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Agreed - likely not any one thing, but a combination of several trends. Quants are smart, but not necessarily in a startup way - they could definitely be on th

by jfi 17y ago

Agreed - likely not any one thing, but a combination of several trends. Quants are smart, but not necessarily in a startup way - they could definitely be on the startup team (build the product, crunch the data, etc.), but might not be the best fit as a founder (obviously this is a sweeping generalization, but so was your "almost all of the smart people on Wall Street are quants") There are plenty of other smart people that make up Wall Street (traders, investment bankers, pwm, sales / marketing) and likely better equip to take on the multi-faceted beast that is a startup venture. Also, few were safe in 09, regardless of what role they filled. Rents in New York definitely need to come down in order for the innovation / startup hub to continue it's upward move ... having banks and funds recover and salary / bonus talk coming back will not help either.

pw0ncakes 17y ago
Rents in New York definitely need to come down in order for the innovation / startup hub to continue it's upward move ... having banks and funds recover and salary / bonus talk coming back will not help either. First of all, I think our financial crisis/recession is doomed to have a "W" shape. We're going to dip again; it's unclear when. This is because, despite the bailout, there hasn't been any material change in the workings of Wall Street; we've merely reduced the number of players. Wall Street salaries will always be high relative to other industries, but what will change post-crash (the upcoming one) is that the industry will employ fewer people. We'll have as many if not more billionares made by hedge funds, but the number of players is going to drop considerably, and Wall Street will no longer be able to singularly support the Manhattan economy (and no industries other than finance and "biglaw", whose clients are mostly Wall Street firms, pay sufficiently to support these prices). This will be good for New York's diversity and character; bad for real estate prices. But it could easily take 5-10 years before RE prices revert to a reasonable level. In that time, the talent will have moved elsewhere.

by jfi 17y ago

pw0ncakes 17y ago

Rents in New York definitely need to come down in order for the innovation / startup hub to continue it's upward move ... having banks and funds recover and salary / bonus talk coming back will not help either. First of all, I think our financial crisis/recession is doomed to have a "W" shape. We're going to dip again; it's unclear when. This is because, despite the bailout, there hasn't been any material change in the workings of Wall Street; we've merely reduced the number of players. Wall Street salaries will always be high relative to other industries, but what will change post-crash (the upcoming one) is that the industry will employ fewer people. We'll have as many if not more billionares made by hedge funds, but the number of players is going to drop considerably, and Wall Street will no longer be able to singularly support the Manhattan economy (and no industries other than finance and "biglaw", whose clients are mostly Wall Street firms, pay sufficiently to support these prices). This will be good for New York's diversity and character; bad for real estate prices. But it could easily take 5-10 years before RE prices revert to a reasonable level. In that time, the talent will have moved elsewhere.