Silicon Valley for the day

John Egan has an AllVoices article about Silicon Valley:

On the US startup map, all roads seemingly lead to Silicon Valley. The home of Apple and Facebook reigns as the most prominent tech hub in the country. Some other US tech hubs— including neighboring San Francisco, as well as Boston, New York City, and Los Angeles— are gaining ground on Silicon Valley. Spots like Austin, Texas; Boulder, Colorado; and Raleigh, North Carolina, also are climbing the tech-hub ladder.
But according to Dallas, Texas billionaire Mark Cuban, the outspoken star of ABC’s Shark Tank and owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, all of the tech hubs outside Northern California are missing one critical element: “The key to Silicon Valley being the biggest tech hub is not how much money there is for startups, it’s how much money there is for exits,” Cuban told Allvoices.
An exit for a startup backed by venture capital firms takes the form of an IPO, merger, or acquisition. Tech startups tend to wind up in Silicon Valley, he said, because venture capital firms there “know how to get businesses sold better than they know how to start them”.
Cuban said most venture capital firms in Silicon Valley take a “fear of missing out”, or FOMO, approach to investing. As MainStreet.com explains, FOMO plagues investors “who experience anxiety at the possibility that an exciting or interesting investment may be happening elsewhere”.
The FOMO mindset drives the funding of so many tech startups in Silicon Valley, according to Cuban. “But in truth, the tech center that has the ability to buy out the most tech startups and provide them exits is where the next big growth will come from,” he said. Cuban, who’s invested in about eighty startups, said this “big growth” could occur anywhere in the US. In fact, he said in December of 2013 that he thinks entrepreneurial growth in Silicon Valley will be dwarfed by growth in business hubs such as Austin, Boston, Dallas, and Raleigh.
As Cuban sees it, one sticking point could hamper growth in emerging tech hubs outside Silicon Valley: the need for tech talent. He said that the “worst thing possible” for a startup is putting out the call for engineers, programmers, and other tech professionals, but not being able to find them.
What about finding money to propel startup growth? “I don’t think startup access to capital is an issue anywhere in the country,” Cuban said. “There are so many funding sources online. You don’t need local money.”
So, what does it take to gain some of Cuban’s capital? He has four key criteria for startups he’s mulling as investment targets, according to Inc.com:

A unique product.
A motivated and educated team.
Knowledge of the market.
A demonstration that the big dream can work in practice.

Cuban said the best way to approach him about investing in your startup is to send him an email. Several startups have secured investments from Cuban based on email pitches. “Be to the point, and tell me why what you have is different versus the competition, what you want from me and what I get if I give it to you. Simple,” Cuban explained on Inc.com.

Rico says he wishes people like Cuban wanted to invest in Zone of Fire...