A brief analysis of the disadvantages of Silicon Valley to overseas entrepreneurs

In the Internet technology industry, no one does not aspire to Silicon Valley. Even as Chinese technology companies have grown in weight over the years, there have been many innovative companies in countries such as Japan, Israel and Finland, and Silicon Valley is still at the forefront of technology start-ups – that is, New York cannot compare with Silicon Valley in the tech industry.

It is the Silicon Valley that makes many entrepreneurs want to venture into Silicon Valley. And those who come to Silicon Valley are successful people. But the entrepreneurial environment in Silicon Valley is not as simple as the outside world sees. So there are entrepreneurs who put the opposite view: there is no need to start a business in Silicon Valley.

Teleport founder Sten Tamkivi, who serves as a global entrepreneur, recently published an article on TechCrunch, citing the disadvantages of Silicon Valley for overseas entrepreneurs. I simply sorted as follows:

1, Visa is a big problem.

Getting a work visa in the United States is very difficult and takes a long time and a lot of money. If you have 50,000 dollars, getting a U.S. work visa may cost 5000 dollars for a lawyer, and it may take 6 months to get a visa. With this money and time, you can make good products elsewhere.

2, the cost of Silicon Valley is huge, especially the rent.

Suppose you get to the United States and start setting up an office. At this point, you will find the high rents in San Francisco and the Silicon Valley area. A bed in an entrepreneur's "dormitory" in San Francisco will be 1500 dollars in one months. and office rents are higher, teleport co-founder and Andresseen Horowitz partner of Silicon Valley's renowned investment agency Balaji Srinivasan said the early-stage start-up companies in Silicon Valley spent a lot of money on office or housing rents.

3, talent competition is very fierce, it is difficult to recruit suitable staff.

For early startups, employee pay is the biggest expense. 1 million dollars is only one year's salary for a 5-person team. This is not a big problem for Facebook or Google, but it is a huge stress for early startups. In other parts of the world, this money can recruit more excellent engineers. In Silicon Valley, in addition to money, employees are not very loyal to the company, everyone is eager to jump on the fastest rocket.

4, California is not a country, but there are all sorts of strange rules.

The United States has federal laws, but every week it has its own different rules. The biggest impact on entrepreneurs is the tax code. Some entrepreneurs do not have to pay taxes to the US government in Silicon Valley, but they are taxed to the state government under California rules. And since California is not a country, it is not possible to achieve tax cooperation with the countries where entrepreneurs are located.

5, Silicon Valley has no life except technology.

Silicon Valley has become synonymous with technology, but it is increasingly becoming a technology-only area. This unbalanced development will limit the entrepreneurs ' horizons and also ruin the normal life of the entrepreneur. When you find that roadside tech companies advertise more ads than any other type of advertising, you feel like you're living in a huge "factory".

Of course, there are entrepreneurs who think the above 5 points are not enough to give the entrepreneur the reason to abandon Silicon Valley. Adsnative's founder, Dhawal Mujumdar, believes that Silicon Valley is still the best place for technology companies to venture, but networking is the key factor. If you don't have anyone in Silicon Valley, it's hard to start a business here.

There are three main types of contacts, one is the alumni circle, for example, you graduate from Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, so you can get a lot of alumni help in Silicon Valley, the second category is the former colleagues circle, such as you have worked in Google, Facebook and other companies, so in the Silicon Valley business can also be a lot of former colleagues A third category of incubators, such as your joining an incubator in Silicon Valley, can also be helped by the business incubator's brothers and investors.

The first two types of entrepreneurs are already in the US or Silicon Valley, and for entrepreneurs outside the US, getting into an incubator company can be a more viable option and a higher success rate.