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Ask YC: Startup atmosphere in Pittsburgh, PA?

6 points by dimitry ↗ HN
I'm contemplating quitting full-time and moving from SF to Pittsburgh (where I'm originally from).

Reasons to move are mostly family related, but the move would also make sense financially.

What are the benefits of staying in SF if I'm starting a company and what is the startup atmosphere like in Pittsburgh (if anyone knows)?

Obvious answers (networking, etc.) are fine :)

Thanks!

9 comments

[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 63.2 ms ] thread
rms
Hey, I live in Pittsburgh. There are a couple of us here on news.yc. The startup atmosphere is not very much. The investors consist of an angel group, Innovation Works, and private angels (which I just hear about, I've never actually seen one). If you manage to raise money, or can self finance, there are good programmers available at much lower rates than in SF.

Innovation Works is running an incubator this summer. The application is due today, if you want to get one in quickly.

http://www.iwalphalab.org/

dimitry
Thanks for the info rms.

I'm not in a rush so won't be submitting to Innovation Works just yet, although this would have been nice to know few weeks ago =) Bookmarked.

I'll have to ping you if I decide to move back.

semigeek
We're just outside Pitt, so if you move back we might have enough for a Pitt Meetup
bkrausz
I agree with rms...not too much in terms of startups, but we do have 2 things going for us:

1) College students, lots of them. That means that you can find cheap smart labor if you're looking to hire (Carnegie Mellon has lots of coders). A noteworthy number of startups/startupy ideas came out of CMU students, including buxfer, flexcar, and recaptcha.

2) Everything here is really really cheap. The cost of living is 84% the national average, vs. 182% for Silicon Valley. A lot easier to bootstrap something.

Full disclosure: I'm only in Pittsburgh for school and intend to move to SV ASAP. Weather's much nicer there, and I go where the work is.

wumi
i honestly laughed when I saw this, and I'm from PA.

Hard-working city and a fair sized University base.

webwright
If funding is a path that you'll be taking, I think anywhere for SV is pretty close to a dead zone. So, unless it's a part-time "hobby startup", build something that has a baked-in business model (i.e. something that people will BUY). That will allow you to bootstrap somewhat effectively.
krishna2
Count me as another who considers Pittsburgh as home away from home. Would probably move back there for the right opportunity.
dimitry
Thanks to all for your comments!

I'll check out PG's article, but in all seriousness, I'm dead tired of SV. I don't think it's for me and it's definitely not a necessity for all web startups.

Leaving SF is a whole another story though. I'm in love with the city. I lived for 8 years in Pittsburgh and know it doesn't offer everything this city does.