Innovation does not happen in a vacuum. This is a great example of the importance of the “local buzz” in proper clusters which is also effectively countering the idea of the “death of distance”. Enrico Moretti had already highlighted the matter more than 10 years ago with his quote that “a handful of cities with the “right” industries and a solid base of human capital keep attracting good employers and offering high wages, while those at the other extreme, cities with the “wrong” industries and a limited human capital base, are stuck with dead-end jobs and low average wages”.
As somebody who is deep in the weeds on the importance of "place" when building startup ecosystems, I found this recent blog post from Y Combinator on selecting their new HQ's location fascinating. Some key takeaways: 1️⃣ People forget that YC began in Boston and then relocated to the bay area 2️⃣ Many of their early decisions about where to locate were driven by where they could get free space. The story of MassChallenge and the Boston Seaport is a similar story. 3️⃣ A recognition of how the bay area startup community is changing and shifting. Their bet is that founders want to be back in the city, not in the suburbs. 4️⃣ Proximity to other companies is critical. Originally companies wanted to be proximate to Google and now the blog post closes by highlighting their proximity to OpenAI. 5️⃣ Most importantly to my current work at National Science Foundation (NSF) and U.S. Department of Commerce, ecosystems are tightly-knit, dense clusters built on top of talent concentrations. If you think your regional innovation ecosystem is 4-5 states, I would really rethink that. https://lnkd.in/ecp9cXYq
