There have been several new guides to the Valley posted recently - collecting the links here.

The Valley is a virtual place as well as a real place - and it believes strongly in itself. Some days it feels like a collective self-delusion - if all these people didn't believe so strongly that they could build huge user communities and that investors would value what they built, that the place would dry up and blow away.

Robert Scoble has a good summary of the places which capture the origins and recent history. Steve Blank lists more of the places where you can get a current sense of what's going on, if you have enough context to understand what you are hearing.

The Valley has about 10m people in it, but it's not completely built up. There are parks and open spaces, though they aren't as convenient as the London Royal Parks. If you are interested in living here, it's worth driving to and walking in some of the residential areas - having first checked Zillow, for example, to understand which might be in your price range. For certain areas, house prices are more affected by Google and Apple's stock price, or the secondary market in Facebook shares, than by the number of repossessions.

If you are actively looking for investors, then AngelList and CapLinked are required reading.

References
Things to visit in San Francisco and the Valley - Scoble and others on Quora
Steve Blank's visitors guide

Walking by the Bay
Shoreline (and a long list of guides to places to walk away from traffic)
Palo Alto Baylands

Big trees, without driving up to Skyline - Redwoods in Los Altos

AngelList

CapLinked

If you are interested in who might be interested in which ideas in the Valley, contact us at info@cunningsystems.com