# 24 – #Exodus or #NoExodus – our most contentious episode, yet

Tech Deciphered

Episode 24 ends our trilogy on Silicon Valley and our “no bs” contextualization: from its history, geography and its most common and core myths. In this episode, we deep dive on our Silicon Valley loves (and hates) and finally address the elephant in the room: is there an exodus going on or not? Has Silicon Valley’s downfall started or is it highly exaggerated? Listen to our most contentious podcast yet. Navigation: Introduction (01:33) Section 1: Hates (02:19) Section 2: Loves (33:51) Section 3: The Future of Silicon Valley (54:41) Conclusion (1:13:09) Our co-hosts: Bertrand Schmitt, Tech Entrepreneur, business angel, advisor to startups and VC funds, co-founder at App Annie, @bschmitt Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, Managing Partner, Founder at Chamaeleon, @ngpedro Our show: Tech DECIPHERED brings you the Entrepreneur and Investor views on Big Tech, VC and Start-up news, opinion pieces and research. We decipher their meaning, and add inside knowledge and context. Being nerds, we also discuss the latest gadgets and pop culture news Subscribe To Our Podcast Intro (01:34)Nuno: So today in episode 24 of tech deciphered, we'll be finalizing our trilogy on Silicon valley. Our non bullshit view on Silicon valley, which started in episode 22, talking about what Silicon valley is and what brought us here, then continues in episode 23, with an episode specifically on the mythology of Silicon valley and our sevent myths of Silicon valley. And today we will end with love, hate - our areas of love and our areas of hate of Silicon valley and the bay area. And we will finalize with Silicon valley in transition. Is there an Exodus? Is this a mindset? Is this a geography? What will happen to this region? Bertrand? Section 1 - Hates (02:19) Bertrand: Should we start with things we love or things we hate? Nuno: I started with hate let's start with hate. And then we go to love. Yes. Bertrand: Let's start with hate. That sounds very very harsh, but there are some reasons to be harsh about Silicon valley, not everything is the paradise you can read from far. Nuno: Yeah. So maybe starting with the most obvious of them all, with crime safety, homelessness, and here we have to be very specific because obviously there's this situation for example, of San Francisco and crime and homelessness in San Francisco, which is pretty pervasive. And in some ways it's been a little bit amped up also with COVID as a lot of people left town and certainly are working more remotely. But definitely there is a problem in San Francisco. There's a problem also elsewhere, Oakland, I think is having a little bit of what I would call a Renaissance. It's getting and becoming an exciting city and and solving a lot of its issues. But obviously we know the history of crime in Oakland is also a very serious one. And then you have places that have obviously no crime at all, like Atherton, the richest town in America or the wealthiest town in America where, finding crime is probably difficult. So really a tale of two bay areas, so to speak or to Silicon valleys Bertrand: Sorry let's not forget east Palo Alto Nuno: Yeah. You have these dichotomies exactly to your point Bertrand, where you have Palo Alto, which we know next to Stanford and where a lot of very wealthy people live like mark Zuckerberg and others which is in general, relatively safe here, and then just east Palo Alto, which is not as safe. Bertrand: The other side of the highway. Nuno: literally the other side of the 1 0 1. And so again, in some ways it's a little bit quintessential American, right? We know that from other cities like Chicago and in LA and other parts of the U S where you have certain areas that have for a variety of reasons a significant amount of lack of safety and crime and all of that. And then you have areas that are extremely safe and extremely controlled in terms of crime as well. So I think the first hate we probably both sha...