[logfromblammo]

There's also a reason people go to south Atlanta for movies and a dozen different, lesser hub cities for tech.

Movie people from Hollywood don't go to Atlanta. Tech people from SV/NYC don't go to other cities. But there are significant incentives for people from everywhere else to consider different aggregator communities as their base when they are planning out their careers.

I don't have a SV or NYC network to lose. The proposition of moving doesn't automatically give me one. All it gives me is a pay raise, which is more than eaten by higher costs of living.

[Apocryphon]

Tech money people from SV/NYC ought to consider going to these secondary hubs. They can become big fishes in smaller ponds really quickly, and build networks to make use of the talent going to these communities. To some extent this has happened to other industries. Charlotte, NC became a major financial hub after 9/11. Vancouver is Hollywood North. Montréal is as significant, if not more, than the Bay Area for video games.

[FiatLuxDave]

I can't agree strongly enough. I wonder how many VCs read about Arthur Rock and the Traitorous Eight and are smart enough to realize that Silicon Valley has become today's equivalent of 1950's New York: expensive, dominated by advertising money and networking, and so self-evidently the center of the universe that one shouldn't need to worry about what people are working on in the hinterlands.

New industries will be born somewhere, and it probably won't be in SV.

[wasdfff]

This type of thing is not cheap or easy for most companies. Who is expanding into these small ponds? Amazon, one of the largest tech companies on earth, and with a years long theatrical processs. Talent going to these communities was already passed over by SV university recruiting. There’s no urgency to get into these puddles when every 22 year old with a CS degree is willing to drop everything and come to you.

[Apocryphon]

The tendency for VCs to favor financial stability over audacity or innovation when making geographical choices is disappointing, agreed.