Search:
Recent Posts
Categories
Archives
Utah as the Next Silicon Valley?
Guy has a great post about how to make your city/region the next Silicon Valley. There is a lot of useful information for all of us in Utah. I had lunch today with an ex-VC Silicon Valley transplant. He indicated to me that the bay area has a lot of interest in Utah but we’re still a long way from getting any real respect. Why is that? We have great technology companies and a very talented pool of people. Is it our culture or are they just a bunch of snobs? Its probably a combination of both. Frankly, we do have a long way to go. Pay particular attention to the content under the heading “Stuff You Shouldn’t Do Jack About”. We’re guilty on all four points! We’re also blowing it on almost all points under the heading “Stuff You Can Do Jack About”.
We have the potential to be big but we need to get serious about growing up first.
Â
We met with a couple of VCs still out on Sand Hill yesterday and had this exact conversation. I don’t believe we’re quite ready to be the next Silicon Valley. The problem isn’t a very talented pool of people, our culture, or VCs being slobs. The problem is that we really don’t have a huge pool of talent good at running businesses. In addition to that, businesses seem to grow large here and then move away. Weird.
Left by nick on 06/08/2006Chris: I ran across your blog today. Looks good and good thoughts. I wish you guys the best at 10Speed. I agree with your post about respect. Not sure if there is an easy answer to the problem, but I do think that networking has a lot to do with it. There needs to be more networking in the state IMO. Easy to say…sometimes hard to do. Cheers.
Left by Marc Modersitzki on 06/13/2006