[memracom]

This is yet another reason why startups should avoid Silicon Valley. Years ago, the investment climate in SV really was different than elsewhere but that has now changed. Not only are there tech VCs and Angels in other US cities, but they are found throughout the world. You might still have concentrations in particular places, for instance in Canada most action is in Vancouver, Waterloo and Toronto, but that is a far cry from the days when SV was the only place.

Best place to start a new company is where you are right now. That is what Atlassian did and when it made sense for them to be in a different place, they just moved. Second best place is any city where there is a concentration of tech industry but that could be in Vancouver, Berlin, Moscow (Skolkovo) or London (Old Street). You have a choice.

And if your business is growing and beginning to have a local impact, and you are senior management there, then you really should start thinking about how you can improve the local area for everyone, which is a traditional activity of larger successful companies. Spend money on civic projects. If you need better bus service, lobby for it rather than sidestepping the competition. Politics is a different game from business and if you fail to recognize that and act appropriately, then you deserve the brickbats that will be thrown at you.

I'm reminded of when IBM was the big bad boy, and Microsoft was the cool new upstart. Then Microsoft became the bad boy and Google was the cool new upstart. From the sound of things, Google is now sliding into bad boy territory.