What does it take to be the next Silicon Valley? Talent, money and 'crazy people' - CNET

"Tech is going to be involved in every single facet of our lives," explained Niamh Bushnell, Dublin's first commissioner for startups, "so if you want to have an economy in wherever it is that you live, you need to be encouraging and nurturing startups. You can build it with the right policy and the right culture."

Retuing to Dublin after 16 years in New York, Bushnell identified some aspects that Dublin shares with the Big Apple, a leading hub for business and technology. Those similarities include a density of companies, a "can-do culture" and a cluster of enterprise-focused firms. In fact, Bushnell describes Dublin as a bridge between the US and Europe because of both its location and the presence of Amazon, Google, Facebook and Microsoft's European headquarters, thanks to Ireland's generous tax laws.

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One obvious universal element any prospective startup hub needs, apart from a supply of investment capital from venture capitalists or govement funding, is talent. A pool of smart people with smart ideas actually starting companies is the foundation of any startup scene.

Those entrepreneurs can either be locals benefiting from education in technology and business, or they can be people from elsewhere attracted to a welcoming startup culture. Drawing in the latter is a priority for Amsterdam in the year ahead, by way of a European startup Visa for people coming from Brazil or the US to get involved with startups in Europe.

It's not just a technology-focused culture that attracts wannabe entrepreneurs to a fledgling hub. Frederic Oru of French accelerator Numa cites the food and fashion of Paris as important elements of its thriving startup scene. "For entrepreneurs it's really important to have a place to live and grow," he said, "with a way of life that's interesting."

And one of the strengths of the Dutch startup scene is that "Amsterdam is full of crazy people", according to Sigrid Johanisse of StartupDelta, a govement initiative to encourage entrepreneurship. "You need an open-minded culture," she said, in order to encourage an entrepreneurial spirit prepared to take risks and try different things.

Some cities are hotbeds because they're lucky enough to be located at the heart of a major market. Moscow is one example. "You have to be in Moscow if you want to be in the Russian market," said venture capitalist Pavel Bogdanov. "The Russian market is a large market -- more people online than in any country in Europe, more people with smartphones than any country in Europe."

And in more good news for enterprising Russians, their comrades seem to favour homegrown companies. "Russia is peculiar because it somehow is resistant to global champions," said Bogdanov. In Russia, homegrown search engine Yandex is far more popular than Google, for example, while indigenous social network VKontakte dwarfs Facebook.

That said, Bogdanov stresses that it's important for players in the startup scene to look beyond even the biggest local market. "No country can afford to just be centred on itself," he said.

It's not just startups themselves that need to be encouraged in order to make a city successful. "You need young people with talent and an entrepreneurial spirit," said Coelia Yzer, Berlin's senator for economics, technology and research, "but what you also need is an administration with an entrepreneurial spirit, that brings hurdles down so people with a good idea are not blocked."

That extends both to local govement and bigger established companies that could become partners or clients of startups, in what Bogdanov described as a win-win situation for both smaller and larger groups.

Local govement and big companies can also help by thinking ahead to new technology like 5G.