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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

#111
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you please tell me which places have 2, 3, and 4? Im just trying expland my views and maybe visit them.

North Carolina easily fits the bill. Great outdoors, proximity to good universities, fairly diverse, at least in some of the major metros. A lot of places in the Great Lakes region are similar. Some of the nations best universities are in and around Chicago, Michigan, Pittsburgh, etc. Particularly in the cities, diversity is fair to high (Chicago, Minneapolis, etc). And much of the Great Lakes region is highly underr…

I knew you will mentioned North Carolina :) Will definetelly try to visit it.

Regarding Chicago and Michigan: I have to say “nope”. California is way way nicer to visit. There nothing even remotely similar to Palm Springs. Or Monterey bay. Or Joshua Tree. And I did have a couple of ackward situations with people saying “go back to your country” as way to start some disagreement.

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

#112

This has been predicted for decades now, but always misses a key point for SV being so successful. The SF Bay Area is one of the most diverse places to live and work in the US. Your managers, colleagues, and the area are from very different backgrounds, and when you bring together this diverse set of people, you end up creating things that 99% of the world uses. Outside of LA and the NY metro area, diversity drops dr…

If this were the only factor, Houston would be the most innovative tech city in the US.

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

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The topography and history are closer to Baltimore than Indy? It's historically been part of the Rust Belt. It's considered part of the Great Lakes Megalopolis [0]. It's on the Western side of the Appalachian divide. Culturally it has far more in common with Cleveland or Columbus than Philly or NYC. The only reason it's even a question is because its in Pennsylvania, which contains Philly which is clearly East Coast.…

https://www.post-gazette.com/local/neighborhood/2018/08/08/P... A good read, or you can come ask the locals what they think - be prepared for a big argument :). From your link "Map of the emerging American-Canadian megaregions as defined by America 2050." Emerging - not historical. Pittsburgh is not 100% midwest. We are not like Nebraska, at all. The further you go from Pittsburgh the divide grows starker. There is s…

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

#114
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Austin is relatively close to California. Both Texas and California have huge populations. What does Indiana have?

Austin is no where near California. I'm not sure how anyone could even come to such a conclusion. It's literally a 1800 mile drive to San Francisco. Major US cities that Indianapolis is closer to than Austin is to Silicon Valley: - Atlanta - Austin - Boston - Chicago - Cincinnati - Charlotte - Dallas - DC - Denver - Houston - Miami - Nashville - NYC - Philadelphia - Phoenix - Pittsburg - Salt Lake City

I think they meant philosophically, not geographically.

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

#115
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I doubt it. Look at the period from 1920-1960. Extremely entrepreneurial, extremely innovative, and tight immigration controls. The talent is largely already here.

Children of immigrants are the real difference makers. They natively speak the language and understand the culture but also have the "immigrant" mentality instilled in them by their parents.

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

#116
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you please tell me which places have 2, 3, and 4? Im just trying expland my views and maybe visit them.

North Carolina easily fits the bill. Great outdoors, proximity to good universities, fairly diverse, at least in some of the major metros. A lot of places in the Great Lakes region are similar. Some of the nations best universities are in and around Chicago, Michigan, Pittsburgh, etc. Particularly in the cities, diversity is fair to high (Chicago, Minneapolis, etc). And much of the Great Lakes region is highly underr…

North Carolina fits. As a native chicagoan I can tell you that the weather and proximity to interesting places is pretty damn bad. The midwest is flat as hell and generally the landscape is very similar throughout. Skiing in michigan is a joke, there's pretty much nothing to do outside during the winter.

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

#117
post #23

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…

After staying in SV for close to 2 decades and evaluating various other places to move to, I have ultimately chosen to remain in SV for the following reasons:

1. Decent weather - no snow, wind, storms. This is changing recently with wildfires, so may not last for long.

2. Density of tech talent - no matter what niche tech you are interested in, you will always find techies interested in that niche in SF - San Jose - Oakland triangle.

3. Job opportunities - there are actually 4 subfactors here. One is cultural - if your current gig fails for whatever reason, no one will look down upon you. Second - a new job can be found very soon, since you can compete with remote-first jobs with the added advantage of having exclusive access to companies insisting on RTO. Third - you have a variety of opportunities available, from pre-seed stage startups to behemoths. Fourth - if you are married to a non-techie like me, your partner can also find a new job relatively easily if they have to, compared to a lot of cheaper places where there were no non-tech lucrative jobs available. This was actually a surprising bottleneck for us when evaluating different places.

4. Immigration friendly - as a non-white immigrant, SFBA is a very welcoming place. That is not an exclusive advantage since any big city can compete on that front these days, but it also rules out a lot of cheaper places for us where it will be hard to integrate socially.

5. Non-competes - seriously, this is one of the biggest advantage of California for employees. I do not want additional constraints on my job mobility.

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

#119
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's basically 1 and 5. Plenty of places have 2, 3, 4 (despite what people on the West coast tell themselves), and I'm not even sure what 6 is supposed to mean. For all the soul-searching about why Silicon Valley became Silicon Valley, the overwhelming reason is because once you have a successful base for an up and coming industry, you will win by default moving forward. Once Silicon Valley became the initial bed for…

Can you please tell me which places have 2, 3, and 4? Im just trying expland my views and maybe visit them.

los Angeles, san Diego, phoenix

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

#120
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what happened in Waterloo, Ontario with Blackberry. Of course the tech scene there is no where near as large as a SV and a couple others, but it's still weirdly big and concentrated given the size of the surrounding city. Every mid to large tech company in that area has a decent size cohort of ex-blackberry people.

Is it possible that the cause and effect are reversed? I thought RIM was established in Waterloo because Waterloo was already by that time a Silicon-Valley-like (or at least Pittsburgh-like) tech hub.

That could definitely be partly the case! After reconsidering it's definitely not fair to attribute the regions success entirely to RIM. It also probably has a lot to do with the University of Waterloo, which (being much more recently founded than other Canadian universities) has always had more forward thinking STEM programs and faculty, and also has much better IP protection for students than other schools in the area.
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