Startup scene in Dallas?
A couple weeks ago there was a question about the Pittsburgh startup scene on here... What about Dallas, TX?
I am also starting to look for a summer internship and thought it couldn't hurt to ask around here. So I guess my question could be split in to two parts:
1) Is Dallas a good city for startups? 2) Any startups in Dallas taking interns?
16 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 35.8 ms ] threadThere are a lot of telecom startups in Dallas, but there are not a lot of Silicon Valley style software startups. You'd have better luck in Austin.
Hopefully, I'll soon be changing that ;)
The problem I see with Dallas is the personality of the city is a bit bureaucratic. At least relative to other startup hubs such as SV, Austin, and Seattle, which seem to have more of an outdoor-loving hippie vibe.
Dallas is sufficiently "young" though. Lots of new young talent coming in. I believe Dallas is actually one of the fastest growing cities in the US right now.
texasstartupblog.com has some info about local startups
the owner of that blog runs the only web 2.0 like small company i know of in dallas, you should give him an email, he might be able to hook you up
are you a designer or do you code too?
There is a lot of bigger business moving here and dragging a lot of california imports with it, so we're starting to see more of the free spirit vs. the traditional "work for a big company for security" that is standard here.
There are some ++s:
- Cost of living is relatively low - Modern luxuries, infrastructure, mobility, etc. afforded by a large metropolitan area. - Central location, with major airports (AA and Southwest are based in the DFW area) - Strong technical economy (TI, Lockheed Martin, telecom) - UT Dallas, UT Arlington, SMU - Mark Cuban?
In my personal experience, I work for a startup in Dallas and we are doing quite well (profitable, growing). We're also hiring for full-time, permanent developers.
Link: http://videocarlot.tv
While many companies are started in Dallas every year, most of them are focused on non-software industries. On the software side, here are a few current ones I know about: 1) Swarmforce is a content system using swarm AI 2) Roov is a social network for the faith community 3) MileMeter sells auto insurance buy the mile 4) Viewzi provides view-based search
A list of some others can be found at http://www.texasstartupblog.com/2007/12/17/founders-in-dalla...
A good way to get involved in the Dallas software startup community is to visit Refresh Dallas, Dallas BarCamp, and Dallas.rb Reading texasstartupblog occasionally provides insight to a new local company.
1) Is Dallas a good city for startups? That depends on your involvement/wants/definition. There's a lot of money here and a lot of good MBA schools/programs around. If you had asked, Is Dallas a good city for hackers?, I would've probably said, "Not really since we don't have a quality tech school."
2) My startup, LearnItfirst.com (video training), is hiring both permanent and interns: http://www.learnitfirst.com/jobs/
Someone posted a StartUpDrinks.com group: http://dallas.startupdrinks.com/