Thought-provoking TechCrunch editor Sarah Lacy (left) says neither her hometown of Memphis nor Nashville should worry about Silicon Valley approval or credentials, but should instead use un-Siliconian traits and perspective to create ventures that perhaps could not be invented in the Valley. As a Memphian, it is perhaps inevitable that in comparing Nashville and Memphis, she finds Memphis more "soulful." We wonder whether Nashvillians see it that way. After all, we're Country Strong, or something, right? Read about it here and comment here on the VNC Blog, if you're feeling...soulful.
Monday, January 03, 2011
Sarah Lacy on Nashville not being Si Valley
Thought-provoking TechCrunch editor Sarah Lacy (left) says neither her hometown of Memphis nor Nashville should worry about Silicon Valley approval or credentials, but should instead use un-Siliconian traits and perspective to create ventures that perhaps could not be invented in the Valley. As a Memphian, it is perhaps inevitable that in comparing Nashville and Memphis, she finds Memphis more "soulful." We wonder whether Nashvillians see it that way. After all, we're Country Strong, or something, right? Read about it here and comment here on the VNC Blog, if you're feeling...soulful.
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3 comments:
Your article is interesting but not practical to compare this area with Chicago or SV. The only way you can successfully start and expand a tech company in Memphis, is to move it to another area. We just do not have the Angel's or VC's in this area to succeed. Unless you are building a bio-medical or logistics start up in this area you will fail as a tech company. Again interesting article but #fail
Nice article, Sarah. And I respect but disagree with James Ruffer. There are challenges here but with the right plan and team I believe they can be overcome.
I'm a 24 yr Silicon Valley veteran who relocated to Nashville. I did so because of quality of life issues and can still be competitive thanks to FedEx and VOIP. Technical infrastructure is somewhat of a problem, but I haven't been face to face with my printed circuit artist in 10 years. Despite the fact that he's in the Sierra foothills, He and I work almost flawlessly together. Also Huntsville, Atlanta proximity helps. Nashville only needs to show those silly Californians some housing stock that isn't 60 yrs old and selling for multi-millions and a public school system that still works.
You could scale my experience up to "skunk works" level for more mature Silicon Valley corps and still make logistic/financial sense. Especially because -- for the most part --- the lights stay on here (no outages) and the government ain't quite as broken.
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