Bill Gurley
“I spent twenty five years in Silicon Valley, it was titled 2851. And I I used that title because I had a punch line at the end where I said the reason Silicon Valley works so well is because it's so far fucking away from Washington DC, and that was the distance in miles.”
Gurley says Silicon Valley has become more rooted in Washington DC than ever before since he gave his talk.
“But since I gave that talk, I'd say Silicon Valley has gotten more, like, rooted in Washington DC than it ever has more. Than it ever has before.”
Gurley concludes Silicon Valley's success is because it is so far away from Washington DC.
“The reason Silicon Valley has been so successful is because it's so fucking far away from Washington DC.”
Gurley says average Silicon Valley financial literacy is two out of ten versus eight-and-a-half in New York.
“So this gets into some of the earlier stuff we talked about just about how deep you go on investing history and understanding But if there is a scale of financial sophistication between one and ten, and you would say a really smart person in New York is a eight and a half.”
Gurley explains that struggling Silicon Valley companies suffer brain drain due to abundant alternative opportunities.
“In Silicon Valley, when you have a company on the outs, there are so many job opportunities around here. You get the brain drain, the creative talent leaves.”