5 ms·

My startup is in Kansas City. There are a lot of great developers here. Huge companies like Garmin, Cerner, Sprint and others do a good job of attracting a lo

My startup is in Kansas City. There are a lot of great developers here. Huge companies like Garmin, Cerner, Sprint and others do a good job of attracting a lot of talent from all over the US here out of college. Startups like mine can then hire them when they are ready for something new. Cost of living here is low. Decent basic house is $150-200k in the burbs. Awesome office space is cheap. Great tax incentives from KS and MO to start companies and create jobs. I honestly would have no interest being in the valley trying to compete with the likes of Google, Facebook and others for top talent. In KC we can be the cool company everyone wants to work for! We are Stackify, located in Leawood Kansas! :-)

madengr 10y ago
I'm in OP. Shhh... Don't let them know median household income in Leawood, KS is higher than Palo Alto, CA. Those SV people can stay in their rat race. http://www.city-data.com/city/Palo-Alto-California.html http://www.city-data.com/city/Palo-Alto-California.html http://www.city-data.com/city/Leawood-Kansas.html http://www.city-data.com/city/Leawood-Kansas.html
- caseyf7 10y ago
  That was surprising. Where would you say the $ comes from in Leawood? It's not clear from Wikipedia. Is it retired Sprint founders/execs?
  - madengr 10y ago
    Mostly dual income households (with kids) with white collar jobs (accounting, engineering, etc). Not difficult to have that income. I'm in the 66211 zip code, but not in Leawood. Wife and I are both engineers. My base income alone is more than that household. Household income is double that. The real kicker is ratio of home prices to household income. Schools are good here (no they don't teach creationism), low crime; You have to be nuts to live in SV. Though even the individual income is higher, so case of high $ SV single brogrammer vs dual income family does not hold. Interestingly, 66211 is very high with $443k AGI and $177k wage. The $443k AGI must be the the retired execs. http://www.city-data.com/zips/66211.html http://www.city-data.com/zips/66211.html

madengr 10y ago

I'm in OP. Shhh... Don't let them know median household income in Leawood, KS is higher than Palo Alto, CA. Those SV people can stay in their rat race. http://www.city-data.com/city/Palo-Alto-California.html http://www.city-data.com/city/Palo-Alto-California.html http://www.city-data.com/city/Leawood-Kansas.html http://www.city-data.com/city/Leawood-Kansas.html

caseyf7 10y ago
That was surprising. Where would you say the $ comes from in Leawood? It's not clear from Wikipedia. Is it retired Sprint founders/execs?
- madengr 10y ago
  Mostly dual income households (with kids) with white collar jobs (accounting, engineering, etc). Not difficult to have that income. I'm in the 66211 zip code, but not in Leawood. Wife and I are both engineers. My base income alone is more than that household. Household income is double that. The real kicker is ratio of home prices to household income. Schools are good here (no they don't teach creationism), low crime; You have to be nuts to live in SV. Though even the individual income is higher, so case of high $ SV single brogrammer vs dual income family does not hold. Interestingly, 66211 is very high with $443k AGI and $177k wage. The $443k AGI must be the the retired execs. http://www.city-data.com/zips/66211.html http://www.city-data.com/zips/66211.html