The biggest missed opportunity
I believe the biggest missed opportunity in Boise’s tech history was locating HP and Micron on opposite ends of the valley.
Have you ever been to Palo Alto? All the big tech companies are within a stones throw of each other (if uncle Rico’s throwing) Ever stopped in one of the local pubs after hours? You have engineers from different companies hanging out and talking. Most of them know each other, most of them have even worked together at one point or another. Many of them start up companies together.
Imagine what Boise would be like if those two companies had been located closer to downtown?
Excellent point, albeit late—especially in light of Boise’s decision to sell off their industrial park. (Never a good sign)
I’m more concerned about the younger non-tech professionals (legal, banking, acctg, A/Es, etc) who don’t seem to be either passionate or motivated to change Idaho’s political climate—the root cause of our decline. What’s out there is entirely too wussified.
Bill, selling that industrial park still baffles me, too. What DON’T we know that might have driven that decision??
Folks I talk with are all too involved with families, business, etc. to “sacrifice” the time to change things. Plus I keep hearing “They don’t listen.” It’s going to take a crisis to get people to take action.
As to the original question - Silicon Valley didn’t really start out with bigger manufacturers (like HP, Micron) cheek-by-jowl. But the critical mass of talent WAS important. Instead, we had more of the Rte 128 model, more spread out.
Look at Cambridge, Mass’s “Biotechnology Square” - an insane concentration of biotech firms (offices of big pharma, lots of startups, the right service providers, and like SV, it arose organically (of course, having hundreds of MIT-caliber talent walking around doesn’t hurt.) And the Cambridge & Mass pols still don’t understand what happened, LOL.
We don’t have a Stanford or MIT - nor even a corporate comparable… but we can still build something. So…
Shouldn’t the city give US a good price on the park? If they sell it to us at cost, we could build it ourselves! Bill, any of your NM or NC friends wanna get involved??
I agree. I’ve been an advisor to entreprenurial companies for the past twelve years, mostly marketing - market research, pricing studies, product positioning and capital formation positioning. I spent many years in New York City. In the city, there are incubators located in a number of different areas, each with some specialized concentration on industry.
Point is, they were located not only where the markets were, they were where the people lived and played.
Alright, Tac! Now you’re starting to talk like an urban economist. “Agglomeration,” baby! I would guess that Micron is where it is because J.R. owned that land out there?