I suspect this only applies to the SC Valley scene.

I'm pretty sure your side-projects will really help your chances almost everywhere outside of SV. We dont do whiteboad interviews where I work. We do short projects done as homework to access candidate abilities.

I've even seen some companies selling the fact that they don't do ridiculous whiteboard interviews as a pro to attract devs.

But, what do I know. I'll most likely never work at any of the 'cool', unicorn shops.