The conversation that you're either starting a company in SV or not seems silly. Of course you can start a company in most civilized places in the world, people

The conversation that you're either starting a company in SV or not seems silly. Of course you can start a company in most civilized places in the world, people do it all the time. Case-in-point the article above. Plenty of industry defining tech companies started outside of the valley too. Microsoft up in Redmond, Commodore in West Chester Penn, AOL in Reston VA, and so on. The point I never see talked about with conversations like this is, should you? You can find plenty of data points that say you can and you absolutely can. It's the, does your idea and execution path make sense for the location you're setting up at. Some of the worlds top talent for tech are located in SV and that's why so many companies are here fighting for them. We're told, we need the best of the best to stay competitive and execute. If your product doesn't need a concentration of world class product managers, designers and engineers, then don't waste your time here competing for that talent. You'll have a much easier time finding talent elsewhere and for less money. For me, an engineer, I chose SV because I didn't want to be the best person on my team. I wanted to be surrounded by people who are 10x smarter than I am and learn from them.