How to Be Silicon Valley

paulgraham.com

Startups

15 min read → 70 sec

A startup hub forms when rich investors and technical talent cluster around a top university in a place young nerds want to live. Buildings and government plans matter less than organic founder networks, local personality, and time.

A startup hub needs two limiting reagents: rich people and nerds

Silicon Valley is made by founders and investors, not buildings or parks

If the right ten thousand people moved from Silicon Valley to Buffalo, Buffalo would become Silicon Valley

The hub is the people, not the place

US towns become startup hubs if and only if they have both rich people and nerds

Miami has rich people but few nerds. Pittsburgh has nerds but lacks investors

Government cannot replace startup investors

Bureaucrats lack domain experience, incentives, advice, and connections

Technology parks fail because the key startup stage is three founders in an apartment

Wherever a startup is when it gets funded, it will usually stay

A top university in an attractive, young-feeling town is the seed of a startup hub

Within the US, there are no technology hubs without first-rate universities or computer science departments

Towns that attract nerds need four qualities

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Nerds prefer places like Berkeley or Boulder, not glamour hubs like New York or Los Angeles

Startup hubs need young-feeling towns with intact centers, because young people do not want suburbs

High-tech US cities are also liberal because liberal places tolerate odd ideas

Startup hubs grow organically because startups beget startups, and the cycle takes about five years

Government is the biggest developer of all, so you do not build a silicon valley, you let one grow

Silicon Valley traces back to Shockley Semiconductor in 1956 and Fairchild Semiconductor in 1957