Software is Eating Silicon Valley

November 2015

This post is a draft. Content may be incomplete or missing.

Premise: Entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley often observe that “software is eating the world.” But more precisely, software is eating the world of entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. A lot of startups are really solving the problems of software entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. After all, the best entrepreneur is the one scratching a personal itch.

Example:

  • Housing in San Francisco is ludicrously expensive
  • So people live in apartments
  • So people live in apartments near work
  • So people live in apartments near work and take public transit
  • So there’s a whole ecosystem of software for people who live in apartments near work and take public transit
  • So if you live in downtown apartments near work and take public transit, software is eating your world
  • So there’s less coverage for people who don’t live downtown, buy homes in suburbs, commute via car, etc

This is a good news if you come from a different walk of life and are interested in software. There are a lot of opportunities that Silicon Valley misses because it’s not part of that typical walk of life.