Danny Newman (who built the PocketFuzz service that I recently profiled) tipped me off to Paul Graham‘s latest essay entitled “How to be Silicon Valley“. In that essay, Paul sites Portland and Boulder as the two places closest to reproducing the ingredients found in Silicon Valley (wealth and nerds).
Paul’s latest essay provides some insight into the reasons behind the startup phenomenon in Boulder that we’ve been discussing here.
It was also a local press profile of Danny that inspired me to write my post “Colorado needs Y Combinator“, and to tie it all together for you – Paul Graham is the man behind Y Combinator. Yes, it’s a small world indeed.
A few weeks ago, I emailed Y Combinator and asked if they would consider replicating their summer founders program here in Boulder. Paul didn’t respond, but Jessica from Y Combinator did. She told me that they wouldn’t consider reproducing their program because they draw candidates from all over the country. Y Combinator is a commercial enterprise, so that’s an understandable response.
Maybe Paul will see this post on a trackback and reconsider. Or maybe not. Oh well, guess we’ll have to just do it ourselves then. Who’s in?
