Rosenblatt, an investor who was earlier an executive at Foursquare, was asked how New York managed to build a technology scene when so many cities have tried and failed. He dates the start to Google bringing engineers to the city in 2003, followed by Facebook, then the first exits, and only after that the venture firms.
…New York and this underdog mentality, right, versus the West Coast. And I think that just creates this, again, this kind of like this cauldron of incredible people and DNA and intelligence and energy that led to so many great careers from that, even though the ultimate outcome was not a good one. I
used to get asked once a month in different cities, different people from government, from universities, how could we create a Silicon Valley here in X city across the world? How is New York able to achieve what so many cities across the world were?
Well, I would laugh because I'd watch all the people during COVID be like, yeah, Miami is going to be the next thing or, you know, come to Miami. I'm like, okay, the only people going to Miami are billionaires and people, you know, crypto crazies and tax avoiders. I'm like, you know how long it takes to build an ecosystem? I saw the same thing in Austin, right? Same thing. It takes a lot, you know, to get density of talent takes in New York. It took 20 years, right? I think it really started. Like when I think about New York's evolution, it started when Google brought engineers here in 2003, right? And…
And that was the DoubleClick acquisition seemed to be a really change in the
pivotal, right? Because Google bought them. But it took 20 years. I mean, I started in New York in 99. There were a few of us crazies who said, we didn't want to move out to the valley. We think New York's going to be here. We're going to stay here. And most of New York early on was digital media…
Yeah. New York reminds me of this fire. You had to have all these necessary components. You needed to have the engineering. You needed to have the exits point to these two exits because everyone would say, New York, you're not going to build something great. You have to go to Silicon Valley to…