For the benefit of those who haven't read the actual article: "New York will never be Silicon Valley" is meant by the author as a compliment, not an insult. Re

For the benefit of those who haven't read the actual article: "New York will never be Silicon Valley" is meant by the author as a compliment, not an insult. Relevant quotes: Investors, founders and employees point to all the things that make New York one-of-a-kind as the reason tech is growing in America’s biggest city: the presence of other industries like finance, media and advertising, much more gender and racial diversity and the metropolis’s centuries-old status as a center of global commerce. New York provides a contrast to Silicon Valley, which has been criticized for tunnel vision, being insular, out of touch with the rest of the country and overly homogeneous–both company employees and the people for whom they create products. Instead of being dragged down or drowned out by New York’s well-established mega-businesses, startups are feeding off them, hiring their disaffected employees, building products to make them more efficient and partnering with them in ways that help both sides. “We wouldn't have been able to start our company with this scale anywhere other than New York,’’ says Ryan Williams, the chief executive officer of Cadre, a real estate investment startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz. Being in the center of finance gives the firm access to top Wall Street talent and helped it land $250 million to invest on behalf of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The proximity to major offices of many of the brands Zola sells through its site was a major benefit to being in the city, she says. Having the headquarters of top media and advertising companies a ten-minute subway ride away went a long way too “New York is a much better place for fostering women entrepreneurs and women in tech,” says Samuels, who worked in the industry on both coasts. Both Ma and Ferreira agree.