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NYC, as an example, is becoming more and more a strong place to start a company, but it isn't on equal footing yet. The thing with starting a company is its ve
by bigdubs 11y ago
NYC, as an example, is becoming more and more a strong place to start a company, but it isn't on equal footing yet.
The thing with starting a company is its very rarely just you that is involved in the enterprise; you need developers, you need designers, you need bd people. People that do these things for startups tend to have a slightly different slant or skill-set than people that do them for large companies. As a result, it is a distinct advantage to be near large population centers that have a wealth of this talent.
One of the contributing factors to this is the organization that spawned the very website this is posted to; YCombinator based in SV and companies doing a class move to the bay area for it. The gravity is strong here.
Can you start a company outside the valley? Yes. Is it going to make things much more difficult for yourself doing so? Probably.
Another contributing factor to the dispersion of startups that hasn't been mentioned is remote work. It is possible to have an office in SF and keep yourself and your family elsewhere.
- colinbartlett 11y ago> Can you start a company outside the valley? Yes. Is it going to make things much more difficult for yourself doing so? Probably. I would love to see data on this one way or another. I find it very hard to believe that it is quantifiably more difficult to start a company outside of Silicon Valley. But you are not the first person to state that.
- somedudethere 11y agoWell just looking at Meetup.com Django (excluding python specific): MV: 2231, NYC: 2120, Austin: 41, Chicago: 126 RoR (excluding ruby only) MV: 4119, NYC: 4390, Austin: 158, Chicago: 417 I could probably go deeper but at least from a glance it is easy to see why starting in NYC or SF would be preferable.
- ryanSrich 11y agoIf you build a remote culture is very easy to find talent. The hard part is the funding. Finding quality VCs outside of SV is very very difficult.
- jrsnyder 11y agoCould you elaborate on the supply of quality VCs? What are some examples of high quality vs low quality VCs? How would you suggest ranking different VCs? Do you have any rough count of quality VCs in the top 3 cities?
- bigdubs 11y agoThe 'quality' of a vc comes through in a lot of ways. One way is a general stamp of approval (they typically pick winners) which helps your companies reputation. Another comes from a large portfolio or a large network from which you can draw talent for hiring or source deals if you're B2B. Another way is to help you syndicate a round (get other firms involved to meet your funding goal). The most important I find is if they're going to be around for future rounds; iffy firms that don't have a track record have a habit of folding once their initial fund is spent.