“If I were starting now I would do things very differently. I didn’t know anything. In Silicon Valley, you get this feeling that you have to be out here. But it’s not the only place to be. If I were starting now, I would have stayed in Boston. [Silicon Valley] is a little short-term focused and that bothers me.“
So says Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO in a recent interview with Jessica Livingstone, one of the founders of Y-Combinator.
We agree.
We just got back from Business of Software 2011 which was held for the second year in Boston. It was an honour putting it together. It is a conference that has been run in the valley in the past but we think Boston is a great place to locate the conference for the long term. Business of Software is a conference for people that want to build long term, sustainable, profitable software businesses. It is not an event for people that want to sell out in 6 months. It is not an event for people that want to raise money in six weeks in order to get the funds to build a prototype to raise more money from investors to launch, to raise more money… It is an event for people that are in it for the long term – from all round the world.
Boston is a great place for Business of Software to be located:
- It is a lovely town.
- It has developed a critical mass of extraordinarily talented engineers, entrepreneurs and investors in all sorts of disciplines.
- While there is a talent war there, like anywhere there is innovation, the people seem, from the conversations I had, to have a longer term commitment to causes.
- It is much more culturally aligned with Europe and the rest of the world than Silicon Valley. As one BoS attendee based in San Fran now said to me, “Being in Silicon Valley can sometimes feel like you are in a gigantic, porn-star orgy of narcissistic, self-congratulation where only the actors are important and all that matters is the money shot.”
- Boston allows for the notion that there might be markets outside Boston that are worth exploring.
- The time zone means it is easier for Europeans to participate in events – both in person where jet lag is minimised – and via the live stream.
- It is a lovely town.
BoS2011 Speakers drawn by Neil Davidson
Thanks for having us Boston. We will be back for more next year. Business of Software will be held in Boston 1-3rd October. We can’t wait.