Let's Map the Silicon Valley Startups

I love it. Thanks for this.

for me it's actually just interesting to know where these startups are based. (i'm not based in US). in case I visit SF I'd probably have a street view look at these offices and plan some kind of trip or something

It is great if you want to optimize for commute when looking for a job.

Obviously, location isn't the only factor that matters when choosing a job (otherwise you might as well work at the corner McDonalds) but if you know that your next job will have a great commute and/or be located in a convenient place for your non-work life, it has some positives going in. Also, if an area has a huge number of interesting companies in it, chances may be good that it contains an interesting company that would be a good fit for you, one that you might not have otherwise been aware of.

There is no formal definition of a "startup". A local restaurant that just opened can be thought of as a startup, but it's not what this particular community would think of as one.

Personally I like Steve Blank's definition: "a startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model" - which would suggest that once you've found (and proven) your repeatable, scalable business model you stop being a startup. I wouldn't hold a company to that definition if they thought otherwise though.

PG gave a definition [1] a while back, which was that startups were about growth. That seems the best definition I can think of: when you say you're doing a startup, I can implicitly understand that you're trying to build a scalable business that can grow very quickly. It also means that in addition to figuring out what your product should be, you are also in search of a sustainable growth strategy.

Of course, lots of people outside this definition call their small businesses "startups",esp tech people, and it feels like this is because they want to be part of the startup community. This seems good to me, so I think we shouldn't be too tight with our definitions.

[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/growth.html

Well, there's two parts to this question really. What makes a newly founded company a startup in the first place, and when does such a company stop being a startup?

The other comments addressed the first part (scalable business centered on growth), but the second part is a bit more nebulous. pg gave an off the cuff answer at YC's Work For a Startup day which was pretty insightful: "When politics starts working."

Steve Blank has a good and well-known definition for the term startup: "an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model."

http://steveblank.com/2010/01/25/whats-a-startup-first-princ...

In this sense, a typical new restaurant or dry cleaner isn't a startup, because they're following an established business model. A startup restaurant would be experimenting with innovative pricing, production, or other techniques, and would probably have to tweak its model on the road to success and would face an outsized risk of failure.

Thanks for pointing out the mistakes! Fixing them now.

Don't forget 340 Pine!

This is only for San Francisco. I think what they are trying to do is to unite all of silicon valley on an easy to use, HTML5 driven user interface. Crunchbase on the other hand, appears to have limited functionality and is sparsely populated. Crunchbase' main product is not its company map, whereas MISV has the potential to build out a platform that can provide real utility for job hunters, investors, interns, etc.

Hey, something is going on with the addresses. I am verifying each one and correcting the errors. Thanks for pointing these errors out!

messaged him, no response.

You can. Please email your information(in whichever format you prefer) to sv@mappedinsiliconvalley.com and we will be happy to add them all to the database. Thank you so much and we hope you enjoy the site