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This 100 times. It seems that people confuse the term "Silicon Valley of X" with "overindexing in tech relative to expectations." I have worked in tech in NY,

This 100 times. It seems that people confuse the term "Silicon Valley of X" with "overindexing in tech relative to expectations." I have worked in tech in NY, SF Bay Area, and LA. While all three geos were perfectly suitable for launching and running a startup, nothing comes even close to the experience of working in the SF Bay Area. There are many facets to this, but here's a very simple litmus test: take a meeting with a local VC and benchmark their behavior and expectations.

long_time_gone 5y ago
This is the cynical view. In the generous view, other governments are studying the environment that led to the creation/success of Silicon Valley in the first place. Most often, they use Michael Porters framework on "Clusters" to analyze [0] how and why certain geographies have advantages in certain industries. The focus is on marshaling public infrastructure/incentives, private investment, and skills/education to create critical mass in a certain field. Indeed, this article mentions the impact of multiple government programs. Your tech example comparing NY/LA to SF is the direct inverse of comparing the film industry in LA to SF, or finance in NY to SF. Those cities have their own clusters and vastly outperform in those industries. NY and SF also have good universities minting new engineers and lots of wealthy individuals to invest in those people. They would be silly not to attempt and foster a "new" Silicon Valley based on their specific strengths (look at biotech in Boston for the perfect example). [0] https://hbr.org/1998/11/clusters-and-the-new-economics-of-competition https://hbr.org/1998/11/clusters-and-the-new-economics-of-co...
- jacquesm 5y ago
  You can study all you want but that won't change the reality on the ground: Silicon Valley has a head start that will be hard / impossible to overcome within the next 50 years at a minimum, and any country that has such aspirations would do well to realize this and to aim for something they can actually achieve. On top of that, even if you are successful in getting a world-class start-up off the ground in another location (random pick: Stockholm), how are you going to stop SV to buy out the founders and the investors and then proceed to reap the bulk of the returns? This is the problem.
  - long_time_gone 5y ago
    Instead of reflexively dismissing, lets look at actual results. For a way to foster a new industry, we can look at Berlin. SAP is one of the largest software companies in the world and also headquartered in Germany (not Silicon Valley). One of their initial founders, Hasso Plattner, has created the Hasso Plattner Institute [0] in Berlin (Potsdam, really). The Institute's focus has been primarily on business processes and software to analyze and improve those processes. Two of that institutes startups have been acquired in the past 6 months. Appian buys Lana Labs [1] SAP to Acquire Signavio [2] EDIT TO ADD: Before Silicon Valley was the heart of innovation, it was New Jersey and Upstate NY. Things change and governments are wise to invest that way. [0] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjhyd6T1KnyAhUFK80KHbOHCNUQFnoECAMQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fhpi.de%2Fen%2Findex.html&usg=AOvVaw1GeoUUw8SH8aXLMamj3uoA https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c... [1] https://www.startbase.com/news/appian-kauft-lana-labs/ https://www.startbase.com/news/appian-kauft-lana-labs/ [2] https://www.summitpartners.com/news/Promoting-Process-Excellence-SAP-Acquires-Signavio https://www.summitpartners.com/news/Promoting-Process-Excell...
    - wumpus 5y ago
      That's two comments in a row where you've started off with an insult. And your data? TWO EXITS.
      - long_time_gone 5y ago
        We can disagree with what constitutes an insult. As for the data, I was just showing an example of the beginning of a potential process mining cluster. Alignment from govt, VCs, and Universities leading to academic research and new startups.
    - jacquesm 5y ago
      I've been looking in-depth at the actual results for the last 15 years professionally as an investor in Europe and a service provider to a very large fraction of the EU investment scene, and before that as an entrepreneur. Your proof amounts to absolutely nothing on the scale of any European country versus Silicon Valley and to claim that it does is risible, and does the EU a disservice. If you are serious about making a dent in this then the best way forward is to acquire some background knowledge on the difference in scale that you are looking at. It is quite possible to start a novel company in the EU. It is next to impossible to do so without either getting a much better funded and faster (and quite often better) executing competitor from the United States to come along and eat you for lunch, acquire you or woo your customers away with a 'free' plan that puts you out of business. That there are a few exceptions to that rule proves the rule, not the opposite.
santiagobasulto 5y ago
For me, as an Argentinean visiting NYC, LA and SF, the overwhelming “superiority” of SF in terms of entrepreneurship was seen in the small details. Like riding a bus and siting next to someone that was coding their startup (real example). Or driving a few miles south and visiting a biology/lab in a garage (also real example). The VCs and all that is probably true. But the air you breath on SF is different.
- vikramkr 5y ago
  Its funny that you feel you have to specify that those are real examples, since those (especially the person coding on the bus) are just such obviously common things that nobody in the bay would even think those might be made up examples.
  - France_is_bacon 5y ago
    Right. To anyone in the Bay Area, it's no big deal. But anywhere else, it don't happen.
France_is_bacon 5y ago
Right. The vibe in the SF Bay Area, is just amazing in terms of tech companies. I'm in LA now, and "Silicon Beach" in Venice and Santa Monica is an utter joke compared to the entire Bay Area. Silicon beach is a few square blocks, whereas the entire Bay Area is awash in tech, no matter where you go. Silicon Valley is entirely geared around tech. You can find anything and anyone there. It is the same as Los Angeles to movies. You can't beat LA, because they have been doing it 100 years and have a zillion companies backing it up - all the little companies. There are oodles of movie industry lawyers, talent agencies, accounting firms, all geared to specifically the film industry. Are you going to be able to find 10 law firms in Silicon Valley or Chicago or Miami that deal exclusively in the entertainment industry? No.
- Overton-Window 5y ago
  Unfortunately it falters in every other measure.
  - France_is_bacon 5y ago
    how so?
CRConrad 5y ago
> It seems that people confuse the term "Silicon Valley of X" with "overindexing in tech relative to expectations." Isn't that the primary definition of "Silicon Valley" nowadays?

long_time_gone 5y ago

This is the cynical view. In the generous view, other governments are studying the environment that led to the creation/success of Silicon Valley in the first place. Most often, they use Michael Porters framework on "Clusters" to analyze [0] how and why certain geographies have advantages in certain industries. The focus is on marshaling public infrastructure/incentives, private investment, and skills/education to create critical mass in a certain field. Indeed, this article mentions the impact of multiple government programs. Your tech example comparing NY/LA to SF is the direct inverse of comparing the film industry in LA to SF, or finance in NY to SF. Those cities have their own clusters and vastly outperform in those industries. NY and SF also have good universities minting new engineers and lots of wealthy individuals to invest in those people. They would be silly not to attempt and foster a "new" Silicon Valley based on their specific strengths (look at biotech in Boston for the perfect example). [0] https://hbr.org/1998/11/clusters-and-the-new-economics-of-competition https://hbr.org/1998/11/clusters-and-the-new-economics-of-co...

jacquesm 5y ago
You can study all you want but that won't change the reality on the ground: Silicon Valley has a head start that will be hard / impossible to overcome within the next 50 years at a minimum, and any country that has such aspirations would do well to realize this and to aim for something they can actually achieve. On top of that, even if you are successful in getting a world-class start-up off the ground in another location (random pick: Stockholm), how are you going to stop SV to buy out the founders and the investors and then proceed to reap the bulk of the returns? This is the problem.
- long_time_gone 5y ago
  Instead of reflexively dismissing, lets look at actual results. For a way to foster a new industry, we can look at Berlin. SAP is one of the largest software companies in the world and also headquartered in Germany (not Silicon Valley). One of their initial founders, Hasso Plattner, has created the Hasso Plattner Institute [0] in Berlin (Potsdam, really). The Institute's focus has been primarily on business processes and software to analyze and improve those processes. Two of that institutes startups have been acquired in the past 6 months. Appian buys Lana Labs [1] SAP to Acquire Signavio [2] EDIT TO ADD: Before Silicon Valley was the heart of innovation, it was New Jersey and Upstate NY. Things change and governments are wise to invest that way. [0] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjhyd6T1KnyAhUFK80KHbOHCNUQFnoECAMQAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fhpi.de%2Fen%2Findex.html&usg=AOvVaw1GeoUUw8SH8aXLMamj3uoA https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&c... [1] https://www.startbase.com/news/appian-kauft-lana-labs/ https://www.startbase.com/news/appian-kauft-lana-labs/ [2] https://www.summitpartners.com/news/Promoting-Process-Excellence-SAP-Acquires-Signavio https://www.summitpartners.com/news/Promoting-Process-Excell...
  - wumpus 5y ago
    That's two comments in a row where you've started off with an insult. And your data? TWO EXITS.
    - long_time_gone 5y ago
      We can disagree with what constitutes an insult. As for the data, I was just showing an example of the beginning of a potential process mining cluster. Alignment from govt, VCs, and Universities leading to academic research and new startups.
  - jacquesm 5y ago
    I've been looking in-depth at the actual results for the last 15 years professionally as an investor in Europe and a service provider to a very large fraction of the EU investment scene, and before that as an entrepreneur. Your proof amounts to absolutely nothing on the scale of any European country versus Silicon Valley and to claim that it does is risible, and does the EU a disservice. If you are serious about making a dent in this then the best way forward is to acquire some background knowledge on the difference in scale that you are looking at. It is quite possible to start a novel company in the EU. It is next to impossible to do so without either getting a much better funded and faster (and quite often better) executing competitor from the United States to come along and eat you for lunch, acquire you or woo your customers away with a 'free' plan that puts you out of business. That there are a few exceptions to that rule proves the rule, not the opposite.

santiagobasulto 5y ago

For me, as an Argentinean visiting NYC, LA and SF, the overwhelming “superiority” of SF in terms of entrepreneurship was seen in the small details. Like riding a bus and siting next to someone that was coding their startup (real example). Or driving a few miles south and visiting a biology/lab in a garage (also real example). The VCs and all that is probably true. But the air you breath on SF is different.

vikramkr 5y ago
Its funny that you feel you have to specify that those are real examples, since those (especially the person coding on the bus) are just such obviously common things that nobody in the bay would even think those might be made up examples.
- France_is_bacon 5y ago
  Right. To anyone in the Bay Area, it's no big deal. But anywhere else, it don't happen.

France_is_bacon 5y ago

Right. The vibe in the SF Bay Area, is just amazing in terms of tech companies. I'm in LA now, and "Silicon Beach" in Venice and Santa Monica is an utter joke compared to the entire Bay Area. Silicon beach is a few square blocks, whereas the entire Bay Area is awash in tech, no matter where you go. Silicon Valley is entirely geared around tech. You can find anything and anyone there. It is the same as Los Angeles to movies. You can't beat LA, because they have been doing it 100 years and have a zillion companies backing it up - all the little companies. There are oodles of movie industry lawyers, talent agencies, accounting firms, all geared to specifically the film industry. Are you going to be able to find 10 law firms in Silicon Valley or Chicago or Miami that deal exclusively in the entertainment industry? No.

Overton-Window 5y ago
Unfortunately it falters in every other measure.
- France_is_bacon 5y ago
  how so?

CRConrad 5y ago

> It seems that people confuse the term "Silicon Valley of X" with "overindexing in tech relative to expectations." Isn't that the primary definition of "Silicon Valley" nowadays?