Paul Graham, Founder of Y Combinator, Live from Stockholm

Graham argues that ambitious people benefit from spending time where their field is most concentrated, as earlier generations did in Paris for painting and Göttingen for mathematics. Silicon Valley offers more talented peers, more chance encounters with useful collaborators, and a faster pace. He says investors there also tend to decide more quickly because competition makes good opportunities harder to wait on.

Graham says that meeting successful founders makes their achievements seem difficult but possible, giving ambitious people a clearer standard to aim for. He points to Max, a Swedish founder at the event, as an example of both what someone can achieve and how hard they may need to work. He also describes Silicon Valley as a place where people often help founders without expecting an immediate return.

Graham connects his advice to visit Silicon Valley with his proposal for Stockholm: founders should go for a time and then return. He says returning founders can improve the quality of local startups, bring back investment, and spread startup practices. He presents Y Combinator as a concentrated way to experience the Valley’s founder community and investor pace over four to six months.

Graham says YC startups that return home are about half as likely to become unicorns as those that stay, while noting selection bias and the effect of Bay Area valuations. He argues that even lower financial outcomes can still be substantial and that where founders raise their children matters too. He sees an opening for Stockholm to become the Silicon Valley of Europe, if it has a place founders want to live and reaches a critical mass of startups.