California has one overwhelming advantage that will keep it competitive until and unless it makes it impossible for a company to begin or profit: non-competes are unenforceable.

Also nice, but much newer, is a law that makes what you do with your own time, resources and ideas your own.

So to reify this, if I can't open "the same company in Seattle" simply because I'm shackled by a ludicrous non-complete them I'm damn well going to open it somewhere in California or give up altogether (well, I suppose moving out of the country might be an option).

And this goes for subsequent startups; this is a critical part the SF/SV ecosystem.

Question: does your startup's employee contracts include non-competes?