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Tech Startups Don’t Need the Valley Unless They Need VC

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Re: Tech Startups Don’t Need the Valley Unless They Need VC

#31

Post by axod »

vaksel wrote: post #12

I disagree. Have you taken a look at the culture in the valley? They are all about helping each other. i.e. I think this story was told at LeWeb. Seesmic founder lets Friendfeed guys know that their products would work really well together. The Friendfeed guys call back and tell him to drop by to discuss it. Loic hops into his car, drives 10 minutes to the Friendfeed offices, and after an hour or so of meetings, Frie…

>> Outside of the valley, something like this isn't possible.

We do have email, IRC, etc etc these days.

Re: Tech Startups Don’t Need the Valley Unless They Need VC

#32

Post by dejb »

axod wrote: post #31
vaksel wrote: post #12

I disagree. Have you taken a look at the culture in the valley? They are all about helping each other. i.e. I think this story was told at LeWeb. Seesmic founder lets Friendfeed guys know that their products would work really well together. The Friendfeed guys call back and tell him to drop by to discuss it. Loic hops into his car, drives 10 minutes to the Friendfeed offices, and after an hour or so of meetings, Frie…

>> Outside of the valley, something like this isn't possible. We do have email, IRC, etc etc these days.

And the phone.

Re: Tech Startups Don’t Need the Valley Unless They Need VC

#33

Post by dejb »

menloparkbum wrote: post #11

There is not much substance to this article. It doesn't really even build on the title. It's just a bunch of quotes about VC funding and startup culture by a couple bloggers who live in Wisconsin and China. And, a video of a random investor from Texas. I feel like they're riffing about an imagined startup culture that died out in 2001.

Maybe it isn't what you meant but to me you post comes off as... "What would they know. They aren't from the valley"

Re: Tech Startups Don’t Need the Valley Unless They Need VC

#34

Post by rjurney »

zhyder wrote: post #25
pg wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Living in the Valley is not especially expensive for founders. Buying a house in the Valley is notoriously expensive, because there is so much speculation built into prices (even now). But renting a two-bedroom apartment in Mountain View is no more expensive for equivalent quality of life than in Boston. We gave groups the same amount of money in Boston cycles as in Bay Area cycles, and we never noticed any differenc…

Like staunch mentions, there are cheaper places to live in than either SiV or Boston. Living in Austin-TX would cost half as much for instance. Living in developing countries would cost even less (at least if one doesn't insist on 100% equivalent quality of life). Disclaimer: we're based in the valley and are happy for it, but that's because we're profitable anyway.

I did this. I built the prototype for my first startup in Goa, India, using GPRS internet (unlimited access for a fixed price, because it was a beta).

I even recommend it, assuming you can connect with real alpha customers before moving over there, or if you have a bizdev guy stateside. I had to download overnight but it was workable. I spent my days floating in the pool reading books like 'Design Patterns' and Java/Eclipse books to help me understand Eclipse well enough to build my app using it. I programmed by night. I got the prototype done.

The ticket over from Atlanta was $1200 or so. My rent was $400 a month in a 4 star resort on the beach (off season), and that was my only appreciable expense because food was basically free. There was even another entrepreneur with a PhD there doing the same thing, and he had brought his entire book library with him in an ocean container!

BTW - I came home with about six feet (when stacked) of books, because they were so cheap. A good technical book in paperback is about $5 at the TATA bookstore at IIT in Bangalore. I couldn't help myself, I bought a complete library and two suitcases to carry it home in :)

Disclaimer: I heave a 'weak stomach' and I got dysentery twice, methanol poisoning once and other weird stuff in between, but mostly they are avoidable if you get your shots, go vegetarian (they make it EASY), and be super strict about bottled water.

I met several hackers who moved to India to be able to work on whatever they wanted without doing much in the way of consulting. One guy was there productizing Israeli mesh networks to supply wifi and VOIP to Tibetan refugees in Dharamsala. Another guy was building FOSS tools for college professors. There is an entire subculture of people that do this.

Just watch out: its easy to get distracted. And check your calendar and remember the monsoon is no joke :)

Re: Tech Startups Don’t Need the Valley Unless They Need VC

#35

Post by trapper »

paulbaumgart wrote: post #17
patio11 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your probability of success is higher in the Valley Your probability of flipping heads is higher than your probability of rolling 1 on a six-sided die: X = .5, Y =~ .167. I have yet to even hear of a good setup for measuring X or Y, to say nothing of actual numbers for them, for measuring "probability of success in a startup". Heck, I have never even heard a defensible universalizable definition of success for a star…

You've got a point, in the sense that a lot of the "probabilities" are just best guesses based on anecdotal evidence. But pragmatically, I don't see much of a choice; it would be paralyzing to try and gather all that data before making a decision. And, in my mind, it's usually better to make that decision on imperfect information- like the aphorism that "Your probability of success is higher in the Valley"- than no i…

I refer to the book: how to measure anything. Measurement is the reduction in uncertainty, not paralysis by analysis. Often you can get great reductions in uncertainty with simple methods if you think for a few minutes.

Some examples that the book may help you with could be looking at the governmental statistics for new businesses by geographical location (e.g. if they are better, then this must show in turnover right?). Geographical distributions of the last 10 years Fast 50/100, breaking the groups up by funding type.

Are you so certain that the probability of success is higher in the valley? It seems to me that the majority of the people who say this have something to gain, directly or indirectly from this being promoted as fact. This is usually an indicator of a falsehood.

Re: Tech Startups Don’t Need the Valley Unless They Need VC

#36

Post by riferguson »

menloparkbum wrote: post #11

There is not much substance to this article. It doesn't really even build on the title. It's just a bunch of quotes about VC funding and startup culture by a couple bloggers who live in Wisconsin and China. And, a video of a random investor from Texas. I feel like they're riffing about an imagined startup culture that died out in 2001.

Dude, Google is your friend.

Mike was being coy when he described himself as a "former Microsoft employee", but dismissing him as a "random investor from Texas" is silly.

http://people.forbes.com/profile/michael-j-maples/49137 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE2D81038F... http://www.alibre.com/corporate/management.asp

Re: Tech Startups Don’t Need the Valley Unless They Need VC

#37

Post by vaksel »

axod wrote: post #31
vaksel wrote: post #12

I disagree. Have you taken a look at the culture in the valley? They are all about helping each other. i.e. I think this story was told at LeWeb. Seesmic founder lets Friendfeed guys know that their products would work really well together. The Friendfeed guys call back and tell him to drop by to discuss it. Loic hops into his car, drives 10 minutes to the Friendfeed offices, and after an hour or so of meetings, Frie…

>> Outside of the valley, something like this isn't possible. We do have email, IRC, etc etc these days.

I was talking more about the fact that it took a few hours from seeing an opportunity, to finalizing the deal. Outside of SV, it would take a few weeks just to arrange a meeting. And chances are the company would end up passing on the partnership because they don't want to trust a fresh startup.

Re: Tech Startups Don’t Need the Valley Unless They Need VC

#38

Post by neilk »

axod wrote: post #31
vaksel wrote: post #12

I disagree. Have you taken a look at the culture in the valley? They are all about helping each other. i.e. I think this story was told at LeWeb. Seesmic founder lets Friendfeed guys know that their products would work really well together. The Friendfeed guys call back and tell him to drop by to discuss it. Loic hops into his car, drives 10 minutes to the Friendfeed offices, and after an hour or so of meetings, Frie…

>> Outside of the valley, something like this isn't possible. We do have email, IRC, etc etc these days.

Agreed, but it's way slower at building trust. Especially compared to the opportunities people have in the valley to socialize outside of some deal-making session.

Re: Tech Startups Don’t Need the Valley Unless They Need VC

#40

Post by axod »

neilk wrote: post #38
axod wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Outside of the valley, something like this isn't possible. We do have email, IRC, etc etc these days.

Agreed, but it's way slower at building trust. Especially compared to the opportunities people have in the valley to socialize outside of some deal-making session.

Not in my experience, the example given was a "link exchange request". These go on all the time over email, and work pretty well.

Perhaps it's just me, but I often prefer dealing with people over email/IRC/etc than face to face for a lot of things.

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