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Comment by pitdesi | Hacker News Reader

I wholeheartedly agree that NYC is no threat to Silicon Valley. That being said, for my individual startup, why the hell should I care if there is a microprocessor company, network equipment provider, computer company, etc etc etc? I can't think of very many of the hot startups discussed on this forum where it matters to have those things in the vicinity.

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Density of expertise, I suspect. If you're working on a software startup, by definition you're dealing with unknowns. Having companies in the area that have staff that are operating on the cutting edge of everything from cloud services to hardware means you're a hell of a lot more likely to trip over someone who can provide you with the expertise you need.

That you don't care highlights the difference between Silicon Valley and everywhere else. Here, even the so-called "hot" startups are no more than two or three hops away from the tech giants -- and that absolutely informs our collective thinking: we know how to build billion dollar tech companies because so many of us have worked for them.

Be wary of confirmation bias. It can be argued that SV alums can build billion-dollar tech companies because they receive the financial backing of those tech companies. That's not an intractable problem for a city with lots of money like NYC.

While not a new startup by any means, consider a company like VMWare. All their sales pitches discuss CPU architectures and how their products are compatible. (The pitches I've heard personally, anyway).

They want to be a big player in cloud, so it makes the most sense for them to be located in Silicon Valley. After that, it's a network effect.

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