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Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston

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Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston

#41

Post by redcircle »

grandalf wrote: post #25
nhangen wrote: post #8

I saw the talk, and felt his point was hypocritical. He said that FB couldn't have made it outside of the valley, but that knowing what he knows now, it probably could were he starting it today. In other words, he needed the valley when he was young and inexperienced, but it's not necessary if you have the experience and connections already. [Edit: The reason I'm saying it's hypocritical is because his point was init…

I don't think his point was hypocritical, just a bit illogical. He realized he'd contradicted himself right at the same time he and Jessica both realized he'd said something mildly insulting about the valley, which was a bit awkward. Jessica tried to make a joke (by saying that the press would have a field day with the comment) and Zuck bore down and restated his comment, in the process inadvertently de-emphasizing t…

I don't agree with his point that employees stick it out for long-term success in other places, while they don't in the Valley. Just because people stay with a company for a longer time doesn't mean that they subscribe to a different culture. I've worked in lots of places, and I got the impression that many people hold onto their jobs due to insufficient opportunities in the local area. If they had those opportunities, and a feeling of better security, I bet that they would move around more.

In a way, it sounds like he wants to have employees hang around longer without the company having to invest in a culture that makes them want to stay. The best way to keep employees onboard is a culture in the company that attracts the employees to want to stay. So many startups have compelling cultures at first, then bring in professional management, or excessive growth, and then the original employees seek their desired culture elsewhere. I sure don't want to hang around at a company that brings in traditional management techniques. I care about who I work with, and the conditions --- these days I think I prioritize those criteria over what I work on (and renumeration is a pretty low priority), because I can make lots of things that I work on interesting, but I can't change the management's attitudes (well, I'm trying to write a book to do so, but I wouldn't want to as a leaf node).

Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston

#42

Post by aacook »

PG @ YCYNC: Boston investors have no balls. Raising money in Boston is time consuming - I know it first hand. It could have been difficult for FB to raise their $500k round in Boston. It also would have been hard to find advisers/mentors who could really have an impact in the early days. The low density seed stage investors and early stage consumer-web mentors in Boston puts Boston startups at a huge disadvantage. That's why so many companies relocate to the Valley. I recently studied this in detail... it's astonishing how many awesome companies leave. Many of them leave at the same inflection point: raising the angel round. FB should open a Boston office - (1) it would help their recruiting efforts and (2) would improve the Boston ecosystem and hopefully create more consumer-web angels here.

Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston

#43

Post by ComputerGuru »

timsally wrote: post #15
jrockway wrote: post #5

One reason to live in the Valley is the opportunity to exercise outdoors in shorts and a t-shirt 365 days a year. That's why I want to move out there, anyway. Winter is highly overrated.

I would imagine you're being downvoted by people who don't know what winter in Chicago is like. ^^

I, and many other true Chicagoans, am very much proud of our winter weather, thank you very much.

Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston

#44

Post by socratic »

I get that it is expensive and challenging to keep the best engineers in Silicon Valley for years at a time. However, it seems really odd to conclude from that that the solution would be to start a consumer web startup in Boston.

I can name almost no consumer web startups from the past decade that weren't built in Silicon Valley. Stack Overflow? MySpace? Some fashion startups in NYC? Anything else?

For most of its early life (and perhaps still), Facebook had less than one engineer per million users. Is that kind of talent available outside of the Valley? How many people that have worked at the scale of Google/Facebook/Yahoo!/Twitter (with all that it entails in terms of coding standards, infrastructure, and so on) exist outside of the Valley? Maybe the Seattle area has enough ex-Amazon/ex-Microsoft people to launch a big consumer web startup, but even there, a substantial part of Bing seems to be based in Silicon Valley.

Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston

#45

Post by jeffreymcmanus »

If Zuckerberg really thinks that Silicon Valley VCs are short-sighted (and I'm not saying that they are or they aren't), why doesn't he put his money where his mouth is? He's in a unique position to be investing in companies that could achieve success on a timespan that exceeds the five to ten year horizon that VCs are constrained by.

Also, which of these Boston investors are investing long-term? I want to meet some of them.

Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston

#46

Post by tikhonj »

davidblondeau wrote: post #40

The main reason employees do not stick with companies as long in the Valley as in Seattle (or most likely anywhere else for that matter) is because a lot more people that work here want to start or join their own startup. And if they did not think about doing it initially, they will eventually get there since it is so much in the local culture.

I think it also helps that there are more options. You're much more likely to find somebody working on something you're really passionate about here than anywhere else, even if you're not actively looking. Not only are there more small companies, but (at least in my experience) everybody talks about interesting ones all the time.

Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston

#47

Post by harryh »

socratic wrote: post #44

I get that it is expensive and challenging to keep the best engineers in Silicon Valley for years at a time. However, it seems really odd to conclude from that that the solution would be to start a consumer web startup in Boston. I can name almost no consumer web startups from the past decade that weren't built in Silicon Valley. Stack Overflow? MySpace? Some fashion startups in NYC? Anything else? For most of its ea…

> I can name almost no consumer web startups from the past decade that weren't built in Silicon Valley

foursquare, tumblr, groupon, spotify, meetup, kickstarter

Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston

#48

Post by reidbenj »

The Boston comment may get the most press, but I think the most important thing he said is the next 5-10 years comment, that it will be about what we build now that connections are mapped and, importantly, available to tap into. It's not a secret and not the first time he's said that, but to me it reinforces that FB will keep doing app-friendly things like Open Graph.

Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston

#49

Post by ceol »

socratic wrote: post #44

I get that it is expensive and challenging to keep the best engineers in Silicon Valley for years at a time. However, it seems really odd to conclude from that that the solution would be to start a consumer web startup in Boston. I can name almost no consumer web startups from the past decade that weren't built in Silicon Valley. Stack Overflow? MySpace? Some fashion startups in NYC? Anything else? For most of its ea…

>I can name almost no consumer web startups from the past decade that weren't built in Silicon Valley. Stack Overflow? MySpace? Some fashion startups in NYC? Anything else?

I believe Etsy is based in NY.

Re: Zuckerberg: If I Were Starting A Company Now, I Would Have Stayed In Boston

#50

Post by phillmv »

socratic wrote: post #44

I get that it is expensive and challenging to keep the best engineers in Silicon Valley for years at a time. However, it seems really odd to conclude from that that the solution would be to start a consumer web startup in Boston. I can name almost no consumer web startups from the past decade that weren't built in Silicon Valley. Stack Overflow? MySpace? Some fashion startups in NYC? Anything else? For most of its ea…

Uhm, I would wager that there are a lot of smart engineers who don't live in California.
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