Sam Adams: Successful startup is the joint effort of government and IT sector

On December 12 Yerevan hosted Empowering Ideas Global Forum, organized by World Learningin cooperation with the US Embassy in Armenia and with financing from the US State Department.

Itel.am talked to one of the forum speakers Sam Adams, Manager for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Invest Atlanta.

- Atlanta is on the 65th place on Innovation Cities Index 2015. What is the formula of a successful innovation city?

- I think the idea of collaboration between governments, large companies and startups is where we see a lot of success. They can’t make a startup successful, but they can keep startups being successful. Governments need to recognize that supporting startups is critical to economic growth and that in the digital economy if you are not supporting startups you are effectively discouraging them from being successful. Moreover, you are encouraging them to go elsewhere. Supporting the startups helps keep them where they started.

- Do you think the US government gives that support to US startups?

-I think that the support varies from locality to locality. It’s a focus of Atlanta to try and be very outspoken for our support for startups. That’s why my role was created – Manager of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Invest Atlanta.

We wanted to have a dedicated resource that was exclusively focused on how we create a supportive and competitive economy for our startups and then use our startups to make us a better city for all.
We want foreign startups to think about Atlanta as a place that they can do business. We pair startups with local incubators, work very closely with incubators. We organize startup exchanges, thus creating relationships and bridges with foreign cities and foreign incubators to grow business in both sides.

When we look at Silicon Valley, Austin or Denver, they are all trying to reorientate their support to startups.

-Do you think it is better to get the Silicon Valley model to the region, or it is unique and something else must be made here?

-I think that Silicon Valley is an incredibly old model. It dates back to the 60s and 70s. And so the idea of trying to become a Silicon Valley which has now been build up for 40-50 years is difficult. I think that a more useful exercise is trying to understand what the opportunities are for thestartup community here in Armenia.

For instance, agriculture is quite developed in Moldova, but not many people think about agriculture in tech. But tech can be implied to anything. Instead of trying to be the Silicon Valley of Moldova, there is an opportunity there to focus their tech development on agriculture.

It’s easier to understand the opportunities of the local market and use the components of the Silicon Valley – funding, creativity, acceptance of failure. Those can be goals of any local economy.

-What negative consequences can come from trying to apply the Silicon Valley model?

- The dark side is trying to be something that you can’t be. When Atlanta was trying to figure out what we were going to do, we kept saying 2-3 years later we would be a new Silicon Valley of the South, and that’s impossible. Setting goals that can’t be reached ultimately will lead people to discouragement and failure. So you need to look at what works and try to be realistic. I don’t think anybody’s going to be the next Silicon Valley but that doesn’t mean others are not going to be successful.

Startup founders want to work on something that they like. If you are making sure that you’re doing better at achieving those goals than you were yesterday, you’re heading in the right direction. And just because this year you’re not Silicon Valley, doesn’t mean you don’t have value.

-Do you think the US market is the best one for international startups?

- I think for European startups Europe is probably going to be the best market and the reason for that is that there are plenty of strong startup of communities in Europe and the government regulations, the trade, even some cultural aspects that have very real impact on startup success are more similar here than if you were to come to the U.S.

I’m a huge proponent of startups traveling and learning from others in other places, but if I werebuilding a startup here in Armenia and I needed to go one place, I wouldn’t automatically pick the USA because it has Silicon Valley. I would go somewhere where startups are doing something similar to me because it’s always easier when people understand your business.

-Any advice for Armenian startups?

-Look at IT ecosystem as a community. That can be anything from weekly drinks with otherpeoplein startupcommunity who understand what you’re going through to conferences like this. Creating that sense of community and support is huge.

Building a company is an incredibly difficult thing and being around people that are doing what you’re doing helps. It also helps to celebrate each other’s success.

Second one would be look for mentors, people who understand your work. In startup community it’s always about giving back, helping the next one.

Narine Daneghyan talked to Sam Adams