Flame War Fun: Silicon Valley vs. everyone else
February 15th, 2008 by Benjamin KuoGlenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin — based in Seattle — recently posted a piece on the difference between Silicon Valley and Seattle’s high tech industries. In what looks like the begining of an old-fashioned flame war, TechCrunch’s Mike Arrington says Kelman has a flawed view of Silicon Valley.
It’s always fascinating to see these kinds of posts — awhile back there was one by Paul Graham (of Y Incubator) on how locating in Houston will kill your startup; and just this week a complaint by Fred Wilson, a New York VC on Silicon Valley arrogance. It seems like what there is a lot of in Silicon Valley–aside from venture capital and startups–is ego.
My personal opinion (having worked in Silicon Valley) is that although there are some advantages to Silicon Valley, there are a number of other high tech centers (Southern California of course being one of the more important ones) where there is a critical mass of high technology companies, venture capital, and service providers that make them robust places for startups. Particular areas outside of Southern California and New England (which have been fairly well established for awhile) worth watching include not only Seattle, but also New York City; Austin, Texas; and Boulder, Colorado; not to mention Tel Aviv and Mumbai.
