[omegant]

It also counts that you are in a habitat where having beers with Zuck or being one of the first employees of google or twitter( or just name one..) is easy. If you need a 500000$ seed investment? No problem, I will talk to Andressen and it'll be done in a week.. Of course it's not always like this but SV is the place where this may happen. The biggest difference I notice with other places beyond the easier access to investment (I am from Spain), is that people there has a "can do" attitude that is almost completely missing everywhere else. If you go to Stanford, it is expected from you to go and make something big just because of that. Also there is the glorification of failure as a learning experience. Here in Spain I am seeing lots of good Ideas to start a small bussines or a Start up for almost no money, but even in the middle of the crisis, people who doesn't have a job gives me a blank stare every time I talk about them. They'll just keep looking for a simple job at a big company, as it that is the only possible way.

The think that most impacts me of this article is how they get 25000 users the first day. How do you do that?. Is due to having a huge net of early adopters as friends?

Edit: twitter spelling!(tweeter...)

[smackay]

The can-do attitude is something to be envied but the dynamism and opportunities available in the Valley and generally in the USA make a big difference. If your big idea doesn't pan out then the (almost) worst case scenario is that you simply go and work for somebody else. I don't think other country's economies are nearly as developed in that respect. In many cases developers are hired on the basis of cost and anything that the might prejudice that in the eyes of managers and employers (for example being a little too dynamic or independently minded) removes a lot of the cushion you have and makes going for the safe, corporate type of job more practical, not necessarily more desirable.

[brazzy]

Don't forget the other side of the coin: that "can do attitude" and that environment can also, if you buy into it too far and don't get lucky, have you broke and homeless.

It's partially a gamble, and magazines write articles only about the winners.

[omegant]

I agree with that, but that´s true anywhere in the world. In Spain if your company fails you may be personally liable of the debt. Recently a bank removed 3000€ from my grandmother account because of a debt dated from 1993 of my deceased grandfather´s company. My grandmother is 97 years old, and the funniest part is that debt was settled long ago. Also if you fail nobody is going to trust in you any more, you are done.

I know that SV is not the golden city that this articles paint, but it is way ahead when we speak of entrepreneurship and startups.

[kybernetyk]

> Also if you fail nobody is going to trust in you any more, you are done.

It's the same in Germany. If you fail with a business you are on the same level of a criminal to many people. I don't care about being jobless (because I know how to scrub together at least 1000 Euros every month). But the "failed business" stigma is really what inhibits entrepreneurship here.

[brazzy]

My point was not so much about SV but about the "can do attitude" - when taken too far it will have you go deeper into debt and chasing pipe dreams rather than cut your losses. It can kill good companies too, if it leads you to ignore risks.

[omegant]

Yes I agree that jumping to start a project without some planning can be devastating. I can´t find the PG essay where he talks about minimize expenses and try to have infinite runway, but after one year and a half of entrepreneurship that is the way I going to try next (first I have to fail this one ;) )