Founders choosing to live outside the biggest metro areas (e.g. NYC, SF Bay Area, LA) are often more "control-motivated" as opposed to "wealth-motivated" [1], a

Founders choosing to live outside the biggest metro areas (e.g. NYC, SF Bay Area, LA) are often more "control-motivated" as opposed to "wealth-motivated" [1], and thus bootstrap their companies longer while keeping more equity. Google, Apple, Facebook, Netflix, etc took more rounds of financing. If you go one step further, in small businesses in rural areas the founders have almost 100% equity. [1] N. Wasserman. The Founder's Dilemmas. 2012.