He came from outside the valley, started from zero, and earned his way to this so called "network" by building things that got people excited.

I was surprised recently that my wife knows who Ev Williams is (she's not technical at all, doesn't blog, and doesn't tweet). Surprised because he's not Gates/Jobs/Zuckerberg famous. Yet, I guess it makes sense because being responsible for blogging and Twitter is a pretty big footprint of influence even if he's a lot more low-profile and non-aggrandizing than those other guys.

> He came from outside the valley

who didn't? It's not Hollywood, there are no legacy cases

Nah it's not just pure coincidence that a 4/5 vcs and founders have similar economic backgrounds.

Ev came from an unusually humble background for Silicon Valley.

Steve Jobs was from Silicon Valley but grew up poor.

Reid Hoffman's mom hooked him up with vc money and a network, cause she was a rich lawyer at a fancy firm iirc.

Very few people that grew up poor are successful in Silicon Valley but they may be the most impactful as a population.

> Steve Jobs was from Silicon Valley but grew up poor.

"Poor" may be stretching things a bit.

Compared to most Silicon Valley founders he was, his adoptive parents were blue collar with no college education. His dad made most of his money as a repo man.

Part of the agreement his biological mother made with the Jobs family to allow them to adopt was that Steve had to go to college.

Everything is timing.

nah, everything is parents

Does Airbnb and Instacart have a lot of patents? Or was it their timing?

you'd be surprised how many legacy cases there are in the valley. the right internship, first job, quick promotion ....

and your point is?

You're probably correct. It's always about who you know.