Time was, Silicon Valley was the place to found a tech startup. British tech entrepreneurs would up sticks, move to Silicon Valley and never look back. Today, things are different. Increased competition for talent and rising real estate costs have reduced the Bay Area’s competitiveness, while the UK has developed its own tech eco-system. Lanyrd and Songkick both returned to London after graduating from Y Combinator, whereas ten years ago, they may well have opted to stay in the Bay Area.

At the same time, the cost of international air travel has declined and new technologies have emerged that make it easier for geographically-distributed teams to work together. The end result is that it’s no longer an “either/or” choice. Startups can have the best of both worlds – access to both the Silicon Valley eco-system and the UK talent pool (which, thanks to the UK’s membership of the EU, extends across 28 countries, with a combined population of over 500m).

Huddle’s senior management team moved to San Francisco but the product and technology team remains in London. David Richards, CEO of WANdisco, opted to establish dual headquarters right from the beginning:

“It’s very difficult to hire lots of java programmers in Silicon Valley,” he explains. “They cost a lot and there are companies like Google and Facebook who have significant presence in the Bay area.”

“We looked at the UK to see if we could make it work having a programming resource in the UK – not just a support centre but actually making products. And we could. We’ve proved that it’s possible.”

We’re also seeing US-based players starting to take notice and recognise the importance of the UK. Last year Y Combinator decided to run a Startup School in London, while Techstars expanded into the UK and is now attracting FinTech startups from the US to take part in the Barclays Accelerator.

I believe that what we’re seeing is the growth of a trans-Atlantic startup eco-system. Founders should no longer be thinking about London versus Silicon Valley – they should be thinking about how they can take advantage of the best resources, opportunities and talent in both London and Silicon Valley.

This is one of the reasons I founded LDN2SFO – I think that one of the best ways to help London-based entrepreneurs is to expose them to the Silicon Valley eco-system so they can both learn about the culture that has made it so successful, and make connections with their peers there (and, in doing so, strengthen the links between the London and Silicon Valley eco-systems).

Our next trip takes place from April 27th to May 1st. If you want to join us, apply now.