Article · ~12 min read

Beyond Silicon Valley: How Startups Succeed in Unlikely Places

Alex Lazarow · Harvard Business Review Freemium Beginner

Most advice assumes the network you are missing is the whole game. Lazarow flips that: founders far from the big hubs are forced to build for real demand instead of hub fashion, and that discipline is where the durable trends actually show up. A good starting point for treating your distance as a source of signal, not a handicap.

• Founders outside the hubs tend to build products people pay for early, because there is no cheap capital rewarding them for chasing the crowd.
• Being outside the room means you notice needs the metros already consider solved, which is often where a real, unglamorous trend is forming.
• Copying the Silicon Valley playbook wholesale is the trap, the edge is reading your own market first.