4 ms·

I don't think one is possible, to be honest, because the circles of the venn diagram simply dont intersect: - organic pipeline of talent. Typically a universit

I don't think one is possible, to be honest, because the circles of the venn diagram simply dont intersect: - organic pipeline of talent. Typically a university or two within commuting range. Generally needs a city. Hence, SF/SJ, but potentially also Paris, London, Berlin etc. - access to capital at all stages of life. Its not enough to seed or do class A, you need investors and ppl who understand the game for a decade or more. Maybe London. Maybe Berlin. Pre-crackdown HK perhaps. Definitely SV. - Tolerance for failure, pivot to new opps, etc. I cant think of any Euro investing community that is as tolerant as the US. - a large, culturally unified market on your doorstep. Frankly this is the US, China and India and absolutely not the EU/UK. The Single Market is intellectually unified but not culturally unified. X in Greece will never be like X in Germany. I'd love to see a multi polar SV universe, but I just cant see it happening anytime soon. I can see alternatives to SV in the US, such as Seattle and NYC, but we are not quite there yet and SV had unique advantages in its early years (1965 to 1975) that would be very hard to replicate now.

aaronwalker 4y ago
In the US, do you think that Silicon Valley will always be the center of innovation? These past couple of years the population of the Bay Area has been on the decline, but rising tech areas such as Seattle (https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/surprise-seattle-was-the-fastest-growing-big-u-s-city-in-2020/#:~:text=Seattle’s%20population%20grew%20by%20about%2016%2C400%20from%20July,among%20the%2050%20most%20populous%20in%20the%20U.S https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/surprise-seat....) and Austin haven’t been increasing in population as much as SF has been decreasing (https://neeva.com/search?q=sf%20population%20decrease&src=nvobar https://neeva.com/search?q=sf%20population%20decrease&src=nv...). I know population isn’t everything but it is a proxy for where the perceived opportunity is.
- kjellsbells 4y ago
  not the center of innovation, but def the center of gravity post innovation and facing the market. for example, lots of original innovation coming out of clusters around the US (self driving in MI, energy in Houston), but when it comes time to get beyond seed or class A, those founders are going to feel an incredibly strong gravity towards SV. I wont say never, but network effects make tbe gravity well of SV hard to ignore. Seattle is maybe the only other place I woukd think of as having enough capital to get out of the well.

aaronwalker 4y ago

In the US, do you think that Silicon Valley will always be the center of innovation? These past couple of years the population of the Bay Area has been on the decline, but rising tech areas such as Seattle (https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/surprise-seattle-was-the-fastest-growing-big-u-s-city-in-2020/#:~:text=Seattle’s%20population%20grew%20by%20about%2016%2C400%20from%20July,among%20the%2050%20most%20populous%20in%20the%20U.S https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/surprise-seat....) and Austin haven’t been increasing in population as much as SF has been decreasing (https://neeva.com/search?q=sf%20population%20decrease&src=nvobar https://neeva.com/search?q=sf%20population%20decrease&src=nv...). I know population isn’t everything but it is a proxy for where the perceived opportunity is.

kjellsbells 4y ago
not the center of innovation, but def the center of gravity post innovation and facing the market. for example, lots of original innovation coming out of clusters around the US (self driving in MI, energy in Houston), but when it comes time to get beyond seed or class A, those founders are going to feel an incredibly strong gravity towards SV. I wont say never, but network effects make tbe gravity well of SV hard to ignore. Seattle is maybe the only other place I woukd think of as having enough capital to get out of the well.