Having been in a &quot;ho-hum that&#x27;s nice&quot; environment and a &quot;let&#x27;s murder the competition&quot; environment, I would say it goes beyond THINKING you NEED to be a US based startup company.<p>The fact of the matter is that your environment defines who you are, as a person. Why would that not matter for your company?<p>Can the environment be replicated somewhere else? Sure, with the right amount of luck. But people who think environment doesn&#x27;t matter are fooling themselves.