Peter Thiel is a startup investor and an agitator at the same time. In an interview, the billionaire now rails against conformism in Silicon Valley – and has bad news for Berlin.
Paypal founder and billionaire Peter Thiel has again swung the verbal lobe against Silicon Valley. “The likelihood that the next Google will ever be found anywhere in Silicon Valley, is significantly less than 50 percent,” said Thiel in a long conversation with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
Peter Thiel etches against the Silicon Valley
According to the 51-year-old, the most innovative valley in the world has lost many of its unique advantages for many years. “There were the network effects at every turn. There was this high intellectual intensity and diversity.
There were good people just waiting to get started, entrepreneurs, investors, innovators. And there was this incredible speed, especially as far as consumer-oriented Internet companies are concerned.
The situation has changed drastically in recent years, “explained Thiel. In the meantime, founders could start their companies anywhere in the US and get the money they need. The once positive network effects in Silicon Valley would also have “turned into their opposite, indeed downright perverted”.
Above all, this is due to the conformity in the Californian region. The wisdom of the many has turned into the stupidity of many. “The intellectual, but also the political conformism in Silicon Valley is screaming. To keep it clear – I have to say it in German: The heads are the same. One says what the other says, so as not to offend, “says Thiel, who moved to Los Angeles last year.
“Berlin shows symptoms of inertia”
However, the investor also has bad news for the Berlin start-up scene. Although Thiel has participated in the past in some startups from the federal capital. For example, at the smartphone bank N26 or the tax portal Taxfix.
Whether further investments will follow, however, is questionable. “I’m less optimistic about Berlin today than it was a few years ago,” Thiel told the newspaper. “The German capital already shows symptoms of inertia. Berlin has to seriously ask itself – does it want to be a place where young, ambitious people go to make a difference, or does it want to be a place where young people move to retire at an early age? You can not do both. ”
t3n says: Peter Thiel is right when he says that Silicon Valley has lost many of its exclusive locational advantages. Especially since many reasons no longer want to and can not support the horrendous rents.
But: That the next Google, therefore, does not come from Silicon Valley – now Mr. Thiel, maybe it’s already there? Peter Thiel is right when he says that Silicon Valley has lost many of its exclusive locational advantages. Especially since many reasons no longer want to and can not support the horrendous rents.
No less than 32 unicorns arose in the region last year alone. For example, the e-cigarette startup Juul. Rating: $ 33 billion.
Also published on Medium.