There's a fair chance I met you at a meet-up in the DC area, which smaller professional communities can be good for. I'm familiar with VividCortex and met a few

There's a fair chance I met you at a meet-up in the DC area, which smaller professional communities can be good for. I'm familiar with VividCortex and met a few engineers up there at DevOps DC. When there's less companies, it's easier to form tighter bonds and there's less chance for negative competition like in much denser areas of competing professionals. Charlottesville, VA is a sort of Sunnyvale, CA in my mind - it's about the same mental distance as the craziness going on in the real urban area up north of it, and it has some history with some access to capital (UVA / William & Mary alumni really). Heck, I considered moving there but I consider it still tough for local jobs without the relative drop in cost of living. Granted, where I moved it sunk potential income harder, but the even lower cost of living is critical when bootstrapping companies, and cheap craft beer is a perk few areas where you can buy a great house for under $200k can claim.