From Paul Graham’s The Future of Web Startups:
t might seem that if startups get cheap to start, it will mean the end of startup hubs like Silicon Valley. If all you need to start a startup is rent money, you should be able to do it anywhere.
This is kind of true and kind of false. It’s true that you can now start a startup anywhere. But you have to do more with a startup than just start it. You have to make it succeed. And that is more likely to happen in a startup hub.
I’ve thought a lot about this question, and it seems to me that the increasing cheapness of web startups will if anything increase the importance of startup hubs. The value of startup hubs, like centers for any kind of business, lies in something very old-fashioned: face to face meetings.
When you spend some time in Silicon Valley and go to Bangalore or Chennai, (I alternate between bay area and Chennai every few months), you notice significant differences. There is no SDForum with 15+ SIGs or ACM talks or other types of seminars and conferences. But slowly these things are starting up.
Paul talks about a lot of startups. It follows that these may require several startup hubs around the world and there may be an opportunity there.