Startups the main game in town; yup, it's a good point, and in Paul's essay he says that Silicon Valley is probably the only place where doing a startup is considered normal. In London it's absolutely not! London has a low density, but still in absolute terms the 3rd largest (by SD subscriber metrics) startup cluster in the world. The fact that startups are not the only game in town is both a positive and a negative. In Silicon Valley there is somewhat of an echo-chamber, and there really isn't anything but tech. London on the other hand is a huge city, the most multicultural on the planet, and can lay claim to being the centre of a number of important industries, including finance, media, music, fashion, etc. If you are doing a startup in any of those sectors Silicon Valley is probably not the most appropriate place to be.
Comments
Startups the main game in town; yup, it's a good point, and in Paul's essay he says that Silicon Valley is probably the only place where doing a startup is considered normal. In London it's absolutely not! London has a low density, but still in absolute terms the 3rd largest (by SD subscriber metrics) startup cluster in the world. The fact that startups are not the only game in town is both a positive and a negative. In Silicon Valley there is somewhat of an echo-chamber, and there really isn't anything but tech. London on the other hand is a huge city, the most multicultural on the planet, and can lay claim to being the centre of a number of important industries, including finance, media, music, fashion, etc. If you are doing a startup in any of those sectors Silicon Valley is probably not the most appropriate place to be.