In 2016, I have seen many friends and acquaintances leave Silicon Valley. Some have left for good reasons, such as to go become a CTO of a publicly traded company on the East Coast. Mostly though, I feel people are leaving for incorrect reasons. You probably should not be leaving and I’m going to explain why.
The most perplexing reason that comes up in these conversations is a variation of the following statement:
“It’s a terrible time to do a startup or join one”
Me in my head: “What? really? Why are you leaving? We’re just getting started with our startup.”
(Shameless plug for my mobile app Badger: you send reminders to friends. e.g. You create a weekly recurring reminder “Take out the trash” and they get it at the time you set it every week as a text. App store link
I believe we are solving a problem with the Badger app and it is never a bad time to be solving problems for people, and this is how you should probably think about it.
Will the contraction impact you? Yes, but nowhere near to the degree that the fear mongering masses will tell you. Remember, these are the same people who cause the insane volatility in the stock market.
The contraction is a blessing in disguise for startups.
Less competition is good for you, there will be less rival companies and investors jumping into your space thus giving you a better opportunity to win. It’ll also encourage you to stop stocking your refrigerators with the most expensive coconut water on the planet!
Just because others are leaving does not mean that you should. What we are now seeing is the departure of the “Silicon Valley tourists.” These are the same people who, when asked in a job interview, “Why did you want to move here?” answer with a variation of the statement “I wanted to work in tech,” which is normally the end of the interview. This usually means, “I wanted to make a lot of money and there is money in tech.” A person who cares more about working on technology will normally become excited over a specific piece of technology. For instance, my co-founder will gush over anything to do with Elixir. He loves it and will talk about it at hours with anyone.
The people who moved here because they saw the quick buck entered a hyper-competitive market where it actually became more difficult to make money. Now that people are leaving, there is less competition, thus making it easier for you to make money. All you have to do is solve a stinking problem. The macroeconomic state of affairs does impact you, I’m not arguing it doesn’t, but it should never stop you from creating something or working on something that is solving a problem for people. Don’t be a buffoon that gets stuck in short term thinking. Always be thinking of the long term.
The major difference between Silicon Valley in 2012 and Silicon Valley in 2016 is your excitement level on Silicon Valley.
If you are thinking of leaving Silicon Valley, just remember: You can’t win the tournament if you don’t enter it :)
Thoughts?
Best wishes and stay pathologically optimistic.
Tom Page
Tom Page is the founder of the mobile app Badger: an app for sending scheduled reminders to friends. You can create a weekly recurring reminder to “Take out the trash” and the recipient gets it at the time you set it for every week as a text. Download Badger here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/badger-remind-friends-later/id1042803207#
