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It’s The Network, Not The Valley, That Causes Success
By Rob | July 5, 2007
I recently stumbled across the research of Annalee Saxenian. She has studied Silicon Valley and high tech hubs in other countries. She compared Valley companies to those in Boston during a time when Boston was much less successful, and determined that the collaborative networked nature of the Valley was a key to it’s success. Add to the the research that size of network matters for entrepreneurial success, and you have an interesting conclusion. To succeed as a startup, you need good networks. If you are outside of the valley, those networks are much more difficult to build. So, in addition to Will’s excellent post about how to build a startup hub, I would add that what you don’t have locally, you should network to get. Extend your network beyond your city if you want your startup to be successful.
Topics: Ideas |
July 6th, 2007 at 11:08 am
Rob…agree. I have one caution. The quality of your network should always be the priority. Sometimes this is obvious, but every day I realize it’s not. I get generic LinkedIn invites from the thinnest of connections or now Facebook invites from people that barely know me. I have a smaller network but it is very influential, most times. People who can “lazily” build their network have just that…a lazy network. Be careful is my advice.