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The problem is that "tech" isn't an industry. It's a set of tools used by other industries. John Deere is "tech". As is Two Sigma. And Wal-Mart and UPS (logist

The problem is that "tech" isn't an industry. It's a set of tools used by other industries. John Deere is "tech". As is Two Sigma. And Wal-Mart and UPS (logistics). See also NYC quantitative trading firms. And East Coast biotech. Silicon Valley tech is mostly centered around specific types of consumer products, especially fremium and ad based internet businesses. That's not even close to being the only kind of technology or software out there.

djrogers 8y ago
> Silicon Valley tech is most a specific type of consumer tech, mostly focusing on fremium internet centric businesses. Not even close to being true. There are a handful of big companies in that area, but there are tons of others that aren’t. Enterprise startups flourish in SV - SFDC, Workday, Palo Alto Networks, ServiceNow, Splunk... Just a handful very successful startups that are all uber-unicorns.
- humanrebar 8y ago
  The point wasn't to typecast SV as much as broaden what counts as tech. Defense contractors make lasers mounted on jets. It's absolutely "tech" and not something we wonder about being exclusive to Northern CA.
- nostrademons 8y ago
  Not to mention 23andMe, Genentech, Palantir, Apple, Cisco, Seagate, NVidia, Lockheed Martin, etc. I somewhat agree with the grandparent - tech is a lot more than just consumer Internet tech. And yet there's a useful distinction there - once tech is more than about 10-15 years old, it ceases to be considered "tech", because it either dies out or becomes big enough that it gets its own label. United Airlines (another SF company) was some fantastic technology - in the 1920s. Now, it's just an airline, because we've gotten used to the ability to fly through the air and cross the country within a few hours. And I'd say that Silicon Valley has an advantage in "tech" (i.e. innovations that are < 15 years old) in that a.) it has a culture that's open to the next new thing instead of assuming it's a threat to the natural order and b.) has a large number of service providers that are all eager to find & support that next new thing and c.) has a legal framework that prevents past employers from stopping you from going off and starting the next thing.
  - realityking 8y ago
    Isn't United a Chicago company? They obviously have a major hub in San Francisco but otherwise I don't think they have any connection to the SF Bay Area.
    - nostrademons 8y ago
      Oh, you're right. They have a hub at SFO which also does a lot of aircraft maintenance (Wikipedia says it's the principal Global MRO base for United), and they're also one of the largest employers on the peninsula. But the actual corporate headquarters is in Chicago, and supposedly the actual predecessor airlines were founded in places as diverse as Seattle, Boise ID, Washington DC, etc.
akiselev 8y ago
South SF is the second largest hub for biotechnology and pharma in the US (if not the world) behind Boston metro, Oakland is the sixth largest (IIRC) port in the US, and the San Jose area is an important hub for high value add manufacturing (aerospace, defense, robotics, medical devices, etc). I've even heard it claimed that after the fall of Detroit, San Jose metro became the top manufacturing region in the western hemisphere by total revenue (although I don't know how to evaluate that). Just a little south and you've got a rapidly growing agtech hub thats been around for decades too. Freemium and ad based businesses are actually just a tiny fraction of the tech companies operating out of the SF Bay Area. You just dont hear about the other ones because they're not as shiny, new, or have ridiculous risk/reward profiles.
- randomdata 8y ago
  > You just dont hear about the other ones because they're not as shiny, new, or have ridiculous risk/reward profiles. But doesn't that suggest that tech is found everywhere, not just in the Valley, but we simply don't hear about it?
harimau777 8y ago
Most of that technology requires a significantly different skill set than what people generally mean when they say "tech" so I'm not sure if it really makes sense to group them together for this purpose. In my experience the set of tools used by different industries isn't the same. I moved to SF because I wanted to do web development using modern tools like React and Node as opposed to Angular 1 and Java servers.
twtw 8y ago
> fremium and ad based internet businesses And the actual silicon businesses. Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Cypress, Broadcom Limited, Marvell, Xilinx, ...
gaius 8y ago
That is the dirty little secret of “silicon roundabout” or even worse “silicon beach” in the UK. There’s no actual tech there, just various tech-enabled ad and marketing firms.

djrogers 8y ago

> Silicon Valley tech is most a specific type of consumer tech, mostly focusing on fremium internet centric businesses. Not even close to being true. There are a handful of big companies in that area, but there are tons of others that aren’t. Enterprise startups flourish in SV - SFDC, Workday, Palo Alto Networks, ServiceNow, Splunk... Just a handful very successful startups that are all uber-unicorns.

humanrebar 8y ago
The point wasn't to typecast SV as much as broaden what counts as tech. Defense contractors make lasers mounted on jets. It's absolutely "tech" and not something we wonder about being exclusive to Northern CA.
nostrademons 8y ago
Not to mention 23andMe, Genentech, Palantir, Apple, Cisco, Seagate, NVidia, Lockheed Martin, etc. I somewhat agree with the grandparent - tech is a lot more than just consumer Internet tech. And yet there's a useful distinction there - once tech is more than about 10-15 years old, it ceases to be considered "tech", because it either dies out or becomes big enough that it gets its own label. United Airlines (another SF company) was some fantastic technology - in the 1920s. Now, it's just an airline, because we've gotten used to the ability to fly through the air and cross the country within a few hours. And I'd say that Silicon Valley has an advantage in "tech" (i.e. innovations that are < 15 years old) in that a.) it has a culture that's open to the next new thing instead of assuming it's a threat to the natural order and b.) has a large number of service providers that are all eager to find & support that next new thing and c.) has a legal framework that prevents past employers from stopping you from going off and starting the next thing.
- realityking 8y ago
  Isn't United a Chicago company? They obviously have a major hub in San Francisco but otherwise I don't think they have any connection to the SF Bay Area.
  - nostrademons 8y ago
    Oh, you're right. They have a hub at SFO which also does a lot of aircraft maintenance (Wikipedia says it's the principal Global MRO base for United), and they're also one of the largest employers on the peninsula. But the actual corporate headquarters is in Chicago, and supposedly the actual predecessor airlines were founded in places as diverse as Seattle, Boise ID, Washington DC, etc.

akiselev 8y ago

South SF is the second largest hub for biotechnology and pharma in the US (if not the world) behind Boston metro, Oakland is the sixth largest (IIRC) port in the US, and the San Jose area is an important hub for high value add manufacturing (aerospace, defense, robotics, medical devices, etc). I've even heard it claimed that after the fall of Detroit, San Jose metro became the top manufacturing region in the western hemisphere by total revenue (although I don't know how to evaluate that). Just a little south and you've got a rapidly growing agtech hub thats been around for decades too. Freemium and ad based businesses are actually just a tiny fraction of the tech companies operating out of the SF Bay Area. You just dont hear about the other ones because they're not as shiny, new, or have ridiculous risk/reward profiles.

randomdata 8y ago
> You just dont hear about the other ones because they're not as shiny, new, or have ridiculous risk/reward profiles. But doesn't that suggest that tech is found everywhere, not just in the Valley, but we simply don't hear about it?

harimau777 8y ago

Most of that technology requires a significantly different skill set than what people generally mean when they say "tech" so I'm not sure if it really makes sense to group them together for this purpose. In my experience the set of tools used by different industries isn't the same. I moved to SF because I wanted to do web development using modern tools like React and Node as opposed to Angular 1 and Java servers.

twtw 8y ago

> fremium and ad based internet businesses And the actual silicon businesses. Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Cypress, Broadcom Limited, Marvell, Xilinx, ...

gaius 8y ago

That is the dirty little secret of “silicon roundabout” or even worse “silicon beach” in the UK. There’s no actual tech there, just various tech-enabled ad and marketing firms.