I don’t have to read it. I live in the Boston area, and have raised money from VCs so I think I know the landscape. Despite a mix of successes and failures, tech has treated me well–I could have retired in my early 30s if I really wanted to. And even though I no longer work in tech, many of my friends still do.
The VCs are another notable difference between Boston and SV. The ones in the Boston area play small ball: They are happy if they take a $30M investment and make it into $300M by selling it to a larger company, whereas in Silicon Valley the mentality is that they are going to create the giants of the industry.
@hebegebe:
That is intesting, and it doesn’t surprise me, the scale of silicon valley has always been huge, even back in the day, so that doesn’t surprise me, and you are correct that the kind of VC’s available makes a big difference, silicon valley has the kind of monsters that help back some of the now big companies out there. Having a technological base alone doesn’t guarantee anything but not having it is generally a recipe for failure with tech startups, as is being in a location not conducive to the kind of bright, talented people you need to succeed and yep, access to capital. That is interesting about the non compete clause,didn’t know that one, that would make sense, given the amoeba splitting in silicon valley, ie companies that shot off of HP (including Apple), the Shockley-Fairchield-Intel genesis and so forth, Xerox Parc to Oracle and Adobe and 3com), and so forth.
deleted, made new thread on non-compete agreements in reply to #61:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1960766-employee-non-compete-agreements.html
My S just started at a start-up in Boston (a business to business marketplace platform.) CEO and other top people are from MIT, Harvard and Carnegie Mellon.
Getting a bit back on topic, this makes me almost want to apply to Liberty U not only to relive undergrad, but also see how fast I can rack up those demerits for offenses such as:
Having music albums ranging from punk/pop-punk to the Steve Curtis Chapman albums a fundamentalist evangelical relative gifted me 2 decades back.
Forgetting to observe the dorm curfews which could be as early as 10 pm on some nights.
Sneaking in local homeless/indigent into the school dining halls and leaving with a backpack or two full of portable food/fruits/drinks from meal plan for use in between meals and/or to give to those in need*.
Dancing on/around campus and attending dances.
Walk around with an open container of…root beer. 
- The former was part of my LAC's long-standing tradition despite official disapproval....and I did the last to get the most out of my mandatory dorm meal plan.