Valley and the Main Street

 Since the unicorns have started killing industry categories, every firm wants to emulate Silicon Valley firms or want to look like one. The differences are too many.

1. Business Model : The Valley models are non linear, asset light, digital natives and cloud first. Risk taking and Pivoting come naturally to them. Growth and customer acquisition first and Profit later. Main Street firms have linear business models, legacy resisting change, Profit first and growth next and technology baggage.
2. Skill Base : Domain skills are more critical in the Main street and technology supports domain. Its the reverse in the Valley. Pivoting related re-skilling is easier.
3. Funding : As most are venture funded in the valley, the accountability is to a smaller set of investors and do not have the quarterly results /disclosure/regulatory compliance pressure as the Mainstreet firms do.
4. Hype curve: As both these are at different points of hype curve, the problems both of them solve are quite different. Some of the challenges that Valley firms fight on, the Mainstreet is not seeing anytime soon.
5. Resistance : Resistance to change for Main street firms comes from employees, industry stakeholders, regulators, channels. Valley firms are able to quickly get off the ground since they are not seen as a threat until its too late.

Its not all roses on either side. Valley firms seem to be poor on fiscal prudence, focus and business acumen while the Mainstreet firms seem to be poor at seeing anything beyond a few quarters , ability to attract tech talent and slow.

Why does all this matter?

You need to consider all the above factors depending on which side you are playing.