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Why Startup Hubs Work

paulgraham.com

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Re: Why Startup Hubs Work

#61

Post by _delirium »

revorad wrote: post #59
_delirium wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The missing piece of the puzzle is online location! This is something that I think has, oddly enough, gone backwards as technology has improved. BBSs had a very strong sense of location, while the internet is much flatter and amorphous, because everyone can connect to everything.

I think you misunderstood me. I mean real-time online location, as in I'm on news.ycombinator.com right now. My friend is on facebook.com right now. I'm not talking about geophysical location.

Oh I agree; I didn't mean that BBSs were tied to geographical location (though there was some of that), but that they provided a strong sense of online location. You were on a particular BBS at a particular time, not on another one; and you couldn't have 30 tabs open to 30 different BBSs. If it was a multi-line board, you could see who was online at the same time as you. That sort of thing made it feel more like a virtual location.

Re: Why Startup Hubs Work

#62

Post by aditiyaa1 »

Even though this essay has tried to capture how technology startup hubs work and SF in specifc , but this is how every every other hub works . Let it be finance(Wall street),cinema(Hollywood),art(Florence).All these have similar couterparts accross the world. My thesis is, it has more to do with the people who first come and establish a successful enterprise and develop a culture that attract more people .Something like how people were attracted to the gold rush(this had more to do with luck than talent) And also the presence of supporting infrastructures.Presence of Stanford, Berkeley,etc. Stanford almost has a symbiotic relationship with the valley.

And it should not be of any surprise in any kind of hub ,that even if collaboration does not happen abetment will happen. Purely because of the large presence of like minded people.

One good thought experiment would be to think of former hubs that have lost their culture. Thinking of that,I realize only hubs formed around matter (cities that sprang up around mines and oil wells) have been lost while those that rose on ideas will stay for a long time thriving with life,hope and innovation.

PS: I am a little surprised that PG notes that he meets so many techie people in his day to day life.

Re: Why Startup Hubs Work

#63

Post by SIK »

To me, hacker news is my startup hub.

I have chance encounters all the time with people who have interesting knowledge about startups and startup tools that could help me.

There is a huge social group who don't think starting a startup means being unemployed. The numbers are certainly on my side at hacker news.

At hacker news, starting a startup is both fashionable and reasonable.

I'm just a lurker, but already I get huge benefit. My guess is that people who interact a lot get even more benefit.

What does San Francisco have that hacker news doesn't?

Re: Why Startup Hubs Work

#64

Post by bambax »

chance meetings with people who can help you

That's why I so much wanted to come to startup school... I was denied, and apparently there isn't a waiting list..? (or, I was also denied the waiting list).

But why not organize another sort of event: a "chance meeting machine" where you would come to some place during a weekend and have many opportunities to meet interesting people. Many different events, maybe all around town.

A Startup school without the "class" part, and therefore with a much less strict numerus clausus.

Re: Why Startup Hubs Work

#66

Post by kloncks »

tptacek wrote: post #55

I don't want to argue too much about this, because I think Graham is probably right, but this footnote struck me: [4] As I was writing this, I had a demonstration of the density of startup people in the Valley. Jessica and I bicycled to University Ave in Palo Alto to have lunch at the fabulous Oren's Hummus. As we walked in, we met Charlie Cheever sitting near the door. Selina Tobaccowala stopped to say hello on her…

It actually sounds really close to the reality. It surprised me years ago when I would come to conferences here...but it really is just part of the culture.

I think it has a lot to do with just how down-to-earth most people are in Silicon Valley. You can be in any place full of "celebrities" - say Hollywood - and spot a lot of familiar faces/names. But "running into" so many and interacting with them seems to be a Silicon Valley thing. Certainly the level of help that people are willing to extend, gaining nothing but karma in return, seems rare outside of this area.

Re: Why Startup Hubs Work

#67

Post by revorad »

_delirium wrote: post #61
revorad wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you misunderstood me. I mean real-time online location, as in I'm on news.ycombinator.com right now. My friend is on facebook.com right now. I'm not talking about geophysical location.

Oh I agree; I didn't mean that BBSs were tied to geographical location (though there was some of that), but that they provided a strong sense of online location. You were on a particular BBS at a particular time, not on another one; and you couldn't have 30 tabs open to 30 different BBSs. If it was a multi-line board, you could see who was online at the same time as you. That sort of thing made it feel more like a vi…

I see. So I misunderstood you because I discovered the internet too late :-)

Re: Why Startup Hubs Work

#68

Post by diolpah »

andrewparker wrote: post #54
pitdesi wrote: post #16

I think the world has changed drastically in the past few years... I can provide perspective from working for a startup in SF in 06-07 and a startup in Chicago now... In Chicago noone thinks you're unemployed if you say you work for a startup. That was the case a couple of years ago, but with Groupon and a TON of other companies that just isn't the case. The difference is just that more people are doing startups in S…

West coast VCs are aggressively investing three thousand miles away from the valley in NYC. I'm sure being geographically closer to VCs makes it easier to raise money, but I really hope startups don't pick their location based on where VCs are. There are better parameters to optimize for. I encourage startups to base their businesses where they'll have the best chance at recruiting the best talent. The next search en…

Aggressively investing? That wording suggests to me that VCs are actively cold-calling or spamming companies with indications of interest. I assume you don't actually mean this.

Re: Why Startup Hubs Work

#69

Post by hugh3 »

pchristensen wrote: post #32
amirmc wrote: post #4

Paul (or anyone else), in note 3 you say "Starting a company is common, but starting a startup is rare. I've talked about the distinction between the two elsewhere..." I'd appreciate any links to the places you've mentioned this.

One of the best descriptions: http://steveblank.com/2010/01/25/whats-a-startup-first-princ... "...a startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model."

So was the first McDonald's a startup?

Re: Why Startup Hubs Work

#70

Post by tomblomfield »

tptacek wrote: post #55

I don't want to argue too much about this, because I think Graham is probably right, but this footnote struck me: [4] As I was writing this, I had a demonstration of the density of startup people in the Valley. Jessica and I bicycled to University Ave in Palo Alto to have lunch at the fabulous Oren's Hummus. As we walked in, we met Charlie Cheever sitting near the door. Selina Tobaccowala stopped to say hello on her…

pg's experience is clearly out of the ordinary because he is pg.

But I've had a not incomparable experience after having lived in SF for 3 months. Palo Alto is packed full of people doing interesting stuff, and you're bound to bump into them

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