> I suspect a lot of this is due to California's employee-friendly laws that prevent non-compete agreements and prevent "we own every thought you have" intellec

> I suspect a lot of this is due to California's employee-friendly laws that prevent non-compete agreements and prevent "we own every thought you have" intellectual property assignments. Nah - Funding comes, by definition, from people with money. The coasts are much wealthier than inlands. Hence, more funding. Founders often agree to really draconian terms - they're not going to Cali for employee protection laws. There's currently lots of technology and funding in Silicon Valley, so founders and investors both go there. It's cyclical - if there was as good of an environment with less regulation and laws, it'd attract even more. Actually, there are examples of that: recent example #1 is the crazy-fast ascent of Ireland into a European key business center, and Dubai built from desert nothing wasteland into grandiose world finance center is recent example #2. Edit: Also, no one actually enforces noncomps unless things end in a nasty way. Then it's just a tiny bit of leverage if things already went south. If you don't go to a director competitor in a hostile way during the noncomp period, employers don't care. And if the duration or geography isn't very concise, they're invalid in court. Non-comp not such a big deal. Intellectual property assignment is serious though.