Early this month I attended the Future of Web Applications Expo in London.  It was certainly an interesting event, and anytime you can spend a day talking about the latest web applications on the internet and the night looking at the Round Church of the Templars it can't be bad.  The event did create a very interesting debate regarding startup hubs.

To call ONEsite a startup does it a bit of disservice.  Catalog.com has been in business almost 15 years, far from a startup.  ONEsite still faces many of the same pressures, challenges, and the like that any startup faces, we just happen to operate at a profit and have a profitable parent company as well, so some of that financial pressure is lessened - some at least.  ONEsite still has the need for capital that many early stage business do, it is just not a complete necessity for survival like it is for so many other companies.

However, one of the challenges ONEsite faces is its geographic location.  We are based in Oklahoma, the development team is in Oklahoma, we have the advantage of getting some of the top talent from Oklahoma - but there is certainly a lack of easy access to capital.  Which brings me back to the debate.  At the FOWA Expo, Paul Graham(Y-combinator, Etc) gave a keynote on the future of web startups.  It includes a lot of good information, but a significant part of the speech was on the necessity of startup hubs - places like Silicon Valley where there is easy access to capital - both the venture and human kind, with web experience.  This actually prompted one of the event's founders to take the stage, immediately after the speech, and give a full rebuttal.

Many new web companies, including ONEsite, are proving that success outside the valley is possible, and that there are distinct advantages to being located somewhere else - it is about the business, the idea, the talent, and the technology - not about the location.  This is the internet, and each of those plays a much greater role in success than location ever could.  And while there is some stickiness to the Silicon Valley startup - the shift is already occurring. The Wall Street Journal took notice of the changing landscape in September (Web 2.0 Deals Spread Beyond San Francisco).  A Web 2.0 startup has a lot of challenges to face before it can become successfully, but location is not, and should not, be a blocker to that success.