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"second, there is a far greater level of information sharing between entrepreneurs here. Putting a sharper point on that second one: In New York City they ask
by aashaykumar92 13y ago
"second, there is a far greater level of information sharing between entrepreneurs here. Putting a sharper point on that second one: In New York City they ask you to sign NDA's, and in San Francisco we don't. And what may feel a bit risky for the one turns out to have a big positive benefit for the many.
I think this is such a huge, and excellent, point that most other "Why Silicon Valley is the startup hub" arguments miss. The idea of openness is simply taken for granted in the bay area while the rest of the world still lives in fear of someone stealing their idea if they say too much. And it goes beyond that. Two simple examples, both YC companies actually: Airbnb and FlightCar. I am from Pittsburgh but go to school in Ann Arbor. I've talked to friends from both cities about each of those startups and I get the same response every time, "But would you really give up YOUR place to a stranger?" or "Would you really want to give up your car to a stranger?" Airbnb takes me a little less convincing now that it is so successful but FlightCar, holy shit...I am told that I am way too trusting and quite crazy. So in whatever way you look at it, the sharing culture is something that is embraced in the bay area while the rest of the world is just starting to catch on to it.
Now that I mentioned that I'm from Pittsburgh, I'd also like to nix the 'Stanford is a great engineering school" argument as well. Why? Well because so is Carnegie Mellon--has boasted the #1 Comp Sci program in several rankings but Pittsburgh is galaxies away from the bay area in being a startup hub.
Playing devils advocate, however, I do feel that a city like Pittsburgh may also have the greatest chance of booming into one given that a great school such as CMU is based here. Look at it this way--right now, almost all CMU CS students interested in startups, whether their own or to be a part of one, want to get to get to the west coast. What if they all started to stay here? I think you'd naturally see a boom of startup culture here. Just a hypothetical thought/situation.
- minimaxir 13y agoRecent CMU alum here: the college is pushing startups very heavily. More and more tech companies are being founded in Pittsburgh as well.
- w1ntermute 13y ago> Now that I mentioned that I'm from Pittsburgh, I'd also like to nix the 'Stanford is a great engineering school" argument as well. Why? Well because so is Carnegie Mellon--has boasted the #1 Comp Sci program in several rankings but Pittsburgh is galaxies away from the bay area in being a startup hub. Right, it's not that CMU has a bad engineering school, it's just that Stanford is so close to Silicon Valley (and helped create much of it) that it holds greater prestige in the startup community. I don't think anyone looks down on CMU as far as getting a good education goes.
- akurilin 13y agoLuckily, these days you can get the best of both worlds @ sv.cmu.edu
- GuiA 13y agoI've signed a number of bullcrap NDAs in SF and the valley– small and large companies alike. This is just romanticizing the valley.
- dasil003 13y agoIt's a question of degree. Obviously there is still some secrecy (see Apple). But I can't argue with the general culture of information sharing being much more prevalent in SV than elsewhere, and I've spent my career split between Mountain View, Minneapolis, Santa Fe, and London, so I think my anecdote carries some validity.
- michaelochurch 13y agoI've signed a number of bullcrap NDAs in SF and the valley– small and large companies alike. Same here. In fact, the most obnoxious ones were from California companies. There was one company where I had a personal introduction (high school friend knew the CEO) and they still wanted me to sign an NDA just to take a damn coding test. (Not an NDA covering the coding test, but one that included a two-year nonsolicit.) I'm sure there are a lot of junior idiots who are that desperate for startup jobs; me, I told them to rightly fuck off (in nicer language). New York VC-istan may be worse, but California VC-istan seems to combine New York greed with California presentation, and that's just fucking dishonest. I have a lot more respect for people like traders, who are utterly greedy but completely honest about being so.
- hga 13y agoEchoing dasil003, perforce there is more sharing because non-competes are uniquely unenforceable in California.