The Secret to Building the Next Silicon Valley
Winner: Book of the Year, Gold Medal in Business & Economics, ForeWord Reviews
Winner: Small Business Book Awards
Winner: Independent Publisher Book Awards, Finance/Investment/Economics (Bronze)
What makes places like Silicon Valley tick?
Can we replicate that magic in other places?
How do you foster innovation in your own networks?
Discover the answers in this groundbreaking book from two of the world’s leading experts at the intersection of venture capital and global development. Victor W. Hwang and Greg Horowitt propose a radical new theory to explain the nature of innovation ecosystems: human networks that generate extraordinary creativity and output. They argue that free market thinking fails to consider the impact of human nature on the innovation process. This ambitious work challenges the basic assumptions that economists have held for over a century.
The authors argue that such ecosystems – what they call Rainforests – can only thrive when certain cultural behaviors unlock human potential. People in Rainforests belong to “tribes of trust” and follow a secret unwritten code: the Rules of the Rainforest. The theory of the Rainforest is influenced by several breakthrough ideas in academia, including insights on sociobiology from Harvard, economic transactions from the University of Chicago, design theory from Stanford, and the latest research in neuroscience and social network theory, among others.
With an unorthodox and entertaining narrative, the book reveals the mysterious mechanisms of Rainforests. Furthermore, the authors provide practical tools for readers to design, build, and sustain new innovation ecosystems. The Rainforest will transform the way you think about technology, business, and leadership.
How to Design Your Own Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is not a place; it’s a mindset. The Valley’s ecosystem is fueled by culture, connectivity, and creativity. But can you recreate that ecosystem elsewhere? Can you inspire innovation to transform your own organization?
Find out in The Rainforest Blueprint: How to Design Your Own Silicon Valley. It’s a lively, colorful, practical guide for putting the lessons learned from Silicon Valley to work in businesses, organizations, and communities around the world. It’s a concise introduction to the Rainforest phenomenon that is now spawning innovation ecosystems on six continents.
The Rainforest Blueprint is a do-it-yourself sequel to the 2012 book The Rainforest: The Secret to Building the Next Silicon Valley, the groundbreaking work by Victor W. Hwang and Greg Horowitt that explains the nature of innovation ecosystems like Silicon Valley: human networks that generate extraordinary creativity and output. They make the case that such ecosystems – which they call Rainforests – can only thrive when certain cultural behaviors unlock human potential, and they reveal the mysterious mechanisms of Rainforests.
The Rainforest Blueprint by Victor Hwang, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and co-founder of T2 Venture Creation, is designed for a different audience than the original Rainforest. Where the earlier book provides the framework of how Rainforests work and the rules by which they operate, The Blueprint offers practical steps for putting those theories and rules to work in businesses, organizations, and communities. Sixty six pages long, as compared to the earlier book’s 304 pages, The Blueprint provides – with stunning visuals and handy tools – the shared background needed for individuals to create together an innovation ecosystem in whatever setting they choose. The book provides a common entryway into the world of innovation ecosystems, a shared starting point, and a way to begin to create innovations that can be truly transformational.