The importance of global

We’ve heard that before. But it’s going to be even more important in the next decade, according to Niklas Zennstrom (co-founder Skype, recently sold for $3.1bn), in the most recent edition of Wired magazine. Zennstrom (who invests in almost 30 other start ups through his London based Atomico fund (which by the way recently raised $165m – he’s good isn’t he?) says ‘if you think globally from the start you’re better off’.

Playfish‘s Kristian Segerstrale adds to this by pointing to the advantage of a London (though one assumes this is more ‘non-US’) based start up being that they have to think globally from the start because the UK market ‘simply isn’t big enough’. He adds ‘these days it doesn’t matter for consumer internet firms where you are physically’.

The US has a great tradition of investing early in start ups, instead of offering up the statement ‘come back to us when you’ve got a million in revenue’. Something Europe could learn from? Combine that with the ‘forced global’ approach and that has to put Europe at a massive competitive advantage. As one entrepreneur in the Wired article puts it, ‘a million in revenue doesn’t sound like a start up to me’.