Come on, you're getting pedantic. Hacker News and its participants should be better than that. > Are you saying you don't need luck if you locate to Silicon V

Come on, you're getting pedantic. Hacker News and its participants should be better than that. > Are you saying you don't need luck if you locate to Silicon Valley??? He's saying you're less dependent on luck for success if you're in SV. The mean of the "success" probability distribution is shifted towards the right. > IF the opposing argument was actually that you must be in Silicon Valley to be successful, then even one opposing datapoint invalidates that argument. Nobody reasonable is saying you MUST be in the Valley. They're saying it makes it considerably easier than being anywhere else on the planet. > If you're doing something fashion related, for example, you might be better served to be in NYC, London or even LA. Again, we're speaking about all tech startups in general. Nobody is saying there aren't occasional exceptions. > Beyond that, the higher cost of living, increased competition for technical talent, etc., could be reasons a given startup would be better off not being in the valley. The higher cost of living is not a reason to definitely not be in the Valley (though it can be a factor). You can learn to live frugally if being an entrepreneur is that important to you. And the Valley is the best place for technical talent (among other things important to startups).