Geolocating Your Startup

Susheel asked me in the comments what I thought of this column by Pascal Zachary in this weekend’s New York Times. Susheel posted that question anonymously. And because I am obsessed right now with the community that’s here at AVC, I chastised the anonymous comment:

anonymous,

if you start leaving comments with your real name, i’ll tell you and
everyone else who reads this blog what i think of that article.

but not unless you stop posting anonymously.

fred

Susheel came clean so here’s my thoughts.

I am with Valleywag which called Pascal’s post a "yawner". Tell me something I don’t know. Silicon Valley has been the center of the global startup scene for longer than I’ve been an adult. Yes, it’s true that iPod, Google, eBay, and YouTube came out of Silicon Valley.

But I find it more interesting that Skype, Blackberry, and MySpace did not.

Does starting a company in Silicon Valley increase your chances of success? Maybe, but Pascal didn’t present any stats to make the case.

How many startups got started in Silicon Valley over the past three years? How many have been "successful"? And by what measure? Then do the same math for Boulder, Austin, Seattle, Southern California, Boston, New York, London, Tel Aviv, Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore, Bangalore, [and Canada fo course – thanks Kendal], etc.

Then we’ll talk.