Regional advantage

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My argument is not that Silicon Valley was inevitable but that it takes a long time to grow an entrepreneurial region. It's not misleading in raising the bar to areas/regions that want to be the next Silicon Valley and don't have an entrepreneurial substrate and appropriate ancillary services (e.g. attorneys, accountants, banks, that understand startups and entrepreneurs) to form a viable ecosystem. I don't think the 100 years is misleading, if it had happened somewhere else (e.g. Boston) I think it would still have involved the same antecedents: major universities, risk capital, electronics firms...It may also have been important that it was primarily agricultural land that was pushed aside, if there had been other active industries they may have preferentially competed for the same talent. Three good books I rely on for this analysis ar…

…businesses." Anyone remember "Silicon Gulch", or "Silicon Forest"? Anyone really interested in why Silicon Valley triumphed over Route 128 should read AnnaLee Saxenian's Regional Advantage. Hint: it was in great part due to the differences in personalities and business philosophies of William Hewlett-David Packard and Ken Olsen.

…r, but he had to work in a grocery store. It is amazing how low the barriers to entry are here. Anyone interested in how Silicon Valley became Silicon Valley should read Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 by AnnaLee Saxenian. In most of the world it is difficult to start a business. According to the Economist it takes $20,000 in fees and deposits to start a business. In many countries it takes one or two years plus bribes to get permission to start. In San Luis Obispo County it took me $120 and an hour at the county offices. And YC may even give you the money. I think I agree with Paul's conclusion if not with his antecedents. I think we are moving away from a credentials based culture to a reputation based one, not because parental manipulation can falsify credentials, but because an individual on…

Ask YC: Read any good books lately? I'm currently reading Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128 by Annalee Saxenian, and I'm loving it. It covers the history and tech culture of Silicon Valley vs Boston. I'd recommend it to anyone trying to get a grip on what makes Silicon Valley unique. I was suprised, but a lot of the Valley's distinct high tech culture flows from the early years of Fairchild, HP and Intel. This book provides great readable insight into that culture. What are you reading that's good?

…rance (London and Hartford CT), or movies (Hollywood and Bollywood (Mumbai)) to name three other examples. For some background on Silicon Valley see Anna Lee Saxenian's "Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128" http://www.amazon.com/Regional-Advantage-Culture-Competition... "Clusters and the New Economics of Competition" by Michael E. Porter in the November-December 1998 Harvard Business Review http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/common/...

The readers may be interested in "Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128" by AnnaLee Saxenian, a professor at Berkeley: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674753402/ref=cm_cr_pr_pro... The book was written in 1994, one year before the Netscape IPO, but even 13 years ago, the author concluded that Silicon Valley offered enormous advantages over Massachusetts for entrepreneurship. Two points in particular are worth noting: 1. Professor Saxenian paid particular attention to the (back then) highly successful minicomputer companies: Digital Equipment, Data General, Prime Computer, Wang. All of them were vertically integrated companies that attempted to do everything themselves -- R&D, product design, manufacturing, sales, and after-market service. The SV companies were more likely to focus on their core comp…