From Silicon Oasis To Silicon Valley

Earlier this year, I moved from Dubai (which I refer to as Silicon Oasis, not only the official Silicon Oasis District in Dubai) to San Francisco Bay Area, or what’s called “Silicon Valley”. Here are some thoughts about living in both areas.

Although I visited San Francisco Bay Area more than 15 times in the past 5 years, living in here, interacting with people in several meetups, and even talking to strangers in cafes, gave me a better understanding of the culture in the valley and what makes it the brightest spot in the world for startups.

Living In The Future vs. Making The Future

The first thing you notice here is that the valley is basically just a few old towns with old infrastructure that is not well-maintained. If you compare this to Dubai, Dubai definitely wins. In Silicon Oasis, there are high skyscrapers, clean streets, clean metros, big fancy malls, smart web and mobile apps for almost all government entities, etc… I can confidently say that Dubai has the best infrastructure in the world: state of the art highways and bridges designed to smoothly manage the high traffic of the hundreds of thousands who live in the vertically designed mini cities/districts inside Dubai., state of the art architecture, data connectivity, m-government, health care, education systems, etc…

In Silicon Valley, you don’t see all this! But when you chat with people in any event, everyone tells you about the next big thing they’re working on, or they’re investing in! Someone talks about self-driving cars, the other talks about gene coding, and another talks about big data and AI or VR-based EdTech.

In Silicon Oasis you feel like you’re living in the future, but in Silicon Valley you feel like you’re making it!

Silicon Oasis is a great example of a place where new tech is consumed well, while Silicon Valley is a great example of a place where new tech is created!

People in Silicon Oasis are good consumers of technology, while people in Silicon Valley are good creators of technology.

Expats vs. Citizens

In Silicon Oasis, I used to say that it’s an international city because you see people from all over the world. Every single nationality exists in Dubai. But the reality is: there are two kind of people there: Locals and Expats! And they rarely interact with each other.

Moreover, because of this, you see most of expats forming closed groups and activities based on their nationalities. Almost none of them is there for the long term, so they better off building a network that will help them when they go back to their own countries.

In Silicon Valley, usually new comers come here to stay. From the first day, they consider themselves citizens even if they’re not yet. But they know that someday they will be. They also see that all other citizens are diverse, so they just blend in! Here you can find a truly international community where members are actively interacting with each other, and actively adding value to the community by investing their time and money into developing the culture of the area.

Conformity vs. Uniqueness

In Silicon Oasis, you’re expected to conform to the generally accepted behaviors and rules. There is that social pressure to talk, dress, and act fancy! There are specific boxes and you’re expected to fit in one. In Silicon Valley there are no boxes. The society is open and accepting. You’re expected and even encouraged to be yourself no matter how different you are.

Let me put it in a different way, in Silicon Valley, you’re expected to be the best version of your self no matter how you look, talk or dress, no matter where you came from or what religion you believe in. You’re also encouraged to work on what you’re really passionate about and believe that there will be others who are crazy enough to want and pay for that. An investor here once told me that he actually looks for odd people, he doesn’t like to invest in normal founders!

Peer pressure in Silicon Valley is all about the added value, or what you can do! In Silicon Oasis, it’s all about qualifications, or what you have!

X For MENA vs. The Next Big X

In Silicon Oasis, and almost all MENA, the majority of pitching startups start their presentations by: We’re X for MENA. In other words, they’re copying a successful model from USA and applying it to MENA. While in Silicon Valley, they start by: We’re creating the next generation of X. As a mater of fact, the founders could be ex-X, who saw the big corporation got stock with the traditional technology or business model, so they decided to quit and create what’s beyond X.

Not A Rosy World After All

Yes, in Silicon Valley, it’s tough to raise funding. It’s highly competitive and you have to build a network to get connected to the right people. At the end of the day, there are thousands of startups and smart founders competing for attention.

There are also some greedy investors who take advantage of poor founders and ask for majority stakes from day one, and there are fake people roaming around without any original ideas.

Life here is very expensive, even more expensive than Dubai. And there is some kind of social hierarchy specially in areas with lot’s of VCs such as Palo Alto and Menlo Park. But overall, people are humble, and down to earth.