I believe he/she means that, while it's important to have quality infrastructure in place (fun locations, decent food, good pipes) to support startups and tech,

I believe he/she means that, while it's important to have quality infrastructure in place (fun locations, decent food, good pipes) to support startups and tech, it's absolutely critical to have a small group of hackers which actually DO things. Otherwise it's just theatre. The jury is still out on whether one comes before the other or vise versa.