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Phil responded before I did about the tech. infrastructure in Ashburn. MCI... Plus because of the Pentagon and other military installations in Northern Virginia some really hard core telecom capacity (cf. the fiction book _7 Days in May_ for some ideas about the importance of telecommunications infrastructure) was in place.

WRT Silicon Valley vs. SF, probably there is a scalar difference in type and size of company, e.g., the SV companies are a preponderance of the Internet plumbing, even if they are at the application level, these are high level apps (like Google) vs. secondary kinds of applications like Yelp, places that aren't going to be gargantuan, fit well in the center city.

But that's fine.

The other thing is achieving critical mass of clusters that are regionally based. It takes a long time to build.

The funny thing though is that this discussion (at least the original posts in this series) does act as if the experience pre-2010 is irrelevant.

All these same discussions happened in the 1990s, the financing especially. Silicon Valley Bank opened branches in Tysons, etc. (I was trying to create a cable tv company that focused on tech...) Mario Morino, the publication _Washington Technology_, creation of the Virginia Center for Innovative Technology, creation of the TJ science high school in NOVA, the various tech councils, etc.

- http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/24579873.html?dids=24579873:24579873&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Dec+26%2C+1997&author=Peter+Behr&pub=The+Washington+Post&desc=Information%2C+Please+--+and+More%3B+Mario+Morino+Helps+Fledgling+Firms+Find+Funding%2C+Advice&pqatl=google

- http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/35797770.html?dids=35797770:35797770&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Nov+09%2C+1998&author=Shannon+Henry&pub=The+Washington+Post&desc=A+High-Tech%3B+Hothouse%3B+Mario+Morino's+New+Building+in+Reston+Will+Be+a+Hip+Home+for+Internet+Start-Ups&pqatl=google

Gosh, the failure of TechWorld in the late 1980s. That building was supposed to be the basis of technology companies and building a tech base in DC proper. Of course, then the real estate market in the city totally sucked.

- http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/73896583.html?dids=73896583:73896583&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Sep+02%2C+1989&author=David+S.+Hilzenrath&pub=The+Washington+Post+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=Techworld+Plaza%3A+Searching+for+Identity%3BConcept+of+D.C.+Complex+Changes+to+Mixed+Use+to+Attract+Tenants+Techworld+Plaza+Searches+for+Tenants+and+a+New+Identity+in+Downtown+D.C.c&pqatl=google

Of course during the first Internet boom and the pre crash MCI/WorldCom various rollups, PSI, (remember Kozmo?), Network Solutions, etc., there were crazy valuations. If the crash hadn't happened, probably the area's tech. businesses may have reached self-replicating critical mass, although yes, they'd have been centered in NoVA.

The big problem is that viable businesses get purchased by companies generally not from around here, not unlike how investment banking (other than that in SF/SV) outside of NYC ended up getting acquired, e.g., Alex Brown in Baltimore no longer exists.

by Richard Layman on Jul 16, 2012 9:00 pm • link • report