People often ask if you still need to be in San Francisco to build something
People often ask if you still need to be in San Francisco to build something meaningful in tech.
For a while, it looked like the answer might be no.
During the pandemic, we proved companies could run fully distributed. Zoom, Slack, and remote collaboration worked better than most people expected. Many believed geography had finally stopped mattering.
AI changed that.
What we are seeing now is not decentralization. It is re-centralization. The talent, capital, and momentum around frontier AI are clustering again in a very small area of Northern California. The density of builders, researchers, and investors creates a feedback loop that is difficult for other regions to replicate.
That does not mean innovation cannot happen elsewhere. Exceptional companies are being built in Europe and other parts of the world.
But when a new technological wave appears, ecosystems matter. Proximity accelerates learning, hiring, capital formation, and the speed at which ideas compound.
I say this as someone who is originally from Florence, Italy. I go back regularly and care deeply about my country. But after living in the Bay Area for the past 15 years, the difference in how aggressively people pursue new technological frontiers is still striking.
There is a cultural element here that is hard to quantify.
When a new opportunity emerges, the instinct in this ecosystem is to throw the harpoon at it. Capital shows up fast. Talent moves quickly. Ambition scales immediately.
That dynamic is now playing out with AI.
Geography may matter less than it once did. But at the frontier of a technological shift, it still matters more than many people expected.