

Greylock’s Henry McCance On Why Firm Moved to CA and How Boston Needs Its Google - robertbud1
http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2010/07/26/greylock%E2%80%99s-henry-mccance-on-why-the-firm-moved-its-hq-to-silicon-valley-and-how-boston-must-find-its-google/

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jleyank
I would think the non-compete enforceability is the big killer here. If MA
wants to compete against Austin (TX) or the Triangle (NC), they have to make
it safer to work for small companies. The weather's an issue, but Cambridge is
walkable while other possible sites are not.

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hga
Indeed; I too believe this is not a small thing. Based on my knowledge of the
cultures and decline and fall of Route 128 and the mini-computer companies it
could well have been a critical factor there.

See this which I just dug up today:
[http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2007/12/30/why_nonco...](http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2007/12/30/why_noncompete_means_dont_thrive_/)

As far as Boston vs. Austin and the Triangle, Boston is much stronger
academically and has some history and what goes with that (like this VC firm).
Has Austin produced any really big companies besides Dell? As for the
Triangle, I was under the impression that it was largely a "company town" for
big companies to place R&D units, with all that that implies.

Bottom line WRT to Silicon Valley and your first point is that the non-compete
issue zapps all of them pretty much equally. It would be very interesting to
see _one_ other state that has potential to adopt the California policy and to
then see what happens (the above link refers to a study based on a period in
which a legislative oversight resulted in that policy for Michigan).

I wouldn't expect it out of Massachusetts, that's a state where the political
establishment seems to be very strong, entrenched and comfortable with the
existing economic and business order.

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dougb
I can't believe that he failed to mention Akamai. How can you ignore a company
with 890M in revenue ?

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hga
I suspect that what he is implicitly saying is that at 14 billion dollars EMC
is in the league of the top 25 Silicon Valley firms whereas much smaller
success stories like Akamai just aren't in that league.

