#3 seems to assume that the end-goal of every startup is to get funded by a VC, and that just doesn't jive with me. #2 I'm not sure if San Fran even hosts that

#3 seems to assume that the end-goal of every startup is to get funded by a VC, and that just doesn't jive with me. #2 I'm not sure if San Fran even hosts that many startup conferences. More importantly, the whole model for conferences is broken. Which sane startup can consciously blow $1000+/person on a conference? I think over time, with the advent of conferences publishing the keynotes online anyway, and with more and more meetup groups, conferences will be a non-factor. #1 - I think its cool to be in a place where there are a lot of startups -- but if you really step back and take a look, I wonder how much collaboration (in real life) is actually happening even in NorCal. This is something we need to improve, and is certainly not something that is jiving even in Silicon Valley. I'd dare say that HN is having more real collaboration than San Fran iteself.