LETTER TO THE READER

CEO MICHAEL MOE

Welcome to the Global Silicon Valley!

In 1849, pioneers from around the world came to California looking for gold, and what once was an empty landscape of natural beauty turned into a densely populated melting pot. A hundred and sixty something years later, the gold is long gone but the land of opportunity continues to BOOM. People still flock to California to chase a dream, but now one that is intermixed with microchips, apps, social networks, and most important: Silicon Valley.

At the heart of the tech revolution still in mid-swing, Silicon Valley is home to the superstars Apple, Google, and Facebook; the old-timers Intel and HP; and of course, the thousands of little guys still trying to make it: the startups. But Silicon Valley has quickly become more than a geographic spot on a map; it is a mind-set of innovation that has spread across the globe, and that’s what we at GSV stand for.

We’re delighted to share our vision of uniting a community of innovators who all hold a passion for changing the world for good.

One hundred years ago, Silicon Valley was filled with apricot and apple orchards with a twenty-year-old fledgling university called “The Farm.” Detroit was the innovation capital of the world with the young and ambitious migrating to the Motor City to seek fame and fortune. Automobiles were the disruptive technology, and Henry Ford was the Steve Jobs of his day.

Today, Detroit is bankrupt, and Silicon Valley has been the Mecca for entrepreneurs from around the world who believe that there is nothing more powerful than a big idea. Stanford University is Startup U, where people flock to pursue their dreams. Over the past fifty years, it’s been breathtaking to see how companies conceived on a napkin at Buck’s and started in garages between San Francisco and San Jose have transformed society and business.

Apple, Google, Facebook, Oracle, Cisco, eBay, Intuit, Intel, Tesla, Uber, Twitter, Lyft, Coursera, and Dropbox are but a few of the revolutionary companies that call Silicon Valley home.

While the sixty miles between San Francisco and San Jose remain the epicenter for innovation, the spirit and entrepreneurial mind-set that made Silicon Valley such a magical place have gone viral and global. From Austin to Boston, to Chicago and São Paulo; from Shanghai to Mumbai to Dubai, there is something very powerful happening: a Global Silicon Valley is emerging. And it doesn’t have to rhyme with anything, either.

GSV created a formula for determining the top fifty markets in the Global Silicon Valley based on factors such as VC funding, startup activity, educational institutions, and business climate. We then researched each market to highlight key features and asked the local experts to understand what makes their city tick. We answer entrepreneur need-to-knows on how to be successful in bringing their concept to life. Who are the top angels? Which are the top incubators? What should be in the pitch? What shouldn’t be in the pitch? Where is the power breakfast spot? What is the dress code? And much, much more…

The Global Silicon Valley Handbook aspires to inspire the next Steve Jobs or Elon Musk to create the future they can imagine. We are believers in how one person’s vision can change the world and that whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.

That’s what this handbook is about and why it is the official guide to the Global Silicon Valley.

Read on!

—MM