Way back in 1993, John Chambers, founder and CEO, JC2 Ventures had said, “We were going to change the way the world works, lives, plays, and learns.”
Today when asked what has changed between then and now, he said, “Nothing has changed. In other ways, everything has changed. Everything is occurring at a faster speed, everything is now going global.”
“In 1993, 60 percent of the world’s venture capital went into Silicon Valley but today, it is entirely global. There were no Unicorns in India or many other places in the world but today, India has 51, the US has 379. The available capital is the most I have ever seen in my career, whether it’s from the venture capitalists, whether it’s from the private equity groups moving into growth in technology, and it’s new for them. They have $500 billion on the sidelines. Stocks are very much an option for the future and the number of IPOs are starting to hit new all-time highs,” Chambers said.
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According to him, “What is also changed is it is truly global in terms of innovation. So whether you are in Delhi or Silicon Valley, or Boston or Paris, you see startups springing up with tremendous speed. The innovation this time, however, is coming more and more from the startups, in part because they have a view, not of this quarter or this year, like the large enterprise or service providers, do but they think five and 10 years out.”
“It took seven years for the average unicorn in India to become a unicorn. So you have to think about those types of timeframes. But bottom line, innovation has never been faster, there has never been more capital available, it is global, and it is truly as close to inclusive as we have ever had in terms of job creation,” said Chambers said.
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Watch the accompanying video for more