For a long time, I've ranted against naming your startup community 'Silicon Whatever.' Instead, I believe every startup community already has a name. The Boulder startup community is called Boulder. The L.A. startup community is called L.A. The Washington D.C. startup community is called Washington D.C.
The goal shouldn't be to be the next Silicon Valley (there'll always only be one of those) - it's to be your own startup community.
Building a startup community is not a zero-sum game in which there are winners and losers: if everyone engages, they and the entire community can all be winners.
St. Louis has a great startup scene and a vibrant business community.
I basically apply with my teams the lean startup principles I used in the private sector - go into Silicon Valley mode, work at startup speed, and attack, doing things in short amounts of time with extremely limited resources.
If you have an idea that you can't get out of your head, do a startup. Otherwise join a startup.
Silicon Valley has been developing as a startup community for over 60-70 years. This notion that you can create something in two or five years is foolish.
There's a reason why Silicon Valley is the worldwide innovation center, or why this is the startup valley, because I truly believe startup companies like mine are pushing the economy forward.
I've been very fortunate to be at the startup of a lot of different things. I was the startup of the Pancrase organization in Japan. Became a big figure over there. Then I was in the UFC and was at the startup of that, and I was a big figure in that. Twice. Not only in the beginning but also when it was taken over.
If someone is choosing between joining McKinsey or your startup it's very unlikely they're going to work out at the startup.
The first thing that any city that's trying to create a startup community or an entrepreneurial ecosystem that's vibrant should do is get rid of the idea that they're trying to be like Silicon Valley.
Techstars is truly global; you'll see us continue to expand all our programs worldwide, including accelerators, our venture capital, as well as the UP Global programs including Startup Weekend, Startup Next, Startup Digest, etc.
When it comes to starting startups, in many ways, it's easier to start a hard startup than an easy startup.
Forget startup companies. The next frontier is startup countries.
San Francisco is a great startup community that you shouldn't even try to model yourself after because it's just special.
There are too many ways that a startup gig can go sideways. If the startup won't agree to hefty severance, pass.
Seasteads are man-made islands that float permanently on the ocean with any measure of a political autonomy. They would essentially be startup societies where people could form whatever kind of community they wanted.