
Reasons startups move to Silicon Valley And Things Boston can do to keep them  - jasonlbaptiste
http://www.masshightech.com/stories/2010/10/18/daily38-5-reasons-startups-move-to-Silicon-Valleyand-5-things-Boston-can-do-to-keep-them.html
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api
Here's a suggestion: have Boston develop a culture in which people have actual
friends (as opposed to colleagues) and discuss things other than their
careers.

Boston is a weird place. In some ways it is incredibly liberal and
progressive, but in other ways it is unbelievably conservative and stuffy.

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lsb
As a Bostonian since 2005, November, December, January, February, and March
are pretty compelling reasons to move.

~~~
kujawa
Also June, July, August, and about half of September.

Really, Boston is only tolerable for that one glorious week each in the spring
and fall.

I do miss Boston. But not the weather. It'd be nice if we got an occasional
thunder storm out here, though.

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fjabre
Cambridge is basically a micro-silicon valley. Although I think Boston will
continue to remain a strong contender for the #2 spot in tech, I don't think
it will eclipse the Valley.

Boston does however already eclipse the Valley in terms of academics.

Simply put, schools are what Boston does best. Startup activity is and will
always continue to be a side effect of the strong academic presence here. In
the Bay area, it seems to be the other way around.

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jasonlbaptiste
this resonates at different levels for different communities. most important
to me: Dollars/(Control+Speed) Ratio

A close second is also the number of deals an angel has done. It signals two
things to me: a) they are comfortable/know how to do this b) they have an
extensive network of other people they have done deals with. 20 different
deals with an average of 4-5 investors in each, means a network of 80-100
investors they've coinvested with. will obvi be some overlap. You can
disregard this for newer angels and use a gut instinct to see if this is
something they really want to do. I know you just started doing investments as
an angel, but it's very clear out there that this is something you plan on
doing, enjoyit, and know the way it works.

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fragmede
Honestly, I think non-competes are really the lynch-pin and belong on that
list. Non-competes last 2-5 years.

2 _years_? A startup thats just, uh, starting up may not know if they're going
to be around in 6 _months_ , never mind being able to wait 2 years.

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kloncks
All this reasons have to do with raising money and valuations. I will concede
that this is important but I think the problem that any other area runs into
when trying to take something back from Silicon Valley isn't the money, but
the community.

The Boston tech community, like the Chicago, Austin, or NYC ones, have a few
technological superstars. Yet, Silicon Valley has more. A ton more. It's had
decades of a headstart.

That, imho, is the biggest asset that Silicon Valley has. Part of that has to
do with money (all the reasons the article mentions) but a lot of it just has
to do with the fact that the Silicon Valley network and community is just so
damn good.

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zck
He gets into that in point five:

>To paraphrase Terminator II, the Valley is an order of magnitude closer to
being self-aware, and evolving at a rapid pace as an innovation ecosystem.
...Whether it’s Y Combinator’s special access to Facebook’s latest private-
beta APIs; ... or sharing secret tips over beers on what viral or SEO or
marketing technique worked for Quora, Mint or Tagged, there is a big
knowledge-sharing and access advantage.

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acconrad
But its a self-fulfilling prophecy - if we don't do everything to keep
companies where they are founded (which requires VCs and Angels to be more
forgiving), it will only continue to improve the SV area and hurt the other
tech communities, like Boston. I think if you are a founder, you should really
focus on grabbing money in your local ecosystems and STRESSING to VCs/Angels
that this is an investment in the local economy, and strengthening our
presence in the entrepreneurial community.

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lincolnq
But as a founder, what are your priorities? Strengthening the local economy,
or making your business work? I don't think most founders have the luxury to
insist that they get funded in their hometown.

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royrod
Agreed, it's a tough problem. I think Boston investors want to support Boston
startups, but because of their structure/individual limitations (mentioned in
the article) they can't necessarily "take one for the team" if it's investing
20% of their 'dry powder' for the year.

That said I do think startups can play the "fund us locally" card a bit.

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lifeoffbi
however, once a consumer web start-up in boston does get some initial traction
and raise money, it has incredible access to talent. gemvara.com and SCVNGR
are two great examples. they've been able to use the dearth of consumer web
investments in boston to their advantage and recruit all this great young
talent, and not needing to fight with 10 hot competitors to retain them.

~~~
okaramian
The problem here is that if you really want to work in a company like that and
you're young, you probably still are going to try to move out West (at least
this is what I did).

It's possible there is somewhat of a brain drain occurring due to the lack of
startups from East to West, I don't really know of a lot of people that have
moved the reverse.

I went to Northeastern University and the coop program is great, but it always
seemed like established companies (I worked for 1 startup which was an amazing
experience, and 2 defense contractors) were a lot more aggressive about
hitting them up for talent instead of startups (which could have taken
advantage of young, cheap, aggressive engineers).

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known
Naive Optimism.

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jbail
"...the Valley is an order of magnitude closer to being self-aware." LOL.

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jbail
I don't know why I'm getting downvoted. That quote from the article was funny.

I should preface this next statement by saying, I'm not trolling, this doesn't
apply to the Valley in particular and this is serious food for thought:

Does anyone worry that all the sharing of tips about what worked for company X
and what new thing company Y is doing actually stifles innovation by creating
an echo chamber of sorts?

Do these tips and tricks become "rules" that keep a person's thinking inside a
box? Are the innovations just re-applications of existing ideas?

Not in every case, but certainly in many. Not to pick on anyone in particular,
but let's look at Posterous. It's an email gateway for a blog. It's simple and
elegant to use (I use it and love it), and they obviously rock at the
biz/dev/marketing aspect of the business --- but is it really that innovative?
How much does Posterous further the evolution of the Internet?

How about Quora? Again, great site --- but it's a question and answer app.
It's been done at least a dozen times before. Does Quora increase the pace at
which the Internet evolves?

I remember reading something from PG about music startups (paraphrased), that
"the music industry is a just a vacuum to suck your VC dollars." Hence, he's
not super stoked on investing in music startups.

He's obviously seen his share of failed music startups and has talked to
others in the Valley who also have first hand experience with failed music
startups.

But, is it possible that the Valley isn't thinking creatively enough about
music startups? That maybe the Valley can't think creatively enough because it
innovates between the lines?

It's also crucial to recognize that most disruptive businesses don't start in
the Valley. They move there so their VC can keep an eye on them.

I don't know. I'll probably get banned from HN for thinking a little
dangerously and questioning the established thinking so openly.

~~~
smokinn
You got downvoted not because you're critical of Silicon Valley but because
your comment was a useless 3-character "LOL" that adds nothing to the
conversation. As soon as you explained why you thought it was laughable you
got upvoted.

~~~
jbail
Adding LOL next to a pretentious statement like, "the Valley is an order of
magnitude closer to being self-aware" adds to the conversation that I think
it's a silly statement. I didn't think more words needed to be written to get
that point across.

But, you're clearly in the majority, so point made. No more LOLs from me. I'll
explain myself fully from now on.

