You don’t have to be in Silicon Valley, but Silicon Valley has to be in you
The title of this blog post is a quote from Paul Singh, a good friend and mentor. After spending the last couple months in San Francisco, I wanted to share some observations on starting a startup in the Valley, or anywhere else (like for example New Orleans).
The advantages the Valley has:
Urgency — the speed of the game is fast. People are executing, products are built, deals are being done. Back home it sometimes feels like entrepreneurs work harder than everyone else when the summer traffic jams happen at 4:30pm, but its a whole different level of urgency.
Small fish in a big pond — everyone is working in tech or on a startup. The co-working spaces are all teeming with talent. This is a key realization for founders (& me ;) who are used to being the big fish back home.
Network — you can build your network fast. Jump on your bike rather than jump on an airplane to meet that investor or customer.
Big thinking — Everyone here thinks big. Even non-tech local businesses have world-class branding and are built to scale. It’s pervasive and energizing to focus on tackling big problems. It takes a while to get in that mindset, but its the way people think out here.
What the Valley lacks and your town* has:
Unique problems — Many innovations simply won’t come from the Valley because founders aren’t exposed to the problems that exist around the world. As software eats the world, it will disrupt industries that we see every day. Because of the economic success there is a lack of unique problems, which is why there are so many startups around food delivery, outsourcing tasks, and ride-sharing. Focus on solving problems that are unique to where you live.
It’s a bubble — Life is pretty good for people in tech in the Valley, but its definitely living inside an echo chamber. Outside the Valley we’re exposed to more “normal people” and that diversity is good. Not everyone is an early adopter or a geek. Take advantage of being able to do customer development with real customers who don’t “get it.”
Talent — its incredibly competitive to hire in the Valley. If you can build a talented team where you are, you should.
My view: do your thing where you are, and build an awesome network. We do this at Launch Pad through our San Francisco and New York demo days, the conferences we produce and attend. To compete, you’ve got to be connected to the Valley, but you can do a lot without living here. You can even make it work to your advantage.
* Though I’m excited to come home, this post isn’t written just for New Orleans, it applies anywhere.