Cool things are not just happening in the Valley

http://www.nasdaq.com/

i think the “virtualization” of the startup is a big trend, particularly outside of the valley.

most of our portfolio companies have their headquarters here in NYC but most of the dev teams are elsewhere, siberia, india, austin, philly, canada, boulder, etc.

tools like trac, campfire, aim, wikis, etc make managing a “virtual” company a lot easier than it used to be.

i think being completely virtual breaks down at about 5-10 people, but you can maintain pockets of talent in various places fairly easily

fred

Take a look at Techcrunch’s job board for ‘Web 2.0′ and you’ll see what is happening in the Valley vs. everywhere else. Pretty clear where most of the action is….

Someone educate me by answering this question.
How long has Silicon Valley been referred to as simply “The Valley”? I lived there for the entire 80′s and it wasn’t called that. Back then, “The Valley” referred to Santa Monica Valley or some such (wherever “Valley Girls” came from). I moved from Silicon Valley in 1990, so I don’t know what the local lingo is. Anyone know when, “The Valley” came to refer to Silcon Valley? And is it only by the locals that use that term or is it nation wide?

(As a side note, “The Valley” seems provincial; that area’s steeped in provincialism, one reason why I got the hell out of there. I worked at a high-tech company there, and found that most of the anti-Microsoft sentiment is based on resentment that a non-Silicon Valley company actually had that gall to become one of the most powerful companies in an industry that “we” (i.e. Silicon Valley) created!!)

Milam: it used to be called “the valley of heart’s delight.” Then it became known as “Santa Clara valley.” Later “Silicon Valley.” And, now, if you tell a geek you’re going to “the valley” most people will know what you are talking about.

But, if you’re really a geek in the Web 2 world you know what’s in Pier 38 and you know what South Park is.

Milam: here’s a study of Stanford’s role in turning the valley from “heart’s delight” into “Silicon Valley:” http://forum.stanford.edu/carolyn/valley_of_hearts

“The Hill” is short for Capitol Hill, amongst Washington wonks, just as “the Valley” is short for SV I gather. I guess it is since many non-Californian geeks don’t live around a lot of Valleys that SV gets shortened.

Silicon Valley is to the north of “silicone” valley…where the “Valley Girls” live.

Hope this helps.

There are actually very good reasons why there are more startups in Silicon Valley than anywhere else. The biggest reason is people. Success attracts other successful people who want to compete at the highest level.

If you think of insurance it is Hartford. If you think of automobiles it is Detroit. Movies = Hollywood, Country music = Nashville.

I wrote a blog today about why this happens. See http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/2006/10/why_are_more_st.html

Not just outside the valley but outside the US there is a little bit of buzz right now happening in New Zealand.

Lord of the Rings Director Peter Jackson recently teamed up with Microsoft to create a games studio in Wellington called Wingnut Interactive.

And there is buzz in the 2.0 space with http://starnow.com/
http://www.eurekster.com/
http://www.projectx.co.nz/

Don’t discount the Kiwis turning Wellington into Silicon Welly.

The Valley is a place where you can get funding for any stupid dream you can have and a place where even a rathole costs 900K. The infastructure (highways, public transportations) is like in any third world country. The valley is a place where only culture event is a tech party and with 300+ sunny days nobody is able to come up with a solid idea how to utilize a free solar energy (but everybody know how to build 1.000.000 useless Web 2.0 companies).

Jack: that demonstrates you don’t have a clue about what Silicon Valley is. Or does. Thanks for demonstrating your ignorance. Please take it somewhere else.

>There are actually very good reasons why there are more startups in Silicon >Valley than anywhere else. The biggest reason is people.

This is just an urban legend.

Robert:
I lived there for 8 years (1997 – 2005). I still live in Cali but in a place where houses are in a reasonable price level and my salary is actual higher. And people around me are as smart as people I worked with in SV.

It’s all about ego, all about that SV is something special. It used to be.

Jack: I’ve been all over the world and this is still the place to start a new company. But, I understand lots of other people are proud of their areas too. But I am not gonna debate this with someone is anonymous. Have a good one.

Jack, I’m in the heart of one of the most dynamic places in the world, actually writing this from the Tsinghua (University) Science Park in Beijing. (Tsinghua is China’s MIT.)

Besides my Stanford days, I lived in the Valley from 1997 when Microsoft recruited me to join their Silicon Valley campus (even before there really was a Silicon Valley campus; back then, it was just the WebTV group headquarters at 305 Lytton in downtown PA) until December 2003 when I relocated to China.

Although I’m not a big fan of BJ (versus Shanghai or my old adopted hometown of Qingdao — as in the beer, “Tsingtao” — and home to Haier and Hisense, two of China’s better known global brands), this is the “Silicon Valley” of China. But even here, with all of China’s hypergrowth, it’s not Silicon Valley. The Valley is truly different. The dynamism in Silicon Valley can’t be matched anywhere, not even in the Haidian District ShangDi area (in Beijing) or in the Pudong area (in Shanghai). Yes, Valley real estate is overpriced, traffic is a bear (although try Second, Third or Fourth Ring Beijing traffic at rush hour on for size). But the intellectual and creative ecosystem in Silicon Valley can’t be beat.