

How to build a tech startup outside of Silicon Valley - obsaysditto
http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/11/how-to-build-a-tech-startup-outside-of-silicon-valley/

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bhousel
Offtopic, but I hate this trend of articles titled 'How to..." where the
article don't actually tell you _how_ to do anything. It seems like there have
been a lot of these articles lately. Is it an SEO thing?

Another noiseword title I've learned to avoid is, "What we learned from..."

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iamdave
I like your phrase 'noiseword', as it sums up a lot of the internet in the
last few months. Sites like eHow and other content farms are destroying search
IMO by constantly producing homogenized 'how to' articles with no real
content.

Sort of like filling up on bread. It very well may be an SEO thing.

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JoeAltmaier
Yes, there's more angel money these days but the investors outside tech hubs
are naieve. They have to be educated, they have a long tedious investment
cycle, the friction is just enormous.

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jasonfried
How do you build a tech startup outside of Silicon Valley? You start one. Just
like any other business.

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acconrad
I was going to say "with a computer" but you pretty much drove the point home.

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thewordpainter
I think it's important to note that david brussin's thoughts are primarily
geared towards secondary markets. As an entrepreneur who runs a startup out of
a _quarternary_ market (athens, ga), i can assure you that we would be
benefitting a lot more from having the valley resources at our disposal.

i tend to make a trip to atlanta (secondary?) every week, but the resources
only stretch so far. atlanta may have a VC presence, but the angels are few &
far between.

i'd also say that the biggest problem with most secondary markets is they
don't cover the entire gamut of industries. talking from my own experience,
atlanta is a B2B town with a heavy emphasis on areas like security. if you're
running a B2C startup (like we are at <http://gorankem.com>), i'd almost
encourage the entrepreneur to not waste any time seeking money in GA.

overall, the biggest advantage the valley has over all the other markets is
the connections. personally, i could deal with the competition for talent
because i like to think that we have a stronger product. i shake my head at
some of the _ideas_ getting funded.

the wisdom in the tech community that is being transferred in SF on a daily
basis cannot be touched.

for that reason & many more, if anybody has a couch to sleep on come this
summer, i may be looking for one...

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drndown2007
I'd love to know what the success and failure percentages are for Silicon
Valley startups. I'm sure there are overall higher successes in raw numbers,
but in per-VC dollar invested, or per-developer capita, I'm skeptical.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like most of the startups I hear about these
days are just CRUD apps aimed at some social niche. Those can be built
anywhere, and don't require rockstar programmers.

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lincolnpark
You can start a tech company anywwhere outside Silicon Valley. The problem is
its harder to scale a fast growing company.

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corp
Agree. And the articles refers to other emerging tech entrpreneurship hubs
(secondary markets) that make it possible to start a company and take
advantage of the established ecosystems.

If you are not in a city where such ecosystem exists, you could probably start
building a prototype there but as soon as you need to scale up (financially,
hiring, or other) you will probably need to start networking or moving a city
that has one.

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obsaysditto
Relevant (has also been posted in the past to HN):
[http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/09/yes-
phlboschisea...](http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/blog/2010/09/yes-
phlboschiseanycbltxyz-does-web-startups.html)

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mbertrand
Couldn't agree more. While Silicon Valley still has the upper hand on
available talent, capital etc. there is steep competition for all of it.

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known
I'd suggest you to check social/economic/cultural aspects outside Silicon
Valley and then plunge.

