Loïc muses – Global Or Die: Is There A Future For Local Startups?

Loïc wrote a great article (with video) on global thinking for start-ups, with a ton of great tips (link below).

But, I think he’s being a bit narrow-minded about the death of local internet services.

In many ways he is right that being a copy-cat who makes a localized version of a global service is not an easy task anymore. Nonetheless, I do think there’s a future for local startups. Indeed, I think hyper-locality is the where a lot Web growth is. Much like social media is breaking down the power of Mass Media, I think we need to realize that in some segments, it pays to be local.

For example, a yellow pages or classified service, really does best with a local presence. A media service that is local would do better than some global service.

Just as mass media no longer is for everyone, not every service is at its best if global. Yet, it’s just hard to scale globally with a local business. Web-heads like to add servers, not people, to grow the company.

I know some people who are creating great local services that are not copy-cats and will do well specifically because they are local. Do you know of any?

Link: Global Or Die: Is There A Future For Local Startups?

My friend Loic Le Meur wants to convince startups to avoid the lure of focusing only on local markets. He asked to write the guest post below, which I think is worthy of debate.

*Also, Loïc’s a great example of someone who realizes the tyranny of Silicon Valley, that the Valley really is the only place in the world to run a tech business. I’ve railed against that tyranny, me not being from the West Coast. But, the past few years has shown some growth in cities like New York and Boston in the mobile and Web space. Also, I don’t know if it’s just because I have so many tweeps from there, but lately a lot seems to be happening in London, too. That’s good.