Wow, Silicon Valley/Web 2.0 is Percolating!
If you're looking for a lite read on a Sunday afternoon, the Guardian has a gushy story about all the cool things happening in Silicon Valley these days, which seems to have been researched by a reporter who spent a long time hanging out with aspiring entrepreneurs at a coffee shop called Ritual Coffee Roasters in San Francisco. The best quote in the story comes from Rubyred Labs co-founder Jonathan Grubb, who proclaims 'The coffee shop has replaced the garage for internet start-ups. ” I'm not sure whether this statement talks more to the coffee shop culture that has flourished in North America over the past few years, or the new no-frills, no-cost operating environment that start-ups have embraced.
November 26th, 2006 at 4:18 pm
It has more to do with the fact that coffee shops offer free WIFI…
November 26th, 2006 at 7:15 pm
hopefully they will learn to make decent coffee
Clarke
wHooiz Clarke Scott?
November 26th, 2006 at 10:18 pm
Its got to be a combo of both, with more coffee shops than bars (it seems sometimes), free WiFi, and the absolute next-to-nothing cost to get a site online and running.
I've wondered more than once why there aren't more things happening outside of Silicon Valley - I mean, there are smart people drinking caffeine with chump-change in their pocket in a lot of cities.
November 26th, 2006 at 11:05 pm
There must be a site that lists all the best coffee shops (that are not starbucks) in every city with a wifi connection. Strangely, I haven't found the ideal coffee shop in NYC yet, though there were a bunch I loved in Austin, TX (Austin Java, especially).
Rob Tsai, NYC
http://zenrob.typepad.com/zenrob
November 27th, 2006 at 2:14 am
Yet another big media PR piece. I have analyzed at blog - http://mediavidea.blogspot.com/2006/11/looking-for-next-big-web-20-thing.html
November 30th, 2006 at 8:24 pm
Hey, thanks for the props Mark. I think the coffee-shop-as-startup-venue depends equally on the free wifi plus social scene aspect and the ease of launching a business with new technology. Ritual is the favored spot in SF mostly because they have great coffee, which draws a great crowd.
@Pramit:
Parts of this may be a “big media PR piece” but I was very impressed with the actual reporting that the reported was doing. He spent weeks on the article (thousands of miles from his home) and found people like me by sitting in the cafe and asking people what they were up to.
–
jonathan grubb