When it comes to change or innovation, the British are characteristically skeptical and morose. A BBC reporter even wrote about the issue last week: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-10665372 - The negative spirit in the UK is palpable after spending an extended period of time in the US.
We're realists. Yes totally - UK investors wouldn't plough millions into twitter but IMHO that's a very good thing.
I really don't see any negativity in the UK. Whenever I spend time in the US it just gets a bit much for me. The hype and endless over enthusiasm is a little sickly after a while. And at the end of the day, why do you need that sort of thing? It's absolutely no help whatsoever to be told you're awesome and that your idea is great all the time. I'd much prefer to be told that it sucks and won't work, but perhaps that is a difference in culture.
In the UK we as a culture are built on self deprecating humour, witty put downs. Sarcasm is extremely important to us. This is how we work. Perhaps some see it as negativity, but that's not the case.
Not to get into a war here, but there are lots of things the UK does far better than the US - telco, communication, transport, as well as (IMHO, subjective) quality of life.
We're realists. Yes totally - UK investors wouldn't plough millions into twitter but IMHO that's a very good thing.
I dread to imagine how dull the modern Web would be if America hadn't gotten on board. Britain's contributions to the social Web have been paltry (taking the population difference into account), and even leading lights like Last.fm and Nick Denton buggered off to the US. Anyone I know who was doing good work and got the opportunity to go to the US, did.
The hype and endless over enthusiasm is a little sickly after a while. And at the end of the day, why do you need that sort of thing? It's absolutely no help whatsoever to be told you're awesome and that your idea is great all the time. I'd much prefer to be told that it sucks and won't work, but perhaps that is a difference in culture.
I'll err on the side of preferring over-enthusiasm and undeserved hype to British under-enthusiasm and undeserved snarking and putting other people down any day of the week.
>> "It's the good old British "tall poppy syndrome""
That's absolutely wrong. It's nothing of the sort. We could argue about this all day though. The biggest motivator for me is to be told something sucks. People telling me something is great is no help whatsoever.
> It's entirely a cultural difference. It's the good old British "tall poppy syndrome"
You think telling a start-up with no revenue, no plans for generating revenue, and no obvious link from their offering to a revenue generation model that they aren't worth a multi-million investment is merely resentment of others' success? That's not so much a cultural difference as living on a different planet. :-)
You think telling a start-up with no revenue, no plans for generating revenue, and no obvious link from their offering to a revenue generation model that they aren't worth a multi-million investment is merely resentment of others' success?
Twitter was given as an example by the GP poster. Are we still talking about them? If so, it might not be resentment but it'd be a flat out lie. If Twitter were not worth investing in, they would not have been invested in. Several of the world's biggest VCs have not gone collectively crazy.
Twitter are NOT worth investing from if you take them in isolation. If you're investing in companies because you believe they will become big profitable companies then Twitter as an investment is quite absurd.
The only reason they ARE worth investing in is because collectively investors and would be acquirers believe they are.
Definitely investing in Twitter is a good bet because they'll likely get bought by some silly bigco.
> If Twitter were not worth investing in, they would not have been invested in. Several of the world's biggest VCs have not gone collectively crazy.
I am intrigued by your views and would like to subscribe to your newsletter. I would be particularly interested in any issues that discuss the dot com bubble circa 2000-2001, or anything with a sidebar on trying to destroy the entire global economy by lending money to people who had no realistic chance of paying it back circa 2007-2010.
