Brighton Rocks as Multimedia Startup Central ?

Was chatting about this article in the NYT about Seattle becoming a Startup Hub and how it may apply to London, when Will McInness made the point - why not Brighton?

Why not indeed.......

The NYT article shows the core requirements for a startup Hub:

The University of Washington, in fact, is one of the big draws. It is fostering the entrepreneurial climate here the way Stanford University does in Silicon Valley. Another advantage is the tech-savvy talent at the Seattle-based Amazon and nearby Microsoft.

Microsoft offshoots, sometimes called Baby Bills, after Bill Gates of Microsoft, are being joined by Amazon progeny called Baby Jeffs, for Amazon’s Jeffrey P. Bezos. Baby Sergeys — those formed by veterans of Google, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., and was co-founded by Sergey Brin — are opening here, too, Mr. Etzioni said.

The influx of entrepreneurs and of venture capitalists to bankroll them is slowly reshaping this city and a regional economy long buffeted by the booms and busts of the aerospace and timber industries. A start-up ecosystem needs social networks, support businesses and a business culture that views failure as a badge of honor, not shame. All of that is in place in Seattle.

Universities, Offshoots, Entrepreneurs and....money.

This maps to what we've seen previously, a summary analysis we made after Paul Graham's talk at FOWA 07 was:

So...Four things London needs to be a startup hub:

- A skill cluster in the city that forms a first market for startups
- Access to bold investors
- F2F contact networks that are "always on"
- Access to smart, ambitious people from wherever

To these I'd add (based on research I've seen elsewhere) top class universities, infrastructure that is Good for Geeks

My observation is that the Brighton "big bandwidth multi-media" scene is buzzing thanks to a very networked entrepreneurial community and very strong policies from the local development agencies.

I don't know if the local Unis are emulating Stanford in any way, so thats one to check off - could be a major driver, but there is certainly a big opportunity for local development / university collaboration.

The big thing now is to get The Money interested in being down there - maybe offer them a discount if they park their Yachts in the local Marina