

Is Silicon Valley Dead? - ssclafani
http://davetroy.com/posts/is-silicon-valley-dead

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wooster

      Everybody says that the big draw to San Francisco 
      is the weather. True, it can be pretty nice at 
      times. But it can also be pretty miserable.
    

I tuned out a bit after reading this. San Francisco has terrible weather
compared to Silicon Valley, and someone who doesn't know the distinction
between the two cannot, in my opinion, be taken seriously when sounding the
death knell of the entire region.

    
    
      Paul Graham said it best, “Silicon Valley is 
      soul-crushing suburban sprawl.” 
    

I lived in Silicon Valley for 7 years and didn't find it to be particularly
soul-crushing. It's a nice place to spend some time. It's a very nice place to
raise a family, if you have one (I don't).

It's great that startups are springing up all over the world, but that doesn't
mean Silicon Valley is dead. Silicon Valley doesn't have to lose for others to
succeed.

~~~
ardit33
oh, yeah. Well I live currently in Mountain View, and I find one of the most
boring places in earth (SunnyVale and Cupertino are worse), if you are a
single guy.

Just saying. The 20s are ment to have fun, get laid, drink booze, write some
code, then go out again. You wont be 20some again, it is a once in a lifetime
opportunity to enjoy life (and start something at the same time).

In here you are forced to live a suburbian boring life, even though you don't
have kids.

If you are married and have kids, you probably don't have any time anyway, so
boring is ok.

Everytime I go to work, I always think: Sigh, this place has such a great
weather, but unfortunately it is wasted with this boring sprawling burbs.

~~~
enjo
You'll be shocked when you turn 30 that you can do all of those things in your
30's (and I suspect your 40's, 50's, and on...)

:)

~~~
sandGorgon
thank you!

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rjett
The way this article is written makes it sound like the author has recently
bought into the Dave McClure pyramid scheme and he's supposed to tell 10
friends about the new, awesome system Dave has come up with.

Disclaimer: I'm not from the Valley and I haven't ever heard of Dave McClure.
He may very well be a reputable fellow in the angel investing world.

~~~
pvdm
He uses swear words a lot :)

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jasonlbaptiste
This is just a horrible article where the author has no first hand clue of
what he's talking about.

other startup communities can still thrive without the valley dying. If
anything that means the valley has succeeded. I want to see the essence of the
valley spread elsewhere.

So is there any way to prove that the valley is INDEPENDENTLY dying? Nope,
because it's not.

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natch
I can't figure out if this guy is an ignorant clown, a troll, or both.
Ridiculous arguments, like the one where he says startups don't get any
special advantage from the weather. Just because you're slaving away in a
cubicle, doesn't mean your family won't enjoy the weather... and the great
traffic on gorgeous highway 280... and the low crime rate... and the great
schools... and Fry's... and San Francisco... etc., etc.

~~~
hga
I always heard that one of the great advantages of the weather is that when
you exit your cubicle it's likely to be good (see rmundo's comment), which is
something I can assure you is not true of Boston (year around, at least).

In many parts of the country you have to plan your activities around the
weather, at least for parts of the year; I gather that's so much the case for
Silicon Valley.

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rmundo
"The reality is that the weather makes no f-cking difference if you are
slaving away 26 hours per day on your startup;"

No, no, no, no. Good weather days should to be common enough that I won't feel
deprived if I'm slaving in my office all day; it will be ready for me when
_I'm_ ready to take a break.

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mikeryan
3 words

Sand Hill Road.

~~~
mixmax
One of the points of the article was that entrepreneurs don't need VC since
it's become so much cheaper to do startups. Thus Sand Hill Road isn't as
important as it was.

~~~
mikeryan
No he said its easier to get to market without VC it removes VC's from "early
rounds". The need for VC to grow is still going to be needed for the vast
majority of new businesses.

"This effectively removes VC’s from the equation at these early rounds and
turns things over to angel investors"

Even then the point still stands even angel money is still easier to get in
Silicon Valley.

~~~
enjo
Those angels and Sand Hill VC's frequently invest outside of the valley tho.

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rbranson
It's funny, you read blog posts like this, and then you hear people like
Richard Florida talk about how the future is concentration of knowledge, not
distribution.

[http://www.theatlantic.com/special-report/the-future-of-
the-...](http://www.theatlantic.com/special-report/the-future-of-the-
city/archive/2010/05/the-path-to-recovery/56393/)

So who's right?

~~~
danielnicollet
I don't think there is necessarily a contradiction here. The article doesn't
say that knowledge is being distributed, rather that the creative
entrepreneurial mindset of the Valley is being distributed. I have worked in
software startups in the Valley, the UK, France, and Oregon for the past 15
years. I must say I would agree. But I think the author is exaggerating the
adverse competitive effect on the Valley the emergence of new tech centers is
having. I would like to see him give us some real evidence that the Valey is
suffering from it. I doubt it is just yet. There is plenty of growth potential
to go around for now...

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looprecur
No. First of all, a lot of startups still need to raise money. It may be
cheaper now than in 1998 but it's still not cheap to pay 2-6 people for 6-24
months. And getting users and customers does not necessarily equal
profitability.

What has actually happened in that there is a mismatch between investors and
VC. In '98, many investors were MBAs who were willing to take VC investment on
so-so terms because they wanted to eventually become VCs and they valued the
connections. In '10, they want to take a lot less money (because they need
less) on much better terms, and VC still hasn't adapted to that change.

But I cannot understate the value of having seasoned, risk-accepting, wanting-
to-change-the-world investors and entrepreneurs. Silicon Valley has a singular
advantage in this regard.

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w33dkid
All these "is Foo dead?" kind of topics are made to draw more attention than
the usual, even though they don't make sense or matter much in the context of
_now_

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sabat
No.

