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WORLD PATENT RIGHTS |
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Changes
In S.F. Bay Are
The venture capitalists have lost interest in B2C (business to consumer) and now somewhat in B2B (business to business) companies. Venture capitalists are preferring developers of inventions. Venture capitalists unlike a common misnomer have not lost interest in investing. The second quarter of 2000 reached a new high of $7 billion - a new high in the region. Traditionally being a Bay Area entrepreneur meant doing something purposeful, inventing the future, say Randy Komisar, author of “The Monk and the Riddle”. Money was important but not the main motivator. Stocks sharing was meant to create employee loyalty. But it has become a currency. It stock values drop too far, it causes people to go work elsewhere. A better solution might be for companies to switch to more profitable inventions and give workers fair shares therein. But a bigger worry in the region are the pressures created from the presence of too much money. The excess money, and lack of availability to serve the demands is getting worse. Entrepreneurs, suppliers, lawyers and other services have difficulty meeting demand. For example venture capitalists have too much money, leaving less time for supervision of young entrepreneurs or even due diligence. Traffic is much worse. The median wage in the region is over $80,000 a year, but people are forced to commute because they can’t afford nearby housing the median price being well over $500,000. Median housing prices in Fairfield are under half the price. Headhunters complain they cannot coax talent into the Inner Bay Area. The central high tech region has roughly 20,000 homeless, roughly a third of whom have full-time jobs. San Francisco is home to the priciest office space in North and South America. Companies are moving all or portions of their operations to cheaper locations just outside the central Inner Bay Area, or other regions of the U.S. or the World. Most of the new population growth is in the east Bay Area, especially along the interconnecting highways 80, 580 and 680. Companies prefer to be within reasonable proximity to the Bay Area with the world’s highest concentration of talent, especially if they lack broad patent rights and want to be the first in the market so as to tap into the most skilled talent and best business networks. Fairfield has the proximity to the Inner Bay Area without the downsides of cost and congestion. The state capital of Sacramento is acting aggressively to capitalize on the trend. It is advertising itself as a hip have for tech companies with the slogan “Urban Pioneers”. Fairfield is the least expensive place to locate within 35-40 minutes drive from San Francisco. Central Sacramento is about 85 minutes drive to San Francisco and more expensive than Fairfield. John Doerr, a major venture capitalist said the largest legal creation of wealth in the history of the planet should not only build bigger homes and yachts. Doug Henton, president of Collaborative Economics wants the region to apply its tremendous power of innovation to its social problems. Some of this has started. Companies now allow telecommuting. The San Francisco Bay Area has many names for its different sub-regions: Silicon Valley is often referred to the entire high tech region, though it focuses more on things like micro-chips. There is The Telecommunications Alley (north and north-east of San Francisco); and SOMA also called Multi Media Gulch (by the base of the SF Bay Bridge); the two Bio-tech regions (Davis just east of Fairfield, and the area just south of San Francisco). As diverse technologies are quickly merging, the regional focuses within the greater bay area are becoming less distinguishable. The open-mindedness, charm and beauty of the ever changing city of San Francisco is world renown. The more cultured tend to live in San Francisco proper and commonly commute two to three hours daily to their high tech jobs. If enough improvements are made, the region might rename itself The Innovation Bay Area. (C) World Patent Rights 2001 |