World Is Flat part II

In yet another indication of how global the entrepreneurial world is becoming, our portfolio company, Imago, just acquired its primary competitor, an English company, while selling nearly half of its machines in Asia and Europe. Imago sells a mulit-million dollar 3-D atomic probe (atomic microscope).  (Congratulations Tim & team!)

Following up on yesterday’s post, when the day ended, people from over 80 cites had hit various posts with well over half coming from Europe and Asia.  You see this in online gaming where kids in Winnetka are playing against counterparts in Korea and China. Exciting times.

In the 1980’s, you could be the best regional company, selling your software, service or infrastructure into your area like the Midwest or California. In the 1990’s, the business became much more national in scope and now, it truly is a global marketplace. While this opens up large markets, it also adds complexity in managing your business. Clearly, as has been written extensively, the internet is only going to make this more so going forward. It will be interesting see if our friends in Washington push for a solution that drives the US to be a more competitive country (school reform, infrastructure, etc) or more towards protectionism. We will see…