

The next Silicon Valley is probably going to be Silicon Valley - asanwal
http://www.cbinsights.com/blog/trends/silicon-valley-financing-comparison

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jseliger
_And a quick Googling of the term “the next Silicon Valley” shows Seattle, Los
Angeles, Bangalore, Tel Aviv and even the Brooklyn tech triangle (yes –
really) have all thrown their hat into the ring thinking they could be
contenders._

I am highly skeptical that LA or New York could be the next Silicon Valley
because their costs of living are so high already. If you're going to pay that
much for an apartment and want to do a startup, you might as well move to SV
already.

Seattle's prices have been rising for years too, and, although it's much less
expensive than NYC or coastal CA, building in Seattle is still difficult and
expensive.

Austin, Texas is perhaps the most interesting possibility on a cost-of-living
basis.

(For more on why this matters, see Yglesias, _The Rent is Too Damn High_ :
[http://www.amazon.com/The-Rent-Damn-High-
ebook/dp/B0078XGJXO](http://www.amazon.com/The-Rent-Damn-High-
ebook/dp/B0078XGJXO)).

~~~
jandrewrogers
Having lived in Silicon Valley as well as some of the other prominent cities
listed (and with a startup in Seattle currently), one of the most important
things Silicon Valley has that is not found in most other cities is a deep and
pervasive software engineering and computer science talent pool that startups
can draw from.

That is not to say that other cities do not have talented technologists but
that they are rare and/or uninvolved in startups relative to what can be found
in Silicon Valley. Consequently, it makes it difficult to build a _tech_
startup in most other cities that can compete with Silicon Valley. Cities like
LA and NYC have clear strengths when it comes to things like media but with
the experience of having also lived in Silicon Valley it is unfortunately
obvious that the average level of software engineering talent and experience
available to startups in those cities is noticeably lower than what I was
accustomed to in Silicon Valley. This handicaps success.

Seattle is the one real exception in my experience, due to its economy also
being driven by several software and tech companies for decades. It is why
when I decided to build a tech company outside of Silicon Valley, I did it in
Seattle instead places like NYC (which I also considered).

~~~
7Figures2Commas
> ...one of the most important things Silicon Valley has that is not found in
> most other cities is a deep and pervasive software engineering and computer
> science talent pool that startups can draw from.

I disagree with the notion that it's "difficult" to build a tech startup in
most cities outside of the Bay Area, although I would agree that certain types
of tech startups, particularly those seeking funding, have very good
incentives to set up shop in Silicon Valley/San Francisco.

But to your point about talent, I think the Bay Area is a double-edged sword.
Yes, candidates are in theory plentiful, but just about every startup I
encounter is hiring and a common complaint is that it's very difficult to find
"good" engineers. Is the pool of truly skilled/experienced candidates not
large enough to support the ecosystem? Are startups being too picky? I don't
know, but I don't see any evidence whatsoever that startups are generally
finding it _easy_ to build a team here.

~~~
lsc
>but just about every startup I encounter is hiring and a common complaint is
that it's very difficult to find "good" engineers.

My impression is that standards are higher here. I've worked in the central
valley, and most of the jobs I had there? I was... like a little god. My
arrogance was justified at every turn.

Here? generally I have to put in at least some effort to just make mediocre,
and I simply am not made of the stuff required to be the best.

From that point of view, the salary difference might be justified just on
skill.

(I mean, there are very good people living in the flyover. The density is just
dramatically lower. I'm arguing here that the average engineer in the silicon
valley is much better than the average engineer elsewhere. There /are/
outliers, and often looking for those outliers can be quite productive.)

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Aloisius
I think people really underestimate how much Silicon Valley owes to the world-
class universities we have here. Without them, we wouldn't dominate tech and
biotech. Stanford pumps out CS/MBA/BioTech, Berkeley pumps out CS/MBA/BioTech,
UCSF pumps out BioTech. Their influence can not be understated nor easily
replicated to other cities even if they have a ton of VC money.

~~~
jbp
Is Harvard/MIT/BU for Boston any less? I think in addition to great
universities, there is definitely something else to SV.

~~~
ghc
No, and that illustrates his point in a way. Boston has the second largest
amount of VC funding, tons of startups, and more institutions of higher
learning than pretty much any other metro area in the US [Citation
Needed...last I saw it was 84]. But Boston's huge number of universities and
hospitals is also one thing that makes it different from Silicon Valley. A lot
more smart people can get into PhD programs, so there's a talent drain away
from startups.

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josephagoss
Actually once the Government severely limits crypto-currencies for the
protection of the American people we might find the next tech haven to be
outside the USA.

How can the next Silicon Valley be in the USA when one of the major new
paradigms in the tech world will soon be entirely banned?

~~~
cgore
The USA is basically accepting Bitcoins and the like as legitimate currency,
with the recent FINCEN guidance and with the various positive results in the
courts. I would be more worried about the EU banning BTC than the USA, because
of all the issues the Eurozone is having financially, as part of a general
effort to prop up the Euro currency and the many failed Eurozone banks.

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arbuge
VC money is a big part of the ecosystem but not everything. For example I'm
from Texas and there's a lot of angel activity going on here which isn't
captured by VC funding metrics. There is also an emphasis on startups which
can be cashflow positive early and not require years and years of VC funding
first.

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meisterbrendan
What this analysis didn't include was SV vs. other global hubs; as NYC is the
only legit challenger domestically in the medium term, I heard the same about
Tel Aviv internationally. It would also be interesting to see how SV's funding
proportion holds up over time internationally.

edit for sentence clarity.

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nasalgoat
I'd say that Toronto has a good chance of stepping up but the cost of living
here is also too high.

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lifeisstillgood
One of those cases where the title really does say it all.

~~~
asanwal
Ha. Very true. Although, if you look out over the medium-term, NY is making a
good case for being a challenger. Massachusetts has really seemingly
squandered the advantages it has.

