> If Google had been started in Pittsburgh, they still would have been successful.
I'm not a huge Silicon Valley booster (I like MA, thankyouverymuch), but I think the idea that Google would have been able to hire as much top notch talent, as quickly as they did, in PA is nonsense.
The only way that Google could have started in PA and been as successful as they have been is if they very quickly moved to Silicon Valley (or - maybe - MA).
I'm not sure that's true. Microsoft and Amazon, for instance, did pretty well in Seattle. And Pittsburg does have CMU, whose CS program comes in right after MIT, Stanford and Berkeley's. It was probably easier for Google in the Valley. How much easier is hard to say.
It was only easy for Google because the had tons of cash to hire people when everyone was getting laid off in the tech bust. They owned the market for top people because of the rare event that many top people were on the market.
You must have missed the point. Google was successful because the founders developed a brilliant algorithm.
But in anycase, Carnegie Mellon is apparently a top CS and business school drawing talent from all over the world including SV. If you really think Google's success was because of additional talent, then I still say Pittsburgh would have been a solution.
But it is absurd to say that it can only be done in the valley. Did Microsoft go to the valley when HP and Apple had a huge presence? No. People came to them.
If it couldn't be done elsewhere, we wouldn't be working on ours in Vancouver. ;-)
Still, if I were 22 and single, I'd start my start-up in the valley without a moments hesitation.
Oh yes, and as for Microsoft--the rules are different for them. (When your revenues dwarf the GDP of some small countries you get a little more latitude.)
I'm not a huge Silicon Valley booster (I like MA, thankyouverymuch), but I think the idea that Google would have been able to hire as much top notch talent, as quickly as they did, in PA is nonsense.
The only way that Google could have started in PA and been as successful as they have been is if they very quickly moved to Silicon Valley (or - maybe - MA).