This was a question asked by “Rutherford” earlier this week. This is an interesting subject that needs its own post.
The context of the quest was in respect to “they spin a new dynamic around the product concept, it gets traction and suddenly people are ‘getting it’.”
Firstly, I don’t think that it’s given that Silicon Valley always “gets it”. Many VC’s passed on Google, FB and Twitter. And some have jumped into the Google, FB and Twitter wannabes like lemmings. And journos in SV are much the same as elsewhere; their job is to provide “perspective” or “opinion”.
Don’t take away the impression that Silicon Valley can do no wrong. There are hundreds of screw ups, lots of bets lost on stupid products, and miles of copy written about dumb ideas. It’s just that one doesn’t dwells on them, or treat a mistake as a failure. People here are willing to try new things quickly, and dump them just as quickly if they don’t work out. And then switch to the next new thing. Look at the recent iPad launch; it would be interesting to compare the miles of favorable copy verses negative copy written on it. In the end its just opinion and we – all of us – get to decide whose opinion we agree with.
It also helps that we, here, are lucky to be exposed to new stuff all the time. Checkout an interesting location based iPhone app called Stalqer. I only learned about it when I was introduced to the founder/developer in a bar two months ago. It’s handy when you live less than a block from Twitter headquarters.
Now take everything that that’s a positive for Silicon Valley, and ask yourself – “how dies that compare to Northern Ireland?”.
I hope that answers the question you asked 
What makes Silicon Valley get the things they do (and not others)?
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thanks David.
I guess the gist here is – and correct me if I’m wrong – there is no ‘secret sauce’, that things are fluid and at the end of the day the customer decides. The tech industry as you allude to in SV is chock full of early adopters and sometimes the blur between industry press and advertising is so great as to render the difference immaterial. Knowing what conceptual memes a potential advocate-adopter is open to is a skill worth picking up I reckon. Of course a large part of it could just be about hanging out in the right bars
Also borrowing again from that comment thread I assume we’re into the realms of what corporate lingo would describe as competitive intelligence?
I thought this article about Boulder, Colorado, was interesting and appropriate to the conversation http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/business/14boulder.html?src=me&ref=homepage
It’s true there’s no secret sauce but as Darryl’s link indicates, you need to have some sort of sauce present. TechStars is the sauce in Colorado.
I’m hoping that StartVI (as well as Digital Circle, Code4Pizza, XCake, BUILD, IdeaHacking and others) will provide some of the ingredients to provide a sauce worth talking about.
In my opinion, what’s most needed are successful local start ups that have grown to scale and profit or have successfully exited. It would be an interesting exercise to list a few here.
I can’t think of many off the top of my head, but that’s probably because I haven’t given it much thought in a while:
* Chain Reaction Cycles http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/ (scale & profits)
* The Internet Business http://tibus.com/ (sold to UTV)
Anyone else got any?
Oh, and one from long ago:
* DNA Internet (sold to UTV)
Wombat would be the most obvious one to me?
Good one! I just bumped into Stuart Harvey at the petrol station a couple of hours ago too! D’oh!
And
* Meridio http://www.meridio.com/ (Sold to Autonomy)
* Keddington Networks http://www.kedington.co.uk/ (bought by BTNI, now owned by Bailey Teswaine)
* CEM Systems http://www.cemsys.com/ (bought by BTNI? now owned by Tyco)
I’m struggling to think of more!
• FlickerPix bought by Waddellmedia
and wasn’t there a place at the bottom of the Ravenhill which used to do VHS sales over the internet
Are we thinking we have our fair share of M&As?
DVDs dear boy, DVDs! You know I’m too modest to say we grew blackstar from zero to £1.2m per month in three years..