We always hear how important it is to be in the Valley, but of course that advice always comes from people actively building companies in the Valley. And we hear from a few out-spoken companies how <i>un</i>important it is to be in the Valley, but of course they're actively building a business elsewhere.<p>I think Naval Ravikant makes a good point (http://startupboy.com/2010/01/17/why-you-need-to-be-in-silicon-valley/). For winner-take-all situations like Facebook or Twitter, you need every advantage you can get, and it makes sense to move to the Valley. But what about the other 99% of startups? (And development shops, and freelancers, and un-funded side projects, and the rest...)<p>I know plenty of companies move to the Valley after a certain point. And, although much rarer, some companies leave the Valley after starting there (for example, Wufoo).<p>So what do you think? To those people who have experienced both locations (SF and something else), what differences have you found?<p>How important is location, <i>really?</i> And why?
I think being around large numbers of people exchanging good ideas facilitates innovation faster, but that certainly doesn't mean that there aren't great ideas in rural North Dakota. Passion, inspiration, and motivation are the most important things regardless of where you are, but luck seems to play a bigger part in places like New York or Silicon Valley.<p>I also think location can be crucial to success for companies like foursquare, where it has the chance of a much faster adoption rate in a large city like New York.
I don't have a starup, I am not even a developer but I would say location very important.<p>Whether you are located in a small town in the third world or in SV , NYC, London or Tokyo makes a difference. Just think about all the different factors that are affected by location internet speed, cost of living, laws, local scene, etc. All this changes not only from country to country but from sate to state and from city to city.
I used to live in Norfolk, VA, a military town. Then I moved to Cambridge, MA. Since moving to Cambridge, I've been involved in the active startup scene here, which is practically non-existent in Norfolk. From my experience, location matters.