Despite Switzerland's reputation, and even arguably better conditions, relatively similar countries like Israel and Sweden have been running laps around Switzerland in the last 20 years when it comes to startups (possibly excluding pharmaceuticals). It might be, but I don't see why it would be different this time.
Sure (debatable, actually), and what's your point? Many countries have been running laps around other countries in many industries, what does it have to do with clusters?
You are saying that it is special because of the clustering, so I am wondering what indicates that? If you look at Sweden or Israel it is fairly obvious that they are successful in at least half a dozen areas. You can trace the path from one area or company to the next.
In Sweden Markus Persson who made Minecraft used to work at King. Jacob de Geer of iZettle was the first employee at TradeDoubler, which was founded by Martin Lorentzon who would later be a founder of Spotify. Daniel Ek of Spotify used to work at another gaming company and of course the music industry is large in general. Zennström who started Skype used to work at Tele2, a telecom operator. Klarna was started with help from people from Bluetail, which used Erlang in turn made by Ericsson. Etc. Etc. (This is just off the top of my head and all these companies had large exits or were already established).
That is what a successful cluster is and what makes them hard to replicate. Without this dynamic it is just a bunch of companies next to each other. So why doesn't Switzerland seem to have that?
parent is saying that clustering is magical in the relevant field of conversation -- here, Switzerland:drones, not startups or companies. In fact, Switzerland is a demonstration of lacking the clustering for successful companies and startups, just drone enthusiasm independent of that, and showcasing clustering as kind of a magical yet incredibly powerful thing, proving parent's point.
As I said a cluster is powerful when it produces these effects. Otherwise it is just a bunch of companies with nice titles waiting to go work in banking. Countries like Sweden have consistantly shown that their clusters are powerful by producing these effects. Switzerland hasn't so why should we assume that this "drone cluster" is powerful and not just another empty claim?
> You seem to think that technology equals "venture capital that shows up in the tech news".
The companies I mentioned all have had great real success. They have hired thousands and thousands of people and ended up selling for billions. This "drone valley" is exactly the "venture capital in the news" that you are talking about.
> you don't seem to know much about Switzerland as well.
Why wouldn't I know about Switzerland? We have already established that Switzerland has a great reputation and good conditions. Sweden and Switzerland have a lot of industries in common. Like pharmaceuticals, construction, chemicals and automation. The Google office is well know as is banking, watches and other large brands. ABB is even Swiss-Swedish and of course Kamprad used to live there. And yes, I have been to Switzerland. At least a half a dozen time over two decades and more counting stopovers in Zürich mainly going back from Hong Kong.
This just doesn't have much to do with the topic at hand. Many places have great technology, but fail to break into new areas. Which is what I have been saying that Sweden is probably worse on papper yet far more successful in this regard.
> Or why Switzerland is one of the world leaders in research?
Because of good schools, high salaries and dedicated people. Which is perfect for people who want to have a good career. Not necessarily for starting successful companies in new industries. If you haven't noticed it is rarely "the best" people who start startups. They have too much to loose. It is the restless, the dropouts, the migrants etc. If you read my previous comments you can see that I am pretty bearish about Sweden's future for startups as well.
My question is simple and I have asked it repeatedly i.e. what indicates that this "drone valley" will go anywhere? Don't blame me if you can't come up with an answer.
