This content was created by Tim Draper. This content was uploaded by Tim Draper. This is a YouTube interview titled "Why San Francisco | Founders Embassy Co-Founder, Anastasia Crew" (published May 29, 2019). The excerpt is an interview-style exchange between an interviewer (SPEAKER A) and Anastasia Crew, co-founder of Founders Embassy. Anastasia discusses lessons for international founders—urging them to "think big" and aim for global markets—explains why Founders Embassy is based in Silicon Valley (the culture of giving back, mentorship, and concentration of investment), and cites investment-size comparisons between the U.S. and other tech hubs.
You're sitting in a unique position where you get to watch as an accelerator, see founders and see these companies at really the beginning stage. What have you learned about entrepreneurship sitting kind of on the outside, being able to watch in?
I think one of the biggest things that I think we got to and still get to observe with international founders specifically is that they don't think big enough. And what I mean think big enough is they think within their home country, within their home region, within their home market. But when you come here, you're not just competing with the startups or companies from your own market, right? You're competing with the rest of the world. So your idea has to be big. It has to be applicable on the global scale. You have to be able to prove that, yes, you got your traction in your home market, but you can grow so much more and so much bigger. And you really have to believe in your idea, as I already told you probably, you know, too many times, but it's never enough. Um, so I think thinking big is very important when you come here, um, because if you don't think big enough, the VC is not going to write you that check because they, they essentially are in the business of returning money into their LPs, right? So they're not going to write you a check that's just going to work in a small local ecosystem because it's just not going to scale and not going to bring them So I think thinking big is one of the most important things that you can do, especially given different backgrounds, cultural differences, but it's very essential.
And so on that topic of thinking big, why was Silicon Valley or San Francisco in general the place you wanted Founders Embassy to be versus anywhere else in the world?
Yeah, that's a good question, but I think for us it's a pretty easy answer. The culture of Silicon Valley is so different than anywhere else. There's a lot of people, whether they're coming from a financial background like a VC or entrepreneurial background as a founder, they're willing to give back. They're willing to share the lessons that they learn along the way, give the tip and help to get the access to the resources that maybe they have, but the up-and-coming entrepreneurs don't have. But they will only do it if they see that you're passionate, if they see that you're fully committed. If you're kind of like half-assed and they're like, I'm not sure this, I think it's gonna work, that I think what I'm kind of doing, of course they're not gonna help you. But if you're really committed, they will. And I think that's the most important part. And that's one of the pillars that Founders Embassy is built upon, because we rely a lot on the thought leaders that teach those sessions to our entrepreneurs, that mentor them, that invest in them. Because neither Andy and I not doing talking or public speaking. We usually end up— so like being me here on stage, it's like a very abnormal moment for myself. We're usually in the background and we have our experts do the talking because those are the people that know exactly what the founders need because they've gone through the similar experience. So I think that just the Silicon Valley culture is one of the most important parts why we are being here. Another part is still Silicon Valley is an epicenter of investment opportunities, right? Compared to anywhere in the world. Even though right now a lot of people start talking like, oh, what's the next Silicon Valley? Silicon Valley is not like hot as it used to be. What about China? What about Shanghai or Beijing or Canada? And yes, there's a lot of amazing hubs and tech hubs that are growing and a lot of ecosystem and government support that are provided for startups, but still Silicon Valley, just purely by numbers, is much larger than anybody else. I think for the last 5 years, there was about over $140 billion invested in the US, and then second largest market is Beijing, which is 50% less, about $70 billion. So it's growing, but the gap is still huge. And just by building— and it's not just about money, right? It took a long time for Silicon Valley to become Silicon Valley. And that cultural aspect, I think, is just the core of it.
