Silicon Valley Is Over, Says Silicon Valley<br />During the Akron stop of the bus trip, while the Silicon Valley investors mingled with local officials over a dinner spread of vegan polenta pizza and barbecue sliders, Mr. McKenna, the San Francisco venture capitalist, told me<br />that he felt a difference in people’s attitudes in cities like these, where the tech industry’s success is still seen as something to celebrate<br />“It’s so expensive, it’s so congested, and frankly, you also see opportunities in other places.”<br />Mr. McKenna, who owns a house in Miami in addition to his home in San Francisco, told me<br />that his travels outside the Bay Area had opened his eyes to a world beyond the tech bubble.<br />Steve Case, the founder of AOL, has pledged to invest mostly in start-ups outside the Bay Area, saying that “we’ve probably hit peak Silicon Valley.”<br />But even among those who enjoy living in the Bay Area,<br />and can afford to do so comfortably, there’s a feeling that success has gone to the tech industry’s head.<br />When you invest in a San Francisco start-up, “you’re basically paying landlords, Twilio, and Amazon Web Services,” said Ms. Bannister of Founders Fund, referring to the companies<br />that provide start-ups with messaging services and data hosting.<br />“Some of the engineers in the Valley have the biggest egos known to humankind,” Mr. Khanna, the<br />Silicon Valley congressman, said during a round-table discussion with officials in Youngstown.<br />“I’m a little over San Francisco,” said Patrick McKenna, the founder of High Ridge Venture Partners who was also on the bus tour.
