Comments on: Bay area, center of the world? http://blog.webreakstuff.com/2005/06/bay-area-center-of-the-world/ A blog on entrepreneurship, user experience, and web innovation. Published by Fred Oliveira. Tue, 13 Dec 2011 18:19:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: WeBreakStuff » Okay, I get it. http://blog.webreakstuff.com/2005/06/bay-area-center-of-the-world/comment-page-1/#comment-379 WeBreakStuff » Okay, I get it. Fri, 16 Sep 2005 15:37:11 +0000 http://blog.webreakstuff.com/?p=50#comment-379 [...] So now that I’m in the bay area and finally used to the timezone (which was easier than I had expected), I am seeing what’s special about it that makes it so enticing to start businesses here. Basically, everyone’s around. I had wondered about this a couple of times (okay, maybe three) up until I got here but now it’s sunk in. It’s all about the ecosystem of people that live in or around the bay area, and those that drop by all the time. [...] [...] So now that I’m in the bay area and finally used to the timezone (which was easier than I had expected), I am seeing what’s special about it that makes it so enticing to start businesses here. Basically, everyone’s around. I had wondered about this a couple of times (okay, maybe three) up until I got here but now it’s sunk in. It’s all about the ecosystem of people that live in or around the bay area, and those that drop by all the time. [...]

]]> By: Texas Venture Capital Blog » 3Qs Interview with Philippe Creytens of Twodecode Technologies http://blog.webreakstuff.com/2005/06/bay-area-center-of-the-world/comment-page-1/#comment-223 Texas Venture Capital Blog » 3Qs Interview with Philippe Creytens of Twodecode Technologies Thu, 11 Aug 2005 17:59:13 +0000 http://blog.webreakstuff.com/?p=50#comment-223 [...] A: Our team members have mainly had experiences with European VCs in the past. However, the European investor scene clearly is not interested in investing in seed/early-stage companies; we see that all the interesting ideas for a web 2.0 are developed and funded in the US. We are looking for investors where personal contacts between management and investor have all the elements for a stable "marriage", in good and bad days. We want them to be out-of-the-box thinking and understand what is important in our company: our business should make money, fun to work for, creative and international. Preferably investors that have contacts in printed media, the mobile phone industry and are aware of what is happening on the Internet. (Yes, we have seen people that don’t know anything about blogs, RSS, tags, etc. and still claim that they know what is happening on the Internet). [...] [...] A: Our team members have mainly had experiences with European VCs in the past. However, the European investor scene clearly is not interested in investing in seed/early-stage companies; we see that all the interesting ideas for a web 2.0 are developed and funded in the US. We are looking for investors where personal contacts between management and investor have all the elements for a stable "marriage", in good and bad days. We want them to be out-of-the-box thinking and understand what is important in our company: our business should make money, fun to work for, creative and international. Preferably investors that have contacts in printed media, the mobile phone industry and are aware of what is happening on the Internet. (Yes, we have seen people that don’t know anything about blogs, RSS, tags, etc. and still claim that they know what is happening on the Internet). [...]

]]> By: Ben http://blog.webreakstuff.com/2005/06/bay-area-center-of-the-world/comment-page-1/#comment-88 Ben Mon, 27 Jun 2005 06:25:11 +0000 http://blog.webreakstuff.com/?p=50#comment-88 I agree with Evan...it's all about the face to face meetings be they bumping into other folks while getting coffee or a beer after work or the ability to easily schedule more formal business "deal" meetings with clients...being close makes a world of difference. I'm interested to hear if Europeans feel that being close means being in Europe or the same country or neighbouring countries?? What is the interlectual barrier that we put up that says we are "far away"? NY SF? Portugal Sweden? Everywhere Australia ;-) I agree with Evan…it’s all about the face to face meetings be they bumping into other folks while getting coffee or a beer after work or the ability to easily schedule more formal business “deal” meetings with clients…being close makes a world of difference.

I’m interested to hear if Europeans feel that being close means being in Europe or the same country or neighbouring countries?? What is the interlectual barrier that we put up that says we are “far away”? NY SF? Portugal Sweden? Everywhere Australia ;-)

]]> By: Kristian Nilsson http://blog.webreakstuff.com/2005/06/bay-area-center-of-the-world/comment-page-1/#comment-81 Kristian Nilsson Sun, 26 Jun 2005 23:44:46 +0000 http://blog.webreakstuff.com/?p=50#comment-81 Great article. Yes, we Europeans seem to stand next to each other reading in our RSS-aggregators what is happening in some key geographical areas in the USA. Some Europeans take part of a broader US/International conversation, but there seems to be less communication between these Europeans themselves. They need perhaps a common American-International denominator. I'm part of a "media-collaborative" project (it is not a start-up or is intended to become one) in Sweden, which we call bitlab malmö. The project is isolated from what is happening around us in Internet 1.0-Sweden, but that is quite ok. If our project had been launched, not in a semi-provincial area, but in a more central area it would possibly have developed more dynamically - but who knows? Great article.
Yes, we Europeans seem to stand next to each other reading in our RSS-aggregators what is happening in some key geographical areas in the USA. Some Europeans take part of a broader US/International conversation, but there seems to be less communication between these Europeans themselves. They need perhaps a common American-International denominator.

I’m part of a “media-collaborative” project (it is not a start-up or is intended to become one) in Sweden, which we call bitlab malmö. The project is isolated from what is happening around us in Internet 1.0-Sweden, but that is quite ok. If our project had been launched, not in a semi-provincial area, but in a more central area it would possibly have developed more dynamically – but who knows?

]]> By: Texas Venture Capital Blog » Blog Archive » The center of the Web 2.0 world :: why SFO and not DFW? http://blog.webreakstuff.com/2005/06/bay-area-center-of-the-world/comment-page-1/#comment-80 Texas Venture Capital Blog » Blog Archive » The center of the Web 2.0 world :: why SFO and not DFW? Sun, 26 Jun 2005 20:49:56 +0000 http://blog.webreakstuff.com/?p=50#comment-80 [...] s blog, We Break Stuff, in my RSS reader. This after noon Fred asked the question, “Is the Bay Area the center of the world?” It would seem that it is for [...] [...] s blog, We Break Stuff, in my RSS reader. This after noon Fred asked the question, “Is the Bay Area the center of the world?” It would seem that it is for [...]

]]> By: fred http://blog.webreakstuff.com/2005/06/bay-area-center-of-the-world/comment-page-1/#comment-71 fred Sun, 26 Jun 2005 17:56:39 +0000 http://blog.webreakstuff.com/?p=50#comment-71 <em>There are a number of reasons why geography matters so much. Everyday when when go to cafe centro in south park we get coffee we run in to people form six apart, adaptive path, and other web 2 companies. It’s not so much it that you can’t follow what’s going on, but rather you can meet and chat with people easily.</em> This is exactly the reason why I was thinking about moving now, or in a couple of years. On one hand, I have the stability of an okay life where I am right now and I've been having a few job offers lately (mostly due to some of the thoughts I've been putting into this blog and recent work). On the other hand, I have the one place where I know people would actually make me push the envelope even further, and that idea excites me and makes me want to sell some stuff, get an airplane ticket and start "over". Anyway, and despite this personal vent, thanks a bunch for your wonderful insight, Evan. You have given me thought. A lot of it. There are a number of reasons why geography matters so much. Everyday when when go to cafe centro in south park we get coffee we run in to people form six apart, adaptive path, and other web 2 companies. It’s not so much it that you can’t follow what’s going on, but rather you can meet and chat with people easily.

This is exactly the reason why I was thinking about moving now, or in a couple of years. On one hand, I have the stability of an okay life where I am right now and I’ve been having a few job offers lately (mostly due to some of the thoughts I’ve been putting into this blog and recent work). On the other hand, I have the one place where I know people would actually make me push the envelope even further, and that idea excites me and makes me want to sell some stuff, get an airplane ticket and start “over”.

Anyway, and despite this personal vent, thanks a bunch for your wonderful insight, Evan. You have given me thought. A lot of it.

]]> By: rabble http://blog.webreakstuff.com/2005/06/bay-area-center-of-the-world/comment-page-1/#comment-68 rabble Sun, 26 Jun 2005 17:28:08 +0000 http://blog.webreakstuff.com/?p=50#comment-68 Back in 1998, despite being from california, i started a web 1.0 company near Boston. Location mattered a lot and it was a big part of why MetaEvents was only a moderate sucess. There are a number of reasons why geography matters so much. Everyday when when go to cafe centro in south park we get coffee we run in to people form six apart, adaptive path, and other web 2 companies. It's not so much it that you can't follow what's going on, but rather you can meet and chat with people easily. Meeting are easier. When we are thinking of a project, we can easily find the right people and talk to them. Because there is a concentration of people living here, the social networks overlap with the companies. So when odeo was looking at talking to google about something, we said, oh, i know so and so at yahoo, let's see if they have some similar stealth project we might want to use instead. Noah and Evhead actually met because they were neighbors. Then later the relationship of audioblogger grew up, followed by ev leaving google, and noah talked him in to joining odeo. People move around in a community, you have a critical mass of people. So while you may be competitors this year, next you'll work for each other. Over time you develop a community of people, ideas, and activity. Another thing is san francisco draws people from all over the world. For example, stewart and catarina were here in the bay area, then went up to vancouver started flickr, but they had to keep coming back down to SF for meetings and deals, and eventually they got bought and moved back down. Odeo has people on it's team from germany, the uk, canada, venezuela, and uruguay. That's typical that about half of the people involved in a bay area tech company are not from the US. That draw of talent reduces the possiblity of other major centers of innovation from taking hold. One exception perhaps is the number of indian engineers who lost their work visas in the dot com collapse. They en-masse went back to india settling in bangalore creating another center. Back in 1998, despite being from california, i started a web 1.0 company near Boston. Location mattered a lot and it was a big part of why MetaEvents was only a moderate sucess.

There are a number of reasons why geography matters so much. Everyday when when go to cafe centro in south park we get coffee we run in to people form six apart, adaptive path, and other web 2 companies. It’s not so much it that you can’t follow what’s going on, but rather you can meet and chat with people easily.

Meeting are easier. When we are thinking of a project, we can easily find the right people and talk to them. Because there is a concentration of people living here, the social networks overlap with the companies. So when odeo was looking at talking to google about something, we said, oh, i know so and so at yahoo, let’s see if they have some similar stealth project we might want to use instead.

Noah and Evhead actually met because they were neighbors. Then later the relationship of audioblogger grew up, followed by ev leaving google, and noah talked him in to joining odeo. People move around in a community, you have a critical mass of people. So while you may be competitors this year, next you’ll work for each other. Over time you develop a community of people, ideas, and activity.

Another thing is san francisco draws people from all over the world. For example, stewart and catarina were here in the bay area, then went up to vancouver started flickr, but they had to keep coming back down to SF for meetings and deals, and eventually they got bought and moved back down.

Odeo has people on it’s team from germany, the uk, canada, venezuela, and uruguay. That’s typical that about half of the people involved in a bay area tech company are not from the US. That draw of talent reduces the possiblity of other major centers of innovation from taking hold.

One exception perhaps is the number of indian engineers who lost their work visas in the dot com collapse. They en-masse went back to india settling in bangalore creating another center.

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