Your point is quite reasonable in general but the discussion was for Silicon Valley and San Francisco. My GF has worked for Microsoft, Amazon, FB and now Google (and some startups over the years). How? Well they all have big tech offices close to Palo Alto. When she worked for various startups she was an ex-MS, ex-FB etc person.

If she'd stayed in Chicago (Northwestern grad), that's unlikely. Of course those companies have outposts there, but fewer tech roles by an order of magnitude or two.

I would still maintain that the parent is correct and there is a large quantity of talented developers in SV who have never worked at FB/Google/MS/etc.

I know quite a few of them (and would like to believe I'm talented, too).

A large fraction doesn't not mean "most". 1/4 is a large fraction. 1/10 is still a large fraction. Due to the large amount of people companies like fb, goog, apple etc employ, statistically you should expect that a SV startup on the verge of not being a startup anymore employs some ex-ers. Not having any, will raise questions. This doesn't mean the startup is bad, the answer to said questions might...

My perception is that even 1/10 is vastly overstating the number of engineers in SV who work for those companies. 1/20 might even be on the high side.

Not just "work for" but "have ever worked for" which is, at this point, a much larger number.

What percentage of developers that is I haven't the faintest clue. But definitely significantly more than 10% of my friends have worked for at least one of FAAMNG. And I have a lot of non-nerd friends too.

The propinquity is insane. When my GF decided to leave MS she walked from her MS building on her lunch break to her interviews at Google and LinkedIn (LI has subsequently moved). Of course the inverse is true too: there aren't many startups in that area, except in the Landings complex (where Cygnus used to be!).

You’re missing the point, not working at FB/Google/Microsoft/Yahoo!/Amazon/Apple doesn’t mean you aren’t a talented engineer, but the fact remains, having worked at one of those companies for several years or longer is a sure fire way to get recruiters to chase you. So not having any of those folks (which recruiters lust for) and yet being a “tech unicorn” is generally not a good sign.

No, I'm not missing anything. I agree with the point that you just made, but that wasn't the point that I was replying to.

I understood what you were replying too, just feel you focused to much on being literal with the “large majority”, hence my reply. Glad we agree on the other part, so cheers!