Marvin Ammori

Paul Graham, the now-legendary founder of Y Combinator, has posted on start-up hubs. He observes that cities don’t kill start-ups. Start-ups are likely to die. It just so happens that some cities are fertile ground for start-ups. Start-ups are more like Carmenere grapes than weeds: they tend to grow best only in areas with particular, specific conditions. For start-ups, the presence of others involved in (or showing respect for) start-ups matters.

Environment

I think there are two components … being in a place where startups are the cool thing to do, and chance meetings with people who can help you. And what drives them both is the number of startup people around you.

In other places, as Paul says, “if you start a startup, people treat you as if you’re unemployed.”  The whole post is worth reading.

Paul has addressed similar questions earlier, such as how to be another Silicon Valleys, whether a Silicon Valley can be “bought” or planned, the differences between NYC and Silicon Valley, and why you should move to a start-up hub.