Duncan Logan, Founder and CEO of RocketSpace (Photo: Moneycab)
Interview by Helmuth Fuchs
Duncan Logan, Founder and CEO of RocketSpace, on the following topics in the interview:
- On the ingredients for the success of RocketSpace
«It’s the quality of who’s around. When we have a lot of high quality companies, it attracts other high quality companies and that becomes a spiral for success.»
- On the possibilities to infuse a startup mindset into established companies
«Corporations come to us from one of two sides: Fear or greed. If it’s fear, they talk about disruption, if it’s greed, they talk about innovation. The irony is, they are exactly the same things.»
«Corporations really appreciate the speed and agility startups have and how aggressively they go and innovate.»
- On the selection of the „right“ companies to nurture
«Every company that comes to RocketSpace must be funded. That means we can look at the quality of the investor in many cases.»
- On the main characteristics of successful companies
«If there is any consistent trend amongst the companies that are highly successful it’s the founder’s focus on hiring and the team.»
- On the currently most promising technologies
«We are seeing a lot more Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality companies. Also Funding platforms like Crowdfunding, Peer-to-peer lending are seeing good traction.»
- On the chances of Zurich being the next Silicon Valley
«The RocketSpace model is to have on RocketSpace in every key technology location around the world. Zurich is definitely on that roadmap.»
- On which business he would start with unlimited resources
«I have a real passion for drones.»
Duncan Logan
Duncan was born and raised near St. Andrews, Scotland and began his professional career working in derivatives at Swiss Bank Corporation in London. At 24, he started his first company, CITYPRO International, which he built to $8 million in revenue over a three year period, before selling to ASAP Plc in 2000, where he went on to become group managing director. In 2002, Duncan joined MessageLabs, an early SAAS security company, which he helped to build until it was sold to Symantec in 2008 for $700 million. He made the move to San Francisco in 2008.
Duncan is a good skier, an average runner and on weekends can be found renewing his frustration with golf.
RocketSpace
is a technology campus located in the heart of San Francisco. Since 2011, the company has been helping tech entrepreneurs, startups and corporate professionals bring the future to market. The company offers services to its members including programming, consulting, events, and office-as-a-service, which together create the perfect ecosystem and community for innovation to thrive. Select members and alumni include Uber, Spotify, Supercell, Influitive, Practice Fusion, Weebly, Geli, Accenture, Schneider Electric, Converse, British Airways, Goodyear, Tata Communications, Royal Bank of Scotland, Pfizer, Samsung, and AT&T. www.rocketspace.com
The interview took place at the WorldWebForum 2016
