Do I Have To Move To Silicon Valley?

We get this question all the time … to be a successful entrepreneur, do I have to move to Silicon Valley? The answer is not necessarily. The answer is it depends.

The most important answer is that there are many wonderful entrepreneurial success stories far away from Silicon Valley.

Meet Chris Cope, who is about to complete 2011 with a revenue run rate of $5M+. Chris is based in Alabama.

Meet Clate Mask, CEO of InfusionSoft, who has built over $20M in revenue, and raised Silicon Valley venture capital from Arizona at a $36M pre-money valuation for Series A. Clate is based in Arizona.

Meet Marcos Galperin, CEO of Mercado Libre, who has built Latin America’s e-commerce leader to a revenue level of ~$300M a year in 2011. Marcos is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

So, if you forget about the conventional wisdom floating in the air, and get serious about building a business, you can do very well from wherever you are based, thank you very much!