Moonshots, Momentum, and Legislative Tailwinds Beyond Silicon Valley
Insights and soundbites from our second Beyond Silicon Valley Summit
This year, we had more than 150 investors from 31 states join us for our second Beyond Silicon Valley Summit. And while this May’s economic backdrop was markedly different from last’s, enthusiasm was high and outlooks remained positive for the startup momentum building between the coasts.
We named this summit after a report we wrote with Pitchbook at the end of 2021 to explore the impact of the pandemic on investment patterns. Our findings confirmed a significant shift away from the traditional tech hubs of the Bay Area, New York City, and Boston, with the proportion of seed- and early-stage VC dollars funneling into the Bay Area falling below 30% for the first time in more than a decade. However, by 2022 (with most pandemic restrictions in the rear view mirror and financial markets facing challenges), investors began gravitating towards perceived safe havens, as reflected in the data. Consequently, the Bay Area experienced a surge, capturing over one-third of all early-stage venture funding in the U.S., marking its highest level since 2017. Despite 2022’s heel turn, the ten-year funding trend line still points to VCs concentrating less capital in the major coastal hubs and more in the rest of the country, a collective area of focus for attendees. But a future in which capital is more evenly distributed is not guaranteed — which is why we continue to convene investors and advocates from across the country who are dedicated to keeping the rise of the rest momentum going.
Note: Bay Area is defined as San Francisco and San Jose MSA
Against this backdrop, and with much to discuss on topics including the state of the industry post-SVB crisis and the unprecedented federal funding authorized to drive American innovation, we delved into a jam-packed 36 hours of programming at the 2023 Beyond Silicon Valley Summit. Here are some key insights from the event.
The conversation: A fireside chat with White House Infrastructure Coordinator and former Mayor of New Orleans, Mitch Landrieu
The takeaways:
- Creating an environment where startups thrive pays off in ways that courting existing corporations doesn’t.
- Infrastructure touches everything. Roads, bridges, and transport will make or break a city’s ability to grow its startup ecosystem and talent pool.
The soundbite: “The way to go fishing is by going where the fish are — we need to open source where federal funding is headed and how to get a piece of the clean energy and infrastructure pie.”
The conversation: How are LPs navigating economic uncertainty?
The takeaways:
- It’s a hard time to raise and deploy capital, but what you can manage in today’s market will be advantageous for years to come.
- To stand out as an emerging manager, you need to have a unique angle, be it geography, industry, or another distinction.
- LP relationships are ones you have to cultivate. Think of who you want to partner with one, five, and ten years down the line.
The soundbite: “Do your diligence on LPs too. At the end of the day, you want a thought partner who’s aligned with your strategy.” -Atul
The conversation: Choose your own adventure with National Geographic Explorer, Victoria Hermann
The takeaways:
- Today’s climate problems are also incredible investment opportunities.
- There are untold impacts of climate change many of us don’t see.
The soundbite: “When given a choice of telling the story of hope or hopelessness, always choose hope.”
The conversation: What’s going on in American cities: the future of the office, affordable housing, and more
The takeaways:
- The separation between life, work, and play is disappearing.
- To make it easier to toggle between the three, there needs to be significant policy, financing, and physical transformation.
- The problem of housing affordability and supply is largely a political problem, and those policies (that prevent developers from building multi-family properties) are largely popular.
The soundbite: “The long-term value of real estate is primarily driven by work — where you work, how you get to work, and how much you get paid at work. That flow of cash influences the entire cycle of physical space.” — Jason Fudin
The conversation: Loonshots: Imagining the impossible with physicist, business executive, and author, Safi Bahcall
The takeaways:
- The most important breakthroughs come from loonshots, i.e., widely dismissed ideas whose champions are often written off as crazy.
- Make decisions based on experiments, not opinions. The best companies experiment consistently while still holding on to their core business.
The soundbite: “What distinguishes the apex innovators from behemoths who disappear? Their ability to run experiments at pace and scale.”
Clean Energy Innovation Implementation, Karen Skelton; and Arcadia CEO, Kiran Bhatraju
The conversation: Creating a greener American economy
The takeaways:
- Electrification will dramatically change the landscape of the American economy.
- There’s a cottage industry of folks figuring out how to stack tax credits from the inflation Reduction Act to accelerate sustainable initiatives.
- Many climate-focused industries and technologies are so new that policymakers are still learning what they are, making education and proactive outreach essential.
The soundbite: “We’re building a new energy industrial economy based on our actions today.” — Karen Skelton
The conversation: From Michigan to the moon and back with former Head of Science at NASA, Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen
The takeaways:
- It’s better to achieve 80% of an ambitious goal than 100% of a modest one.
- Executing on opportunities at the intersection of utility and disruption allows for exponential innovation.
- Cultivate a super team, not a superstar.
The soundbite: On the success of the James Webb Telescope “Every once in a while there’s an opportunity to look at the universe differently. Galileo did it first in 1609, and we’re doing it again now.”
The conversation: The banking crisis: stories and lessons learned from the fateful SVB weekend
The takeaways:
- Much of the SVB crisis narrative was fueled by outsized voices on Twitter, while most of the meaningful work was being done behind the scenes.
- Banking regulation is a pendulum: it was swinging one way, and now it’s going to swing the other.
- The VC industry has a two-spotlight issue: On one hand, people love that we’re investing in next generation innovation, on the other, people see out of touch investors mouthing off on social media.
The soundbite: “You can be micro right and macro wrong and you’ll still be wrong.” — Justin Field
The conversation: Advancing the American Dream with Executive Director & Chief Creative Officer at the Milken Center, Rachel Goslins
The takeaways:
- Museums shouldn’t try to teach someone something without asking them what they think first.
- Everyone walks into a situation with a different lived experience, and if you don’t acknowledge that, you lose half of your audience.
The soundbite: “There’s value in the world seeing how we struggle and recover as Americans. Storytelling is our biggest export.”
The conversation: America Competes: regional hubs, reshoring, and more
The takeaways:
- Leveraging our unique strengths from coast to coast will boost American competitiveness.
- Massive funding — from the CHIPS and Science Act to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill to the Inflation Reduction Act — will help rising cities and regions reignite their economies if we play our cards right.
The soundbite: “Even the process of applying for regional hub funding forges relationships and opportunities within communities that pay dividends.” — Martha Schlicher
