I think being around large numbers of people exchanging good ideas facilitates innovation faster, but that certainly doesn't mean that there aren't great ideas

I think being around large numbers of people exchanging good ideas facilitates innovation faster, but that certainly doesn't mean that there aren't great ideas in rural North Dakota. Passion, inspiration, and motivation are the most important things regardless of where you are, but luck seems to play a bigger part in places like New York or Silicon Valley. I also think location can be crucial to success for companies like foursquare, where it has the chance of a much faster adoption rate in a large city like New York.