Mountain View - California

I am sitting in a coffee shop (red rock cafe, for those who know) on castro street in Mountain View, CA.

As I sit here, I get the feeling that this town is probably the modern version of a factory town that used to dot the american landscape. I dont intend to typecast the town; these towns are unique and deserve a category of their own. However, as I listen to the buzz of conversation amongst people from different companies discussing about their companies and the current business trends over coffee, I perceive a similarity to the conversations blue-collared workers would have had over beer in the industrial towns of the past.

But, the fact of the matter is that its not. In fact, quite the contrary. I have been told by people familiar with the bay area that these conversations that I talk of above are in fact thoughts and ideas being exchanged, engines for the growth spurt of innovative companies, much different from the blue-collared conversations. In fact, this very coffee shop, with its free internet and no-questions-asked seating space is the birthspot of several of the local startups, some of which might indeed make it big.

Across the table to me, sits a well dressed gentleman, probably waiting to meeta young entrepreneur, intending to to evaluate one of the many such business ideas that might have been developed in a coffee shop similar to this one ...