THE Valley

I am sure there are a number of nature adorned valleys out there in the world.  However for the quintessential Geek, the one that counts is Silicon Valley, California.

I had an opportunity recently to visit the Valley and explore it up, close and personal.

A couple things that struck a deeper chord…...

And The Oscar goes to

The ecosystem.  

A humming, vibrant, well-oiled ecosystem is at play in the Valley. That’s what makes it tick. That’s what has made it the nerve center for IT innovation. At the heart of the ecosystem are top notch knowledge powerhouses such as Stanford, Berkley, Carnegie Mellon et al.  Their focus – to work at the grass roots level and provide a breeding ground for learning, experimentation and research.

Then there is the funding tributary next to the Bay. A high density cluster of Venture Capitalists and Angel investors whose bread and butter business model is to connect funds with innovations, to breathe life into ‘workable’ ideas and convert Joe Blokes like you and me into serial entrepreneurs.

This network’s nodes are also embellished with some of the top companies in the world who either grew up there from startup or have been born somewhere else but have setup their innovation labs in the Valley. All this attracts the world’s best geek talent and media celebrates each success of every new startup and/or entrepreneur publicly. This creates an atmosphere of excitement and happening in the Valley. Even the almighty contributes by adorning the region with a nippy and sunny climate throughout the year.

The ‘ecosystem pattern’ is a winning business model. Each node feeds the other and the network effect creates a virtuous cycle of continuous and sustainable innovation. Fascinating, to say the least.

A free and empowered human spirit

Quite often individual passion for unhindered expression, the inherent human need to contribute, to accomplish, to fail, to get up and run again, the sharpness of individual intellect, the carefree human spirit, is stymied by an undertone of racial, cultural and all other exotic forms of discrimination.

However in the Valley I sensed that history had broken its shackles and leaped into the 21^st century. The human spirit is free. To explore, to express, to challenge, to learn, to share, to contribute, to accomplish, to cherish, to celebrate. Nobody seemed to give a two hoots where you came from. No one asked, no one told, no one bothered. All that mattered was what you knew, what inventions you were cooking, what value you could contribute. I met professionals, youngsters, academics, fund raisers - people from all walks of life all glowing in the bright sunshine of true human empowerment.  A diversity in form tightly bound by an aptitude for software engineering, a love for IT and a passion for disrupting existing paradigms. It is no wonder that this free human spirit is able to unleash its potential time and again and drive a continuous flow of innovations along the pristine and blue waters of the adjoining Bay.

The Valley more than lived up to its expectations.

It is humming with excitement.

In abated anticipation for the next wave of innovations that it is fondly nurturing in its cradle.