You Don’t Need Permission to Build the Next Facebook

I often use Facebook in my talks.

To which someone will usually comment

that we don’t have the ecosystem of investors here

to support building the next Facebook.

This is misplaced causality.

First, Facebook wasn’t started in Silicon Valley,

but Boston.

They didn’t have the “right” kind of investors in Boston

(at least at the time) so they moved.

Boston to Silicon Valley is a 6 hour flight.

You probably are less than 24 hours away from Silicon Valley.

More importantly,

Facebook didn’t succeed because they raised lots of money.

They succeeded because they demonstrated incredible traction within 30 days of launching

which didn’t let up.

Traction, not funding, is causal.

If you can demonstrate anything near their levels of traction,

even at micro-scale,

I guarantee you won’t have to chase investors,

they’ll come to you.