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Start with the premise that the single most important factor that determines startup success is hiring quality talent, specifically engineers and scientists. Hi
by seibelj 11y ago
Start with the premise that the single most important factor that determines startup success is hiring quality talent, specifically engineers and scientists. High quality engineers and scientists are currently a small percentage of the entire world's population. They are attracted to areas where they can find jobs, and usually stick around universities.
Going with that premise, would you rather start your company in Oklahoma City or Boston? And if you are an investor, would you rather invest in a tech startup in Oklahoma City or Boston?
Finally, as an engineer, I highly value the quality of the area I live. There is literally nothing that could make me move to sprawling city like Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Atlanta, Houston, Phoenix, Detroit, etc. Nothing short of an environmental or man made disaster that made all highly desirable, walkable, densely packed cities unlivable.
And so it is with many people, I'm sure.
- financedfuture 11y ago> would you rather invest in a tech startup in Oklahoma City or Boston? If I'm smart, Oklahoma. Lower valuation, rent, salaries and less competition. True that the team wouldn't be competitive young engineers that only live in cities like NYC or SF, but that's probably a good thing.
- seibelj 11y agoHave you ever actually lived in OKC? It is an awful quality of life for many reasons. I highly recommend not living there. If investing is only about rent and salaries, you may as well hire in Sub-Saharan Africa. Lots of tech talent lives there, I'm sure.
- sharemywin 11y agoInvesting isn't about only rent and salaries its about capital to grow. I would also say that investing in a bunch of super risk takers can work but could also leave you with a bunch of unicorns you can't dump off to the public.
- financedfuture 11y agoI have never lived in OKC and simply used to make a point, as did the parent comment. Take Iowa, South Dakota, Utah, Texas then. If you are a senior software engineer with a family, SF or NYC wouldn't be your top choice.
- sharemywin 11y agoA lot of the top engineering schools in the country are state universities all over. All these engineers leave to go to CA doubt it. http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/eng-rankings/page+2 http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-gradu...
- sharemywin 11y agoStill pretty american centric. Obviously, there are great engineers all over the world.
- tosseraccount 11y agoCapital is quite mobile on this planet. No reason you can't set up in Joburg or Pittsburg.
- an4rchy 11y agoWhy can't the startup be based in a smaller city and have people working remotely or if needed just the engineering team where the talent is? It all depends on the product/market. This might be another reason, most companies probably have a tiny Coast office and say it's headquarters but have operations in another place -- to keep costs low.
- petra 11y agoYes. This is common with Israeli startups .I wonder how Florida accounts such startups in his survey.
- rm_-rf_slash 11y agoHaving worked for Silicon Valley companies and an Ivy League university, I think it's fair to say I'm a good engineer. I hate big cities. They are so expensive and noisy and I abhor having to drive for more than 30 minutes at a time. The opportunity cost of all of the exciting marvels going on around you makes you feel like shit if all you want to do after work is drink and watch Netflix. As great as big cities are, unless you are actively making the best of them, chances are you are living in the same ways most other people are: you use the same devices as everyone else to watch the same shows as everyone else. You get food delivered to your shelter-cubicle which anyone in a decently sized city can get as well. You go from boxes to boxes in boxes. I like my small city. I like to get off the grid and go outside to hear nature. Turning off lets me channel my energy when I turn on. I doubt I am alone.
- Ologn 11y ago> the single most important factor that determines startup success is hiring quality talent, specifically engineers and scientists. High quality engineers and scientists are currently a small percentage of the entire world's population. They are attracted to areas where they can find jobs, and usually stick around universities. Another thing is the speed at which a company can hire high quality engineers. Facebook now has 25 employees for every employee it had eight years ago. For a company taking off like a rocket, there is only one place where you can hire that many good engineers in that amount of time - San Francisco.
- harryjo 11y agoThe provincialism on display in this thread would be comical if it weren't so sad. CMU, CWRU, MIT, Duke, Waterloo, UWashington, UTexas, UMichigan, Georgia Tech, ... Microsoft's WA state employment is 3x Facebook's total employment. Amazon is similar.