4 ms·
I think Seattle is one of the top 3-4 cities for startups (in the US). As far as your criteria go, cost-of-housing etc. is going to be much lesser than SV, but
by credo 17y ago
I think Seattle is one of the top 3-4 cities for startups (in the US).
As far as your criteria go, cost-of-housing etc. is going to be much lesser than SV, but much more than Austin. No state income tax, just a sales tax. Traffic congestion is pretty bad. Business pay 1.5% of total revenue (not profit) as B&O taxes to the state.
Like the other top cities for tech-startups, heavily liberal in terms of politics. I vaguely remember reading some report that said that Seattle had a higher percentage of college-grads than every other major city in America. evergreen forests nearby, "you can ski in the morning and sail in the evening" is how my Microsoft recruiter described Seattle to me in the 90s :)
- hga 17y agoIt should be noted that there's a serious effort to institute an income tax in Washington state. It's probably hard to predict the likelihood of success, but today we can safely say it'll happen a lot sooner there than in Texas. The gross receipts business tax is obviously necessary to capture money from Boeing in years it's not profitable, and didn't hurt eternally profitable Microsoft when it moved there (from Arizona, the home of the personal computer), but it can be a real pain for a not yet profitable startup and obviously raises the level for ramen profitability.