HN Explorer

Ask HN: How do you create a Silicon Valley?

4 points by thejf ↗ HN
I realize this isn't a new question, and has even been addressed by Paul Graham before ( http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html ), but I was wondering if I could glean some more from HN's collective wisdom.

What does it take to create a vibrant tech hub filled with entrepreneuring hackers?

I ask with a specific place in mind. I live in Moncton, a mid-sized Canadian city that is in Atlantic Canada. The region has high unemployment and is marginalized, geographically and politically. Moncton fares better than most of the region and has about half the unemployment rate than the rest. It's geographically central and has become a "hub", drawing in a steady stream of migrants from the surroundings. We also have a lot of people in the region that are trained in tech-related field; the bulk of them work in call centres which are a significant part of the economy here. While bringing in money, the call centres unfortunately dull their I.T. skillsets.

In my mind, it seems like Moncton would be a good candidate to become a regional tech hub, but it hasn't really developed as such. So I wonder, what would it take to create a regional tech hub? Institutions? Investors? Culture? More Starbucks per capita? More personally, as someone from the tech/startup world, what would your ideal city be like?

6 comments

[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 21.6 ms ] thread
rst
Steve "Four Steps to the Epiphany" Blank's series of blog posts on "The Secret History of Silicon Valley" is a good read on this subject. A short summary is that a lot of the early firms were either got mentors from or directly spun out of Stanford labs --- and that in the early years, most of what they were doing was related to defense projects of one kind or another. (Fred Terman, a Stanford professor whose name comes up all over the place, ran an electronic warfare lab during World War II, and was heavily involved in cold war follow-ons.) So, government money had more to do with it than purely doctrinaire libertarians might be comfortable with.

The whole series is here (earlier posts at the bottom):

http://steveblank.com/category/secret-history-of-silicon-val...

The first post is here, with a video of an hour-long talk given at a CIA sponsored conference:

http://steveblank.com/2009/03/23/if-i-told-you-i%E2%80%99d-h...

thejf
Thanks, I will definitely read/listen to Steve Blank's Secret History of Silicon Valley!
Mz
Clickable: http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html

Stanford had some role in fostering Silicon Valley. I don't recall the details, but if I were trying to "recreate Silicon Valley" I would research that and then see if there was a way to get a local college involved doing something similar. Then I would look at various incubators, their success rates and details of their programs and see what low cost things could be implemented. Even just fostering meetups locally might get the ball rolling. You do not necessarily need much resources to get things started.

dreamdu5t
Silicon Valley is a brand. The critical component is building the reputation and mythology of being a "vibrant tech hub."
mchannon
I think the answer may actually be far easier to quantify:

Ambitious people.

Many of the areas outside of the bay are composed solely of people who either want a job that pays their bills, or don't want to work at all.

The bay sort-of self-selects for ambitious people; salarymen and slobs get priced (or even bred) out, and the best and brightest are drawn in, either by educational opportunities, high-growth job opportunities, or the community itself.

New York, Boston, Boulder, Austin.. these places also have ambitious people. This is in part because ambitious people like living near other ambitious people.

diminium
I don't living in SV but I like reading about it. All I can really say is to follow the money.

In order to be Silicon Valley, the first thing a place like Moncton needs is money. Lots and lots of money. Silicon Valley got it's money because the US Government wanted lots of Cold War gadgets.

The second thing is someone in charge that is smart enough to spend that money correctly. Silicon Valley had Frederick Terman, who was very good at this.

The third thing you need is someone stupid. Well, not stupid in your area but somewhere else. Someone who is willing to give you everything you want on a silver platter for free because they think it's worthless. For example, in Silicon Valley, these "things" are smart geeks. Other cities didn't care enough to keep them so Silicon Valley took them one by one.