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Ask HN: What is the software startup environment in your city like?

3 points by digisth ↗ HN
After reading the Berlin thread (edit: and the recent Canada thread), it made me curious about what others thought about the software startup environment in the places they're located in. Where are you? What things would be useful to for people who would consider starting up there? Is it nascent, growing, non-existent? Who are the movers and shakers? Particular industry focus? We obviously hear a lot about the big dogs like Silicon Valley and Alley, but it'd be interesting to know about other places from those most active/experienced with them.

Not looking for anything with statistical rigor (though that's welcome too), just subjective experiences and fun anecdotes.

As I'm in Silicon Alley, I won't say much about it other than being thrilled to see my home turn into such a great place for software. Growing up in Brooklyn, I would never have imagined what it has turned out to be/is turning into.

8 comments

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loceng
None, non-existent. They are conservative thinkers and don't understand the tech industry, so any risk is too risky for them. It's very sad. So what happens is young people who potentially have the best understanding have to go elsewhere, whether to start a company or be hired by a company who has money - because they don't exist here because it's impossible to get funding unless your idea is based on similar brick & mortar models. It makes me sad, and frustrated.
hiram333
I'm in Incline Village at Lake Tahoe and the development scene must be deep underground or doesn't exist. I'm sure it it won't be a problem to get some rooms for meetings and collaboration happening. All non tourist relevant resources seem to be easy available. In Reno it looks probably better but the commuting gets to you, especially when the winter kicks in again.
jnazario
ann arbor michigan, from a friend's perspective.

http://a2geeks.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=18481175

digisth
That was a very interesting post. Thank you.
tptacek
A2 is probably a great place to start a software company. The city is very livable, cheaper than most major metros, and has a steady source of talent. More importantly, the market in A2 is small enough to reduce turnover; you can list the well-known companies on two hands, so absent an offer from one of them, team members can either (a) relocate out of the whole region or (b) accept a terrible IT job closer to DTW.

(I worked for 4 years in A2, right next to Dug, and apart from everything I have to say about A2 I wouldn't hesitate to go work for him at Duo if I had an offer).

tptacek
I think people fixate too much on the supposed perks of SFBA and NYC. I concede that there is a kind of company best delivered from one of those two places; if your company is in any way premised on riding some kind of tech industry zeitgeist, it helps to be in the middle of the tech industry. But for the rest of companies, I can think of a bunch of reasons why you'd be better off elsewhere.

So to make that concrete, an unscientific comparison of Chicago (where I am) to SFBA (where I worked for ~4 years):

* Talent is cheaper in Chicago by high-single-digit percentage points

* Talent is more abundantly available in Chicago. There are (obviously) fewer overall candidates, but the competition for them is much lower.

* If you're in a specialized field (as we are), it's even better: the SFBA talent competition seems most intense for high-premium specialists, and markets like Chicago have disproportionately fewer opportunities for those specialists.

* Housing is significantly cheaper and thus dollar-for-dollar better and more convenient than SFBA.

* Public transportion as vastly superior in Chicago than in SFBA, which increases both the effective availability of housing (more neighborhoods are easily commutable) but also overall quality of life (if you want a tree-lined street with kids, you got it; if you want a 1 block walk to your favorite bar, you also probably got it).

* Much less "networking" in Chicago than in SFBA. I've met a lot of Chicago startup "luminaries" for various reasons, but can't think of any event where I could do so reliably, unlike SF.

* The startup population is growing in proportion with the nationwide startup population. This is in contrast to NYC, which is growing disproportionately fast. Our big names are Groupon, 37s, Grubhub. We've got a small number of local YC companies.

* I'm a bad person to ask about the funding market but it seems anemic compared to SFBA or NYC or even Seattle. This is a better place to bootstrap.

* I also think it's an easier place to bootstrap, because Chicago has a large number of businesses, and more diversity in business size (from a large population of approachable stable small businesses to a large population of major enterprises) and vertical (trading, banking, pharma, law, insurance, food, hospitality). I think this is a stark contrast to SFBA which, if you're not freemiuming to the whole Internet as your strategy, has an "ice cubes to Inuits" vibe to it.

* Way more available office space, both in the Loop (downtown) and on the north and near-west side (if you want to be SOMA-trendy about your company).

digisth
That's a really informative post, tptacek. Thanks.

How do you feel that Chicago rates on "serendipity creation" (which I meant to ask in the OP, and seems like we could classify it separately from regular "networking")? Does it feel like a place where you can walk into non-official/industry events like coffeeshop/co-working-esque places and find collaborators? In a similar vein, do you see geographical clustering of startups, with the attendant bump-into-people at the deli counter effects?

thoughtpalette
I feel like the "serendipity creation" is overall at a good level. I overhear conversations about startups, design and programming in general all over Chicago. There are Geographical clusters. From my personal experience there's only 2/3 "locations/buildings" that I know are the startup buildings. And Chicago is a super small city. I run into people I've met at meetups on the train and downtown all the time by chance.

It's an enjoyable location :}