Chattanooga is probably the most progressive place in Tennessee, a bit like Austin's relationship to the rest of Texas. As for hiring a team, I have heard of c

Chattanooga is probably the most progressive place in Tennessee, a bit like Austin's relationship to the rest of Texas. As for hiring a team, I have heard of companies poaching their competitors' employees before, not as a whole team at once, but one by one (they hire one guy, then he talks to his former co-workers and they switch to the new company too). I'm not sure why companies don't do more of this when they can; it'd be a great way of beating your competitors, since the employees are the ones who build the product and know everything about it. There's likely some non-compete issues in some places, but in California that shouldn't be a problem, as case law already bans enforcement of non-competes, and that lawsuit a few years ago with the big tech companies proved that non-poaching agreements are also illegal.