I would caveat that with the note that there is rather less appreciation of bullshitters, so startups with a lot of wank to them might have a harder time being taken seriously. But if you're serious, and you're nice, people will absolutely fall all over themselves to do you a solid.

FWIIW I've known Byrne for years, and was shocked when he moved to the Bay Area.

Some of these companies could never have started in Boston, because finding capital would have been impossible. It isn’t always technological advantage that wins, but UX or biz model, or any number of other things related to execution.

Outright knowing scams? I'd agree with you.

Startups with no plausible business model, a bunch of buzzwords and hopes and dreams and no clear elucidation of why anyone would become their customer? Seemingly endless fields of those in the valley.

Theranos

Bullshit abounds. And YC is supposed to be the smart-and-decent money.

TBH, one of the really nice things about living around here is that if I take a meeting with a funded company they almost certainly hit at least some bar of seriousness. All successful companies? Definitely not, but there is a lot less chaff for me to filter through.

You don't have to be running a scam to be a bullshitter. But you do have to have an undeserved and unwarranted sort of presentation, and you likely don't have much cattle to go with that hat.

Clinkle is a perfect example of this.

I'm really surprised to hear that said of the city where RMS wrote GNU while living in his car. Not my experience there at all.

(And if anyone who's reading this would like to chat--well, email's in my profile. Don't be shy.)

You don't even need to give me your contributions, just your users.

basically the opposite of what I've experienced in 15 years in tech in the UK, sadly.

Always thought Douglas Adams' "horrifyingly sunny" Ursa Minor Beta was based on California.