Shenzhen

The maker movement

From a fishing village to the biggest manufacturer of gadgets in the world, Shenzhen has radically changed in half a century. A Chinese region which once had less than 300.000 inhabitants, today has millions. It is said that this city could have over 20 million inhabitants, but that is something difficult to estimate due to the high number of commuters. Indeed Shenzhen is incessantly growing; driven by its buoyant economy, the city is becoming one of the main business centres in China.

Its fast-paced environment is characteristic of Shenzhen. Indeed, this is evidenced in the velocity in which new products can be not just manufactured but also created and launched to the market in this region. Because Shenzhen is no longer just a poor manufacturing city, it is becoming a place for innovators. That being so, “The maker movement” is the best example of what can be done by its unquenchable work force. Employees at manufacturing factories have learnt a lot from churning out gadgets for notorious brands. And although at first they had just been using that knowledge to produce cheaper copies of these gadgets, it did not take long for them to realise what they were capable of. Today, numerous inventions are launched every month in Shenzhen, a city driven by incessant “makers”.

Using large companies’ creations as the base for their own creation allowed manufacturers to thrive. Because the use of existing products to improve them or come up with new stuff is part of “The makers movement”. However, not everybody welcomed this movement with enthusiasm. Large corporations like Samsung, Apple and so on received it as a threat. If truth be told, these employees are using corporations’ intellectual property for their own benefit, something not allowed in Western countries. Nevertheless, there is nothing to be done to stop these outsiders who are now calling western entrepreneurs attention. Tech corporations know the importance of adaptability in this industry. Fighting against something that seems to be the new tendency is wasting precious time that can be used for adaptation. In fact brands like Apple or Microsoft are embracing the idea of Open Source which allows consumers to be more than users, and to become creators. And at the same time Open Source makes it easier for companies to find new ideas, because these are given directly by their customers.

What started in Shenzhen as a way to survive, producing forgeries could become a point of inflection for the tech industry, in which established brads had to choose between competing or partnering mere individuals thinking outside the box.

I wrote this post based on a very interesting documentary from The Wire. Here is the link: Shenzhen: The Silicon Valley of Hardware (Full Documentary) 

Silicon Valley

Well known for its entrepreneurial people and internationally recognised as the place where many of the most innovative corporations in the world were founded, Silicon Valley is the most vibrant and always changing south area of San Francisco. For Twitter addicts, this is where the famous blue bird was born, while for tech lovers, it’s where Apple engineers do their magic in order to bring to life new iPhones, iPads, Macs and so on every year. In essence, everybody has their own idea about Silicon Valley but it goes without saying that it’s the place where the entrepreneurial spirit we know today was born. Something that could not have happened in any other city but in San Francisco, the most open-minded city in the U.S .

San Francisco has its very characteristic vibes. It is not just the Californian weather and the beautiful landscape that makes it special; that’s something you can find in many other places, however, what is unique about the Californian city is its creative and hard-working community. San Francisco is full of movers and shakers willing to spend one entire week working under pressure with no sleep at all. Entrepreneurs there are emotionally attached to what they do and they are eager to do whatever it takes to change the world.

This translates to the disposition of investors to finance new ideas, even the craziest ones. This is one of many reasons why entrepreneurs from all around the world travel to San Francisco. They know in this city it is relatively easy to find a business angel craving for new ideas to invest in. Adventure capitalists permeate the idea of taking risks and with more than 3 start-up events every day, it is more than easy to find new partners. Another reason for foreigners to spend some time around Silicon Valley is to share ideas and get advice from experienced entrepreneurs. In a place where they may find the solutions to their project’s flaws from the CEO of a large corporation or an Apple engineer.

San Francisco gives entrepreneurs all the tools needed to succeed, but as easy as it is to open a new start-up in Silicon Valley, it is to shut it one down. The main difference between San Francisco and any other city in terms of entrepreneurship is the risk taking nature of its people. While in the rest of the world the tendency to avoid risks prevails, in this American city they do not want to put creative people off. In conclusion, as it’s related on this interesting documentary Welcome to Silicon Valley , Silicon Valley it is not just a place, it is a state of mind.