For years leaders have said "come to the Valley, it's expensive but worth it"<p>After the past year and a half, that's more debatable than ever<p>Is moving to Silicon Valley still worth it?<p>If you're not already established in the area, is it a better idea to set up a new startup in a smaller city / fully remote?
It's worth it if you go join one of the fast growing start-ups and make a good number of connections.<p>I've lived here 7 years, and recently spent 12 months away because of covid. You'd be surprised how the basic knowledge of building a product and getting a company off the ground has not really permeated elsewhere. There are small groups of people elsewhere who seem to know what they are doing, but not writ large like it is here.<p>So, come, I say. You can always leave.
I think it might be worth it to be there for a while if you're young and getting established. It still very much is a tech center and there's a great density of talent and jobs.<p>Live as light as you can and focus on learning and building your career. If you're not making at least $200k by age 30, leave. That's practically the poverty line if you want to start a family. A "fixer upper" starter house will be over a million dollars. I call the Bay Area the world's only six figure slum.<p>I wouldn't start a startup there unless it were lavishly funded, or unless it's made up exclusively of young people who are okay with sleeping on couches or living in tiny rooms.<p>The trend is toward place (in general, not just SF/SV) becoming less and less important over time. The old limitation that you have to be in the Bay Area to raise angel or VC money has been dead for years, and COVID massively accelerated the shift toward remote and distributed teams in knowledge-oriented industries. There is still benefit to going to a concentrated hub for a while to level up, but once you hit a certain level in your career you no longer need to stay.
I wonder more broadly if the value prop of a “city” still holds.<p>The value prop of Silicon Valley was a place to get coffee and work with THE cutting edge tech people. In the same way NYC might be seen as THE place to meet, collaborate, build lasting relationships in finance…<p>Does the idea of a city as a super hub still make sense? Especially in a tech world where more and more companies are fully or partially remote? Can you build lasting, long term trust based relationships without getting coffee or hanging out at least some?<p>I also wonder what the answer will be in 1-5 years. We might still be biased by the Covid centric world.
Have you visited? I'd start with that if not.<p>I did a couple years ago for a conference and the homeless were very aggressive. One tried to start a fight with me because I wouldn't give him bus fare.<p>The state of public transport is very poor for such a densely populated place as well. There are almost no taxis. If you don't uber/lyft/whatever, you are invisible.<p>This was before the reports of tent cities and feces/needles in the streets, so I assume the place has only gotten much worse and less safe.<p>That was my one and only visit. I would not take a family there. It was bad.
Much less physical connections in SV.<p>SV is great if you're introduced or already have connections to strengthen your existing position.<p>SV is also great if you already working here and want to move to low/no tax state and going to win the fight with your HR to not downgrade your salary.<p>If you starting from scratch - not so sure.<p>Lots of concerns about growing taxes, reduced freedoms, raising crime, polluted cities with homeless encampments.
I remember reading the old Paul Graham essays where he says one of the main reasons they picked SV is because everyone is always smiling and optimistic, open to new ideas. Is that still the case these days?<p>source: <a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html</a>
I don't think SV has been worth it for many years. There are certainly advantages to living in the area, but there are also huge downsides (not only the COL). For me, the cost/benefit ratio is not favorable. Your mileage may vary, of course.