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Skype Co-Founder Niklas Zennstrom's Advice for Startups: You Don't Have to Go to Silicon Valley (Video)

There's plenty of room -- and talent -- all over the world.

Asa Mathat
Peter Kafka covers media and technology, and their intersection, at Vox. Many of his stories can be found in his Kafka on Media newsletter, and he also hosts the Recode Media podcast.

Niklas Zennstrom made a lot of money co-founding Skype — and sold it twice. Now he’s spending some of that money on startups all over the world, via his Atomico investment company.

And while lots of companies founded outside the U.S. eventually find their way to Silicon Valley, Zennstrom isn’t sure that’s the best way to go.

“It’s certainly not a requirement to do that,” he said at Re/code’s Code/Mobile conference. “I don’t see a pattern of companies that are moving here becoming more successful.”

His argument: There’s lots of talent in Silicon Valley, but there’s even more competition for that talent. Meanwhile, there’s a deep pool of technical talent outside the U.S., and it’s getting deeper. Go work with — and hire — those folks.

Here’s Zennstrom, in his own words, talking to Re/code Senior Editor Ina Fried:

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.