Rise of the Silicon Valley Small Business

Many founders are rethinking what can feel like a one-size-fits-all, Silicon Valley approach to building startups. They’re embracing a more diverse set of paths and experimenting with a middle-ground approach—one that combines the fiscal discipline of small businesses with the scaling ambition of Silicon Valley. I call this phenomenon the Silicon Valley Small Business, or SVSB for short. We’re going to see more SVSBs, and some of them will have big outcomes…perhaps even billion-dollar wins. While traditional SMBs, tech startups, and Silicon Valley Small Businesses all share similarities, they’re defined by the differences across their business objective, team, strategy, financing, operating model, and endgame (or exit strategy). When we think of a traditional small business, it’s often a local mom-and-pop shop or trade professional (e.g., a carpenter, a photographer) as a sole proprietor. They offer a known product or service to a localized market. Small business “owners” might lack fo

Many founders are rethinking what can feel like a one-size-fits-all, Silicon Valley approach to building startups. They’re embracing a more diverse set of paths and experimenting with a middle-ground approach—one that combines the fiscal discipline of small businesses with the scaling ambition of Silicon Valley. I call this phenomenon the Silicon Valley Small Business, or SVSB for short. We’re going to see more SVSBs, and some of them will have big outcomes…perhaps even billion-dollar wins. While traditional SMBs, tech startups, and Silicon Valley Small Businesses all share similarities, they’