16th
Startups and the Valley
Just finished reading Tech Startups Don’t Need the Valley over at GigaOM, seem’d to get a bunch of tweets from people who liked it. While it brought up the point that the VC model may be broken, the cracks are there, that does not equal the Bay Area Startup culture. I totally agree that you don’t need to be in the Valley to be successful, you do need some of the support that it offers. If that support is other places so-be-it, but VC does not equal success nor does it equal the death of the valley’s great track record for turning out amazing companies.
I say find the people first and the money can follow. As someone who did a decent exit of a non-VC backed company it goes to show that just because you’re in the valley doesn’t mean you need VC. I would however argue that you can’t discount the value of the Venture community in this ecosystem. Remember that the Venture Funds are there to make money, I’ve yet to see someone have a gun to their head before signing the term sheet. I think that like everything the market will correct some of the wild things that VC’s have done in the past, but remember that location isn’t as important as the team you put together and the goto market strategy.
