Working from Home

Silicon Valley, in Northern California, has long been known as the hotbed of start-ups innovation, educational and business incubators that shape the world’s thinking and drive some of the most cutting edge trends.

Silicon Valley is to techies and starry-eyed entrepreneurs what Hollywood is to those seeking fame and sunshine. There was a time when if you had an idea you’d go out there, but after Michael Dell of Dell Computer launched his company from a dorm room in Texas, after the advent of the Internet and the rise of globalization, you can be anywhere and in fact you’re better off, well, working from home – at least in the initial stages of your business.

In the last decade or so, Boston’s Route 128, tech corridor, Northern Virginia’s Silicon Dominion and North Carolina’s Research Triangle area have come into their own as both enclaves of business growth and thought and conclaves of forward-thinking entrepreneurs.

Across the pond, there is Scotland’s Silicon Glen, India’s Hyderabad technology zone, and all the way in Shanghai, China there is the ever-growing Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park.

Those are just a few of the upstart places around the world but back in America, VC and private equity boutiques are cropping up like Opium plants in Afghanistan.

You see, because while many in the know have heard of VC rockstars such as Sequoia Capital, which is in the aforementioned Silicon Valley and has expanded to India and beyond, there are also shops that are off the radar such as Drumm Solutions, a capital broker out of Florida, Starfish Capital Partners in Las Vegas and First Fifty/Ohio Tech Angels in Columbus.

Maybe you need $10,000, maybe you need $1 million, maybe you just need a mentor. The thing to remember is that many VC firms like to develop local talent and then if you need to go to Silicon Valley, you have the money and backing to go “West, West, ya’ll” so to speak.

Indeed the world is getting smaller but the opportunities more vast. Subsequently, another big thing to think about when searching for funding opportunities and/or networking with entrepreneurial peers is looking for venture capital firms on your doorstep.

Charity begins at home.

About the Author
Jabulani Leffall, 33, is an award-winning journalist and writer who attended Journalism School at the University of Missouri. His work has appeared in the Financial Times of London, Dow Jones Marketwatch, The Baltimore Sun, Investor's Business Daily, Variety, CFO Magazine, Compliance Week, Redmond Magazine, Black Enterprise, the Los Angeles Business Journal and the Los Angeles Daily News among other publications. He has been a George Washington Williams Fellow for the Independent Press Association where from 2002 to 2004 he studied the effects of subprime lending on poor communities. After what happened in 2007 and 2008, he feels vindicated as a journalist for having called what was going to happen. What else? Yeah, he also contributed vital research to the 1998 book University of Missouri History Professor Robert E. Weems, which is titled "Desegregating the Dollar." Additionally, he has appeared numerous times on ABC World News and CNN as a commentator of business and world affairs, again pretending to know what the heck he is talking about. Mr. Leffall is currently a the Associate Editor of Special Projects and content with FactSet Research Systems News and Media Relations Group. Lastly for the part where Mr. Leffall lives, he resides in a four cornered room where he stares at candles and his mind plays tricks on him. Read his articles and blogs please lest he go completely mad.
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