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Can You Really Build a Great Tech Firm Outside Silicon Valley?

Both Sides of the Table

Many of the Valley tech firms saw advertising as “beneath them&# and many VCs in the first boom encouraged people to focus on eyeballs rather than dollars. Douglas Merrill, the former CIO of Google, is building his next company, ZestCash in LA. Scott Painter , founder of CarsDirect has created TrueCar (backed by GRP Partners).