Lots of countries in the hemisphere want to create their own version of Silicon Valley, including Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Costa Rica and even Guatemala. Doing so requires people, education and infrastructure. All of these countries are looking for the right mix on those fronts.
It needs the right government incentives and investments as well as the willingness of governments to step back and reduce red tape and bureaucracy for these companies. Most startups fail and no investor or entrepreneur wants to spend 3-6 months doing paperwork to create a company that may or may not last a year.
However, it also takes a culture of risk-taking, and that is something that Latin America needs to accept and build. Many of the people in the region who went to the best universities or come from the wealthy families don't want to start something that might fail. What's seen as a mark of experience in the US Silicon Valley is seen as a terrible black spot on the resume of a Latin American 20 or 30-something who is applying for a job.
Even more than the US, it's also a paperwork heavy culture, in which the degree is more important than the experience. While many programmers dream of building the next Apple, Microsoft or Facebook, an anecdotal survey from a Latin American university suggests that no student would consider leaving to start his or her own business. What is a risky proposition in the US, but one that someone can bounce back from, is truly career suicide in this region.
The infrastructure, education and government incentives are important and governments must invest in those areas to succeed if they dream of creating a technology hub. However countries in this hemisphere also need to address the culture issue. How do they make failure acceptable? How do they students who dream bigger than the degree? How do they encourage the best people and those with the best ideas to take that risk?
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