There is “no value in an idea” and technology start-ups should stop being obsessed about protecting their ideas and rather focus on how they build their businesses through proper execution.

That’s the view of Simone Brunozzi, technology evangelist for Asia-Pacific at Amazon Web Services, the cloud-computing provider owned by Amazon.com. He was speaking at last week’s Tech4Africa conference in Johannesburg.

“The real value,” Brunozzi says, “is in how you execute on your ideas and how, along the way, you adapt to new learnings and new discoveries. This is how you become a successful start-up. It’s not the idea you have.”

Rather, he believes other factors, such as the environment in which start-ups operate, play a much bigger role in whether or not technology start-ups succeed.

“You’re more likely to succeed if you’re living and working in an environment where other start-ups are trying to do similar things in the same field,” he says. “If you are doing something in the mobile space or the Web space, then it’s good to cross-pollinate with people in the same space.”

Brunozzi says that unlike developed markets such as Europe and the US, where people are reluctant to start new ventures because of the dire economic conditions, there is an optimism across Africa that is feeding into a start-up culture and this is “setting the stage for real change” on the continent.

“Optimism is the main thing,” he says. “Whenever I meet people in Europe or the US, I don’t see much of it. However, when I meet people in Africa I always see this incredible energy. There’s a willingness to do something, to change things.”

Brunozzi says Africa has become a “much more interesting place to do business” in recent years, with places such as Cape Town and Kenya becoming hot spots that are attracting interest from venture capitalists. “They’re setting up shop in these places because they see plenty of opportunities.”

However, he cautions that start-ups in Africa and other emerging markets often don’t think big enough to be truly successful. Their businesses aren’t designed for scale and so they end up serving relatively small markets. Brunozzi says African start-ups need to think bigger than simply serving local markets. — Duncan McLeod, TechCentral