Skip to main content

Business superstar come to Wales

Excellent evening at the Cardiff Business Club last night with Michael Moritz, a Cardiffian who helped to develop Google and Yahoo and who is rated as one of the top venture capitalists in the World.

One of the best quotes about him is the quote from one of the US techie websites which states

"He's Welsh, so he's always dressed a bit more snappily than the normal tech layperson, which is a good thing".

Obviously the writer has never met the First Minister!

Michael Moritz gave a poignant and thought-provoking speech about how the world had changed since he left Wales in 1973. Perhaps the biggest shock of the evening was his statement that YouTube - currently worth a small fortune - was only started two years ago and that Google was just over 400 months old!

According to Moritz, one of the most important lessons for Wales is to invest in its young scientists and encourage physics, chemistry and maths in our schools as that is where the future super start-ups will come from.

I wonder where I have heard that before? :)

It was a pleasure to hear wise words from someone who knows what he is talking about and I hope that the politicians gathered at his feet last night will finally take notice.

As he said, it is no longer California which is the only place to do high tech business and it could happen anywhere in the World, including Wales. All we have to do is to put the building blocks in place to do something about it.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I heard that no-one senior from Finance Wales was at last night's event. Obviously they can learn nothing from someone like Michael Moritz
October 16, 2007 10:31 am
Mountjoy said…
There is a survey of Innovation in last week's Economist (at least, I think it is last week's but I'm not sure due to the Postal Strike), which gives some fascinating insight into the innovative North Carolina.

And also confirms that clusters, so beloved by the UK Government, RDAs and Devolved Administrations, are actually 'dead'.
October 16, 2007 12:40 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE CRACHACH

Unlike me, do you consider yourself part of 'the establishment' here in Wales?  As thousands gather for the Eisteddfod in Mold this morning, they will, according to some social commentators, not be participating in the greatest cultural festivals of Europe. Instead, they will merely be bit-part players in one of the annual gatherings of the great and good of Wales.  Unkindly, this set of the movers and shakers in Welsh society is known as 'the crachach' , and constitute a social class all of their own, dominating the educational, cultural and media sectors of Wales and allegedly looking down upon any outsider with new ideas, reinforcing mediocrity and failing to see beyond the limits of their own narrow experience.  They are said to live in a comfort zone that awaits the expected invitation to the next glass of chilled chardonnay and canapés, forgetting that due to their lack of leadership and drive, Wales remains firmly rooted to the bottom of the UK prosperity league ...
30 comments
Read more

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CREATIVE CLASSES

One of my favourite academic books of the last two decades must be the “Rise of the Creative Classes” by Professor Richard Florida.  This was one of the first detailed studies of the growing group of individuals who use their creativity and mental labour to earn a living and not only included those in arts and entertainment, but also people working in science and technology as well as knowledge-based professions such as healthcare, law, business, and finance.  Fast forward to 2022 and Professor Florida has written an updated report on the creative classes although he and his team now identify a different type of individual who is taking full advantage of the growth in digital platforms, social media, and online marketplaces.  Such ‘creators’ are defined as those who use digital technology to make and publish unique creative content, whether in the form of video, film, art, music, design, text, games, or any other media that audiences can access and respond to.  They ...
Read more

GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP MONITOR WALES 2022

How entrepreneurial is Wales? That is the question that the latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) attempts to answer in its latest report which investigates those involved in early-stage entrepreneurship i.e. starting and managing a new business.  This year’s results show that the rate of total early-stage entrepreneurship (TEA) in Wales in 2021 was 10.3% as compared to 11.5% for the UK. This is significantly higher than the previous year (6.5%) and means that around 192,000 adults aged between 18 and 64 are involved in entrepreneurial activity in Wales.  Nearly three quarters are in the very early stages of starting a business and the rest involved in managing a new business aged between 4 and 42 months old.  This is an important finding as not only is the overall rate of entrepreneurial activity in Wales increasing but this is largely accounted for by those starting a business. In this respect, it is critical that the right support mechanisms are in place to ensu...
Read more