“Silicon Valley is moving to the Cloud” – In a recent interview by Bloomberg, Andreessen said remote work and distributed companies in the post-covid world are moving Silicon Valley to the cloud. It’s a strong statement, and one definitely resonates with me. I’d even say this started happening way before Covid.
We’ve long believed in the value and promise of remote work, which is why back in 2019 we created Commit to be entirely remote-first. The indicators that top companies would also recognize the value and transition to remote work at least partially were clearly observable, it was only a matter of time until they were widely accepted and adopted:
- Access to a wider pool of talent
- Reduced costs for office spaces (especially in cities like San Francisco and New York)
- Happier workforce of professionals who could balance life and work without lengthy commutes or relocations
Software development is a highly craft based profession, and the digital nature makes it easy to work and collaborate effectively without being in a central location. There is no reason why a highly talented and collaborative tech community should be pinned to Silicon Valley rather than exist on the cloud which can be accessed by anyone from anywhere.
This idea is hardly theoretical. Many pioneer companies such as Automattic, Github and Hashicorp have paved the way to build remote-first companies. Smart founders are adopting it and I’ve seen a rapid growth of the number of companies becoming either remote-first or remote-friendly sooner than expected due to the pandemic. I strongly believe in a few more years, everyone will have equal access to the best opportunities without having to be physically located in Silicon Valley. Furthermore, many best opportunities won’t just come out of Silicon Valley anymore!
No doubt Silicon Valley used to be and still is the centre of innovation, and living in the centre definitely makes it that much easier to access the best opportunities and VC funding. However, it makes a lot more sense given the technology and the world today that the ‘centre’ should be on the cloud, instead of a physical location.
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