

Can You Build a Startup Ecosystem Outside the Valley? - matbalez
http://www.instigatorblog.com/can-you-build-a-startup-ecosystem-outside-the-valley/2007/08/09/ 

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umjames
Didn't Paul Graham already cover this in his essay "How to Be Silicon Valley"
(<http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html>)?

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byosko
Looks like it. Still, something I had to write from my own perspective working
at the center of the Montreal startup scene (or trying to!) and comparing that
to the Valley.

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samb
the technology park/corridor concept won't make it happen. building a "funky"
building and slapping the incubator tag on it doesn't work. i belive it can
only happen organically. you can't force it. it's not like making soup.

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sabat
Agreed. One of the reasons it works here in SF CA is because of the type of
people we attract -- and have been attracting for 150+ years. Do-it-
yourselfers, iconoclasts, vagabonds, that type of person. Twain, London, those
guys. Seriously. It takes an adventurer to want to build a startup, and for
whatever reason, CA attracts those types.

Obviously that's not the only reason, but I think it's a factor.

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parker
So, the secret is a high bohemian ratio?? Man, I've gotta start eating
organic. :P

But I totally agree, you've got to be a certain personality type to start a
startup, and that kind of eccentricity usually finds a way of conglomerating
together. That culture certainly does propagate itself; I know where I live,
it's almost a taboo to start something yourself. I've never been to SF yet,
but I get the feeling that it espouses a completely different kind of
philosophy?

