2 ms·
Silicon Valley isn't really a place. Plenty of people come here for a "tour", but there isn't actually a single place in the bay area you can visit to see Silic
by iamwil 6y ago
Silicon Valley isn't really a place. Plenty of people come here for a "tour", but there isn't actually a single place in the bay area you can visit to see Silicon Valley in action.
(Before Covid) It just has a high density of three groups of people that you need for a startup ecosystem. Founders, Students, and Investors. It's actually the high density network of people interested in the same thing.
YC's geographic location is a proxy for this high density network. This high density network was a necessary, but not sufficient condition for YC's success today at the time the decision was made. The post is about what else PG and Jessica added on top of the necessary conditions.
Just as you can't pull a startup out of a market that doesn't want it, you can't pull an accelerator out of a city that doesn't have the network for it.
- ericd 6y agoTo your point, I always thought of Red Rock and Coupa as the most physical manifestations of Silicon Valley, since you can see a bunch of teams brainstorming, others pitching VCs, etc. The personification of the network you're talking about. But yeah, SV the place is mostly boring suburban and office park sprawl.
- iamwil 6y agoYeah, I guess it's as close as you can get, even though people come here for tours of facebook or google. You can usually tell who the investors are and who the founders are at Red Rock or Coupa. The one leaning back is the investor, usually.