[t4nkd]

Just, anecdotally, I knew a startup in northwest Arkansas (the walmart region) that won seed funding of about $100,000. They squandered the money relatively quickly, and immediately decided the only way to salvage their business was to head to SF. It only took a few months after renting a house to keep everyone in, and they managed to secure another ≈$1.3M. To this day they swear up and down, the only way to turn a business idea into reality is to live in SF/the valley. Seems to be a very common concept, regardless of the realities.

[GFischer]

Getting funded outside the Valley is an order of magnitude harder, so it makes sense to move to the Valley I guess (even temporarily).

A local company raised 25.000 dollars here in Uruguay, got accepted into 500 Startups and got over a million dollars in funding (which is basically impossible here), they have a very cool idea and innovative tech but had little traction at the time.

[jp555]

SV can disrupt anything ... except geography.

[t4nkd]

At that rate, the entire software industry is just a facet of an elaborate real estate gamble.