Location, Location
I think there’s a set of general rules of thumb on where to locate a startup.
The need to be in a talent ‘hotspot’ like Silicon Valley, San Francisco, New York, London, etc. is directly proportional to:
- The strength of consensus in the space you’re pursuing
- The rate of change in the enabling technologies
- The competitive intensity
- The geographic concentration of your customer base in the same location
- The relative importance of speed to market as a competitive advantage
In other words, if you’re in a war: you must be in a hotspot; if you’re exploring the obscure, you can afford to not be.