Yesterday I got to visit entrepreneurship centers in both super famous universities in Cambridge: Harvard University and Massachussets Institute of Technology... I've already read and heard a lot about both professors I was about to meet, and was very impressed - impressive bios, nowhere close to any of Czech academians... So I may finally find definitive answers to my questions about what drives entrepreneurship and how to create entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Czech Republic...
My first meeting was at Harvard Business School and started at 07.15am... I thought it was common in Harvard to start the day so early, but when I arrived (taxi, of course) it litterally seemed I was the only person on the campus - which is BTW a beautiful set of Georgian buildings on the Boston side of the Charles river (unlike the rest of Harvard University which is across the river in Cambridge)... Professor Lerner explained to me that it was not normal starting as early, but it was really the only time he could meet me, and I felt very grateful he did...
Professor Lerner seemed especially interested in the question of the ecosystem, and reminded me that although most of Silicon Valley people don't like admitting it, that ecosystem actually could be created due to governmental funding and support... The roots go back to the beginning of the 20th century and generous funding of research (mainly high-tech for military use) of the government... The unfortunate thing is, says professor Lerner, that most of the governmental funding is wasted, misused or used ineffectively, unfortunately the history showed us that creation of any innovative and entrepreneurial ecosystems had to be also supported by the government - see examples of Israel, Singapore, San Diego... This for me was a very interesting observation as I have always been rather opposing governmental influence, but it seems (from what professor Lerner said) that there is no viable example of ecosystem withought governmental support...
Also, he mentioned an assignment for his MBA class back in 1992 which was put together in cooperation with one of rich Jewish family offices - the class was supposed to do a market research for Brothman, how to design a fund of funds which would invest in venture capital in Israel... The recommendation of the students at the end was NOT to do the fund (although they discovered many reasons to do it, they thought it would still last many years before the market would be ready)... They were wrong... The family office went ahead and started the fund (they even offered some of the students to work for the fund, which they all declined), in the same year as the Israeli government started also a fund which would invest in VC, they invested in some of the pioneering VC fund managers, and became very successful... The ecosystem was accelerated enormously, also thanks to the governmental support...
The story of Israeli ecosystem of innovations, entrepreneurship and venture capital can be found for example in this interesting study...
Finally, professor Lerner outlined a 3-point action plan of how he recommends to go forward with a VC fund in the Czech Republic:
My first meeting was at Harvard Business School and started at 07.15am... I thought it was common in Harvard to start the day so early, but when I arrived (taxi, of course) it litterally seemed I was the only person on the campus - which is BTW a beautiful set of Georgian buildings on the Boston side of the Charles river (unlike the rest of Harvard University which is across the river in Cambridge)... Professor Lerner explained to me that it was not normal starting as early, but it was really the only time he could meet me, and I felt very grateful he did...Professor Lerner seemed especially interested in the question of the ecosystem, and reminded me that although most of Silicon Valley people don't like admitting it, that ecosystem actually could be created due to governmental funding and support... The roots go back to the beginning of the 20th century and generous funding of research (mainly high-tech for military use) of the government... The unfortunate thing is, says professor Lerner, that most of the governmental funding is wasted, misused or used ineffectively, unfortunately the history showed us that creation of any innovative and entrepreneurial ecosystems had to be also supported by the government - see examples of Israel, Singapore, San Diego... This for me was a very interesting observation as I have always been rather opposing governmental influence, but it seems (from what professor Lerner said) that there is no viable example of ecosystem withought governmental support...
Also, he mentioned an assignment for his MBA class back in 1992 which was put together in cooperation with one of rich Jewish family offices - the class was supposed to do a market research for Brothman, how to design a fund of funds which would invest in venture capital in Israel... The recommendation of the students at the end was NOT to do the fund (although they discovered many reasons to do it, they thought it would still last many years before the market would be ready)... They were wrong... The family office went ahead and started the fund (they even offered some of the students to work for the fund, which they all declined), in the same year as the Israeli government started also a fund which would invest in VC, they invested in some of the pioneering VC fund managers, and became very successful... The ecosystem was accelerated enormously, also thanks to the governmental support...
The story of Israeli ecosystem of innovations, entrepreneurship and venture capital can be found for example in this interesting study...
Finally, professor Lerner outlined a 3-point action plan of how he recommends to go forward with a VC fund in the Czech Republic:
- Entrepreneurial Outreach & Education
- Building Attention and Buzz, create a Topic out of VC
- Start with Seed & Attention Rounds
I will certainly think about it, thanks professor...
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