Entrepreneurial Success Happens in Places Other than Silicon Valley

I was struck by an interview that Mark Zuckerberg gave at a Y Combinator event this weekend in which he said that if he were starting Facebook today he would have stayed in Boston.  Zuck talked about how Silicon Valley is “a little short-term focused” and that there’s “a culture in the Valley where people don’t commit to things.”  He brought up an example where in Seattle employees stay at the same company twice as long as the Valley.

Zuck makes some good points, though the stat he quotes from Jeff Bezos about Seattle workers is a misleading number.  Seattle has strong companies that treat their employees well with Amazon and Microsoft.  When companies like Google and Facebook opened up Seattle offices, they were able to recruit top talent from Microsoft and Amazon to those new offices as easily as they did in the Valley.

I do agree with the comments about the Valley being short-term focused.  The company I work for today, Clearspring, which is based in Washington, DC, is a perfect example Valley focus versus non-Valley focus.  Clearspring has had a couple of different acts in its life as a company.  If Clearspring were based in Silicon Valley, odds are the company would have been sold once we shut down our widget business.  Instead our investors remained patient and management focused on the long term, we actually MADE an acquisition, and now are the largest sharing platform on the Internet.

When Zuck talked about Boston it made me nostalgic for the days of AIM and AOL.  Before I started at AOL in 1999, we bought a company based in Boston called Booklink.  Booklink was a browser that eventually became the foundation for the way we would compose and display instant messages in AIM for many years.  The best part of that acquisition were the guys that came with the technology.  A few of them were the original authors of the Windows AIM client.

The point Zuckerberg makes, and the thing I am trying to reinforce is that talent and technology can succeed at any time and any place.  Silicon Valley may be the heart of consumer technologies but life does exist outside that bubble.  Whether Mark really meant what he said about not moving the Valley does not matter, companies like Foursquare, TripAdvisor and Clearspring we thrive no matter where we are.  Success comes down to ideas, people and execution, it does not matter where you are located, and I think that was Mark’s point and I know it is how I feel.

Step by Step Guide to Enable New Facebook Timeline Right Now

The biggest feature that will impact all Facebook users is the new Timeline which is a view of your life on and off Facebook based on the things you have shared.  I have not been excited about a new Facebook feature in a while, but I have to admit after using Timeline for an entire evening, it was amazing to go back and see what I was doing, what I was working on and what I was experiencing 5 years ago.

The new profile is laid out beautifully and does a good job conveying the most important things that happened in my life.  Facebook announced only developers could try the new Timeline feature, but it is easy for anyone to turn on the feature.  Here is how:

  1. Log into Facebook
  2. Search for developer and choose the first application.  Alternatively you can enter the URL facebook.com/developer.  Grant permission to the application: 
  3. Create an app, give it a name and namespace, don’t worry you won’t actually share it with anyone, you just need to have an app to get the profile.
  4. Choose OpenGraph on the left navigation menu, and create a test action for your application.
  5. Wait a minute or two and then go to your Facebook home page and an invite to try out the new profile timeline will appear at the top of the screen.
Click the invite and enjoy all the memories of your Facebook life.