Duncan Logan, Founder of San Francisco based tech accelerator Rocketspace is building what he likes to call “the ultimate tech eco-system”.
The Scottish born entrepreneur set up Rocketspace in the tech capital five years ago and has hosted over 800 companies, 16 Unicorns ($1Billion+ Valuation) and a further 33 companies worth over $100m (£76.5m), including tech giants Uber, Spotify, Leap Motion and Hootsuite.
Described as “the stock exchange of tech”, Duncan focuses on quality above all else, with startups first being judged on the quality of their investors - requiring them to have some level of seed funding, a signal which indicates to Rocketspace that they are no longer building a “lifestyle business”.
In addition to the office space and network, startups joining Rocketspace can receive help with fundraising, connections to professional services, access to their corporate partners and can take advantage of their Industry Accelerator Program.
International expansion is next on the horizon for the Scottish-Silicon Valley entrepreneur, having just secured $336M (£225m) from China’s HNA Group to fuel their growth. Having initially set out to raise $50m, HNA Group felt that figure lacked ambition, leading them to invest over 6x more money resulting in the largest single investment from a Chinese based investor into a US company.
Rocketspace is using the funds to initially open new campuses in London and China in 2017.
Duncan is scheduled to be in Scotland this November for the UK’s leading gathering for entrepreneurs, the Startup Summit 2016 (SUS16). The Rocketspace founder will join a range of international entrepreneurs, executives, investors and media at #SUS16 taking place on 14th November in Edinburgh.
As Edinburgh and Scotland drive forward in it’s effort to foster the growth of startups and position itself as a hub for talent, we’re bringing Duncan over to talk about his success in creating a thriving tech eco-system and his international plans.
Maybe a Rocketspace Scotland in the future? Who knows.