having to work with banks. Don't forget paypal been established as a bank in europe and often has to walk though regulatory mazes.

I guess that the size of the country and the talent pool would be an issue but it's worth remembering that Ireland also has state help for new firms with Enterprise Ireland. The banks are pretty conservative organisations but their current woes may lead to a rethink of how they are going to do business in the future.