[jackowayed]

I think PG hears a lot about location ("We're the YC of Alaska!", "Do we have to move if we get into YC?") and is getting tired of it. If you want to start a startup, moving to a startup hotspot will help a lot. If you want to attend cool conferences, move somewhere that frequently has cool conferences, or be willing to get on a plane for a good event.

The Midwest won't have a successful Startup School clone (at least not with speakers of this caliber) because it's not dense enough with startup people. Maybe there are enough people to make the event worthwhile in all of the Midwest, but it's such a huge area that a lot of people would still be facing very long drives or flying.

When people say "I want an event like this in <my region>", they really mean "I want an event like this within a 2 hour drive of my house, preferably closer." They don't mean "I live in Ohio and would happily travel to Kansas for this event." If someone were to announce an event like this in, say, Minneapolis, a lot of people form Indiana and Ohio would realize that that's not what they had in mind when they asked for a Startup School clone in the Midwest.

And now PG's invested in a flight comparison startup, so just as people sometimes link to http://www.justfuckinggoogleit.com/, he can link to Hipmunk to say "just fucking fly here."

[pg]

I didn't mean anything quite so rude. I meant it more as invitation. Lots of the people who come to Startup School fly in to do it. That's why we have 2 weeks between acceptances and the date of the event-- so people can buy cheap plane tickets.

[nico]

No cheap tickets from Chile on such short notice though... :(

[lg]

just fyi, the cheapest fares typically have 21-day advance purchase restrictions.

[dschobel]

I think asking why Silicon Valley almost completely ignores the midwest when there is engineering talent here in spades (I'm in Chicago and we have the population and the top flight engineering schools to, I believe, merit some attention) is perfectly legitimate and saying "just go to SV" is a "let them eat cake" answer which misses the fundamental issue.

Even if the answer is as simple "YC's plate is totally full just keeping up with the SV scene" or "pg hates the cold", that would be more compelling than just a brush off and link to some plane tickets.

[philwelch]

pg's written entire essays on the subject. But the bottom line is: if you're into startups, Silicon Valley is the best place. It'll take more than a conference or two to make Chicago a startup hub.

If you want a different opinion, read 37signals' blog and books. They're right there in Chicago.

"Why does Silicon Valley ignore the Midwest" strikes me as missing the point entirely. Regions don't become entrepreneurial by the careful attention of people from other, more entrepreneurial regions. They do it themselves. That is the point of entrepreneurship!