[biggitybones]

I'm not sure if anyone else caught Jessica trying to follow up about the serendipitous meetings of people like Sean Parker in the Valley. I think he's completely discounting some of the experiences and chance happenings that acted as a catalyst to Facebook's success.

It goes back to what PG said at YCNYC that apparently he caught a lot of flack for - these types of occurrences, while they happen, are just far too infrequent in other places with less vibrant tech communities.

[dbul]

I don't think Mark was discounting it; I'm sure he appreciated Sean's role. He was just saying if he had the kind of knowledge he now has (maybe top HN articles, avc.com would suffice?), he would have stuck around Boston or New York.

Paul's example would better be supplemented by other stories like the telecom startup which was having a rough time, got in touch with Ron Conway who was an investor or FoF, Ron replied that he knew a telcom exec, and the company was saved.

You can absolutely create a scalable startup elsewhere but you have to be the right person with the right business.