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The Next Silicon Valley Will Be in the US Heartland: Steve Case

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Re: The Next Silicon Valley Will Be in the US Heartland: Steve Case

#21

Post by streblo »

About 3 years ago I left Silicon Valley after being there for 15 years. I moved to the suburbs outside of another major US city, near where I grew up. I had already been working remote, and especially during the pandemic it felt like a relatively future-proof decision to be outside of the SV network.

Frankly, now I'm not so sure I was right. No other place in the US (maybe in the world) has the amount and magnitude of technical talent and know-how, access to capital, or strength of network to compete with SV right now. Spend some time in SF, or Palo Alto, or Mountain View, and it's immediately obvious. Go to a cafe and people will be talking about tech. Your neighbor is probably in tech. Drive along the highway and you'll see billboards for tech products, and tech office buildings along the highway. Tech is deeply ingrained in the culture, top to bottom.

There is no other place in the US that is like this and the gap for SV is still only accelerating.

Re: The Next Silicon Valley Will Be in the US Heartland: Steve Case

#22

Post by Camus134 »

pyrito wrote: post #17

I think it's really as simple as having a big company hitting a giant IPO that creates wealthy individuals who go on to invest in smaller up and coming startups. E.g. Seattle has Amazon and Microsoft, Bay Area has Meta, Google, etc.

More importantly, the Bay Area has Stanford and Berkley pouring out new grads each year, a lot of them stick around.

Re: The Next Silicon Valley Will Be in the US Heartland: Steve Case

#23

Post by tlogan »

There are few reasons why Silicon Valley is successful:

1) weather (no tornados, no super humid days, no snow)

2) proximity of great places (Lake Tahoe, Monterey, Napa valley, …)

3) good universities (Berkeley, standford, UCSF, …)

4) immigrants (especially south asian) are more welcome

5) big companies like Salesforce, Google, Facebook, etc.

6) support network: it is ok to be poor entrepreneur and hassle even you are bad at that.

I do not know …

Re: The Next Silicon Valley Will Be in the US Heartland: Steve Case

#24

Post by saalweachter »

ghaff wrote: post #15
x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And unfortunately, your best universities are not in the heartland and very few in red states. Silicon Valley has the luxury of educational centers, as well as large tech firms that can be used to seed the area with talent they create and attract. You would be hard pressed to find such a confluence of actors in the heartland.

You can argue the "best" point I guess but there are all the large state schools (which can give a very good education if you seek it out), Purdue, Notre Dame, University of Chicago... But probably more around the great lakes than further south.

Carnegie-Mellon, UIUC, Michigan/Ann Arbor, University of Wisconsin/Madison, Northwestern, Ohio State...

Re: The Next Silicon Valley Will Be in the US Heartland: Steve Case

#25

Post by pnutjam »

ghaff wrote: post #15
x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And unfortunately, your best universities are not in the heartland and very few in red states. Silicon Valley has the luxury of educational centers, as well as large tech firms that can be used to seed the area with talent they create and attract. You would be hard pressed to find such a confluence of actors in the heartland.

You can argue the "best" point I guess but there are all the large state schools (which can give a very good education if you seek it out), Purdue, Notre Dame, University of Chicago... But probably more around the great lakes than further south.

Purdue is great, but it's in Indiana and the social policies will continue to disincentivize both workers and investors. a quick list of reasons not to locate in Indian: * abortion ban * no renter protection * strict non-compete's allowed * school funding keeps getting worse

Re: The Next Silicon Valley Will Be in the US Heartland: Steve Case

#26

Post by pwthornton »

Unless a lot of areas become a lot more hospitable to immigrants, it is very unlikely that they will become the next Silicon Valley —- or next anything really.

When you look at places like Ohio, for instance, that have been stagnating for decades, a huge reason for it is that the population of Ohio was once representative of the country and has increasingly become older and whiter than the general U.S. population. This is because very few people are moving to Ohio — immigrants and others from other parts of the country. Ohio has one of the highest rates of residents born in the state, which is a recipe for stagnation.

Say what you will about Silicon Valley, but it has long been a place where dreamers and immigrants could mix. Heartland cities and states that embrace immigration and net inflows of residents could very well become the next something. But that has to come first.

Re: The Next Silicon Valley Will Be in the US Heartland: Steve Case

#27

Post by jeffbee »

pyrito wrote: post #17

I think it's really as simple as having a big company hitting a giant IPO that creates wealthy individuals who go on to invest in smaller up and coming startups. E.g. Seattle has Amazon and Microsoft, Bay Area has Meta, Google, etc.

If that were even remotely true then Silicon Valley would already be in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Re: The Next Silicon Valley Will Be in the US Heartland: Steve Case

#28

Post by la64710 »

pwthornton wrote: post #26

Unless a lot of areas become a lot more hospitable to immigrants, it is very unlikely that they will become the next Silicon Valley —- or next anything really. When you look at places like Ohio, for instance, that have been stagnating for decades, a huge reason for it is that the population of Ohio was once representative of the country and has increasingly become older and whiter than the general U.S. population. Th…

FTA :

I believe that if America loses its way and ceases to be the most innovative, entrepreneurial nation in the world, the most likely cause will be not having an immigration policy that is as welcoming to people as it has been for the past couple of centuries.

Re: The Next Silicon Valley Will Be in the US Heartland: Steve Case

#29

Post by [deleted] »

yardie wrote: post #20
x86_64Ubuntu wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And unfortunately, your best universities are not in the heartland and very few in red states. Silicon Valley has the luxury of educational centers, as well as large tech firms that can be used to seed the area with talent they create and attract. You would be hard pressed to find such a confluence of actors in the heartland.

I consider Rice and UT-Austin as two of the best universities in a conservative, red state. But they don't get a lot of respect from coastal elites because they aren't in NYC or SF.

[deleted]

Re: The Next Silicon Valley Will Be in the US Heartland: Steve Case

#30

Post by ghaff »

pnutjam wrote: post #25
ghaff wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can argue the "best" point I guess but there are all the large state schools (which can give a very good education if you seek it out), Purdue, Notre Dame, University of Chicago... But probably more around the great lakes than further south.

Purdue is great, but it's in Indiana and the social policies will continue to disincentivize both workers and investors. a quick list of reasons not to locate in Indian: * abortion ban * no renter protection * strict non-compete's allowed * school funding keeps getting worse

Well, it doesn't seem to be keeping a lot of companies and people from heading to Texas, especially Austin.
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