The last couple of months in Startupland™ have been wild to say the least. With AI continuing to leapfrog itself again and again, startups are being forced to reinvent themselves on a near-monthly basis.
I recently spoke with the founder of a Series B company who shared an anecdote about having to part ways with a couple of his early employees. It’s not unusual for early employees of a startup to transition out as the company evolves, but the way he described their challenges was new to me:
“It’s insane…AI keeps changing how we build product. The way we’re working now is completely different from how we were building 3 months ago. Heck, even 3 weeks ago. Some people couldn’t keep up.”
While most of the stories about AI replacing jobs have focused on entry-level and easily-to-automate roles, a segment of workers that is increasingly under duress exists within the very fast-growing startups behind the disruption: employees who were effective contributors a year or two ago, but are unable (or unwilling) to adjust to the pace and style of work today.
But this post isn’t about those workers.
This post is about the founders of the companies where they work.
You see, I’ve had many conversations like the one I just described over the past few months. And in each case, after talking through the difficulties of re-orgs and team morale and letting people go, the conversation eventually landed on the same two topics:
How hard it is to hire people who can “keep up” outside of Silicon Valley
A self-reflecting question of, “how do I keep up?”
I’ve previously written about the importance of being willing to hire outside of your home market as soon as limitations start to surface (it turns out that the critical lesson in MySpace’s failure is still relevant today), so I won’t spend time on that.
On the second topic, my advice to each such founder I spoke with was the same:
“Come to SF and see for yourself."
If you’ve been reading my newsletter for awhile, then I probably sound like a broken record at this point. But my single most oft-repeated piece of advice to founders outside of the Bay is to get on a plane, come to Silicon Valley, and experience first-hand the changes that are underway.
No amount of reading or listening to podcasts will give you the full story, because much of what’s happening hasn’t been written or recorded. And far too many founders have a false sense of security, thinking that they know what’s going on because they follow the “right people” on Twitter (I’m still not calling it X).
When I mentioned this to the various founders I was speaking to outside of California, a few of them immediately lit up and said something to the effect of, “you’re right!” followed by an email or text a few hours later that they had booked a flight.
But most of them…well, most of them either changed the subject or responded that they might possibly, potentially, perhaps look into doing something next year.
On the one hand, I get it. Traveling is an underrated superpower, and it’s not one that everybody has. But if you’re talking to me about how the nature of work is changing each-and-every month, your employees can’t keep pace, and you’re not even sure who your competitors will be next year…
…shouldn’t you consider trying to look around the corner and figure that out?
It’s why I keep telling founders who are preparing to fundraise from Silicon Valley VCs to come a week or two early to get acclimated.
It’s why I recently wrote that what’s happening in Silicon Valley is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.
And it’s why every single founder that I’ve accompanied to SF over the past few months has said to me the exact same thing:
“Holy sh*t. I had no idea…”
The fact of the matter is, you’re simply not going to understand just how fast things are changing in Silicon Valley by reading about it online (even if you’re subscribed to this newsletter 😉). So get on a plane, spend a few weeks there and see for yourself.
And remember, if you are trying to build a globally-competitive tech company today:
You do not need to move to San Francisco to compete
You do need to understand how startups in Silicon Valley have reinvented how they’re operating
So come to the Bay, see for yourself, and then head back home and win on your terms.
(And hit me up if you do — I’ll buy you a coffee if I’m there.)