Katherine Boyle

I think it says something about the culture of tech, which is, and I always tell veterans this because I get so many people saying, how do you transition?

It's like, it is a very open culture.

By its nature, people are open about meeting people, talking to people.

Yes, it's kind of monolithic, but if you have an idea that's different, there are people who will take a bet on you if you seem to know what you're talking about, if you know the right people.

if you have a talented team surrounding you.

And so I do think it's probably one of the few places that misfits can go in America.

It's like you couldn't go to New York City and kind of crack your way into different parts of finance.

It's like there's too many places in New York where they care who your daddy is or what school you went to, what high school you went to.

There's too much of that kind of elite culture in Washington and New York.

But something about Silicon Valley is you can just be loud on the internet

and get people's attention and have everyone important in Silicon Valley talking about you, making fun of you, mocking you, right?

But like you can become the center of attention very quickly.

Interesting.

And so I really encourage young people to do that, especially if they're a talented engineer.

Like you don't have to know anyone.

Yeah.

Yes, and you'll learn a lot.

It's not guaranteed someone's going to invest in it, but what's interesting is Silicon Valley used to be like the Florentine Five Families.

You have five venture firms.

They all sit on Sand Hill Road, which is the classic place where all these firms were built.