Social Capital in Silicon Valley

Network effects of success : Silicon Valley is famous for its “mafias.” As companies sell or IPO for billions of dollars, they make many of their employees very wealthy. Those employees form new companies, support each other, and invest in the next generation of companies. ThePayPal Mafia, Silicon Valley’s most famous, includes entrepreneurs who w

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Some Key Points to Remember: •Social Capital is not about “social climbing” or stereotypical “networking.” In fact, that’s the exact opposite of Social Capital. Social Capital is about surrounding yourself with people who inspire you, bring out the best in you, and encourage you to achieve. •Social Capital is also always a two-way street; it’s abou

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Due to the seemingly inevitable march of globalization, our world is more interconnected today than it ever was before. Ironically, despite this growing overlap, inter-regional correlation rarely follows. That is, startup and venture capital conditions in one market seldom (if ever) correlate directly to the conditions in another. A wide variety of... See more

Why did these patterns persist, even as women and minorities made significant inroads into other professional domains? The explanation lies with the characteristic of the Valley VC community that set it apart from other regions, and that made it so good at finding and nurturing one generation of entrepreneurs after another: its personal, tightly ne

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