What Is the Startup Common?

Abstract

Location matters to startups because the people who provide them with the resources they need to grow—revenues, talent, capital, advice—are more than producers of code or PowerPoint decks. They live in houses or apartments and commute to offices. They attend meetings and bump into each other randomly at coffee shops and in hallways. And company founders seeking to build, develop, and sustain vital trust relationships with their startup’s customers, suppliers, employees, mentors, and investors must meet with people in person repeatedly. Startups thrive or fizzle depending on the quality of these people and the strength of those relationships. And part of that quality depends on where a startup locates. Pick the right one and the startup gets the resources that it needs to grow. Pick the wrong place to run the company and it withers in the struggle to get those resources.