El Mercurio | The five leading companies in market capitalization in the US are Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), and Facebook. All of them were funded with entrepreneurial capital (VC: Venture Capital). Each was conceived to create value appreciated by consumers worldwide and grew exponentially on a global scale. Amazon was founded in 1994. Within 10 years, it was generating US$ 7 billion in revenue. In 2020, it recorded US$ 386 billion in revenue. What’s truly remarkable is that compared to 2019, its revenue grew by US$ 106 billion, which is 15 times what it achieved in its first 10 years. That’s exponential growth!
In 2010, the VC industry in the US invested US$ 32 billion. Within just 10 years, it quintupled its annual investment.
The oldest VC fund managers in the market have already surpassed 70 years of operation. The leaders of these successful financial companies have learned from their predecessors and continue to learn to identify very early on which companies will create the most attractive future markets. They’ve learned to invest in the best teams of innovators, who in their early years need entrepreneurial capital to survive as a company while developing their respective technological solutions to address relevant global problems.
Traveling by train along the 70 kilometers between San Francisco and San José in Silicon Valley, California, one can see the transformative power of the duo “Innovative Talent + Entrepreneurial Capital.” Along this railway stretch, one can observe the physical facilities not only of the five leading corporations in the US market capitalization ranking but also of thousands of emerging and vibrant technological startups fueled by entrepreneurial capital to conquer the world. This journey demonstrates the transformative power that entrepreneurial capital and innovative talent exert over a particular territory.
In 2010, Silicon Valley attracted US$ 11 billion in investments, 33% of the total VC invested in the US that year. In 2020, Silicon Valley attracted only 22% of the total US investment, but the US$ 34 billion invested last year in these 70 kilometers of territory tripled what was invested ten years earlier.
Success breeds imitation. In 2020, 78% of US entrepreneurial capital was invested in various other territories besides Silicon Valley. Boulder, Miami, New York, Seattle, and others are territories that are learning very quickly from the San Francisco Bay Area. This new transformative power is also reaching Chile.