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According to wikipedia, it also has more engineers per square meter than any state in the US. Not quite the trashy state people are led to believe it is. Now t

According to wikipedia, it also has more engineers per square meter than any state in the US. Not quite the trashy state people are led to believe it is. Now that NYC is not affordable for startups, NJ will become a perfectly respectable tech/Start up hub. And good for it.

aswanson 9y ago
Nah, Jersey is done. The same 1950s attitudes/laws that caused it to lose the industry are still there. That's why it's tech scene consists mostly of big doofy defense contractors and Comcast.
- throwawaymanbot 9y ago
  Perhaps, But, I'm wagering that with NYC pricing out anyone but wall st banks, the pressure will build and it will change out of necessity. NJ shall be remade and reborn!
  - briandear 9y ago
    Not with the insane property taxes and other regulatory friction. Highest property taxes in the country. It also has some of the highest auto insurance rates in the country as well. Health insurance is also higher than in neighboring NYC (at least the last time I checked a few years ago.) All of the Democrat candidates for NJ governor want to raise taxes even more. NJ also has the most underfunded public pension system in the country. -- a $44 billion shortfall. As a tech entrepreneur, I'd be very nervous about locating in a state that could, at any moment decide that those "wealthy tech companies" ought to be bailing out decades of financial mismanagement. NJ also ranked 49th in "Small Business Friendliness" -- California was 50th. New York was 48th. http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2014/12/nj_is_a_terrible_place_for_small_businesses_analysis_finds.html http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2014/12/nj_is_a_terribl... South Dakota, Nevada and Texas were the top three. If anywhere should be the "next" place, it should probably be Houston -- one of the most diverse cities in the country, low taxes, access to a massive academic medical center, NASA, the energy industry, low cost of living, Rice University (pioneers in nano-tech including a Nobel winners,) University of Houston, including Paul Chu in superconducting. Texas A&M is about an hour away with more Nobel winners, including the 1996 Nobel in Physics and substantial engineering and science research programs New Jersey does have Princeton of course and access to NYC (if that actually matters.) New Jersey's only "attraction" other than Princeton is "proximity to New York." I would have to see some actual data to be convinced that "proximity to New York" actually has a material affect on the success of startups. It's a fallacy that being in San Fran or NYC actually matters.
    - cylinder 9y ago
      Yeah, any engineer would look at the government situation closely. No thank you to NJ. I'm not going to voluntarily take on that ridiculous pension burden. Houston is a quiet tech hub, it's completely overlooked. But if you're building robots wouldn't you want to sell to the industry that actually uses them and has lots of money to spend? However, Houston has livability issues, and the nice places to live aren't that cheap especially when you factor in property taxes. Still better than NJ.
    - jpmattia 9y ago
      > California was 50th. What a strange metric they must be using: Silicon valley erupted (and continues to erupt) in CA, land of high taxes and high regulatory environment. And it seems many areas are trying to figure out how to be the next silicon valley.
    - dmode 9y ago
      There is almost zero chance that Houston or anywhere in Texas will be the next place to be. These small business studies have been around for a long long time and has hardly any effect. In fact, the gulf between VC funding in Texas compared to Bay Area and NYC are actually increasing. http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/texanomics/article/Venture-capital-funding-continues-to-sink-in-10850227.php http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/texanomics/article/...
    - s73ver 9y ago
      I don't trust measures of "small business friendliness", because more often than not, how "business friendly" a state is really is a measure of how willing they are to gut consumer protection and employee protection laws. Having grown up in South Dakota, I can assure you this is the case there.
    - s73ver 9y ago
      "It's a fallacy that being in San Fran or NYC actually matters." If you want money, which let's be honest, is one of the most important things in this context, it highly does. All of the major VCs are in SF or NYC, and have shown very little desire to branch out from there. While we occasionally hear stories of a startup outside of those places doing well, it's generally the exception, not the rule.
- nunez 9y ago
  and Verizon Wireless!
GeneralMayhem 9y ago
It's also the most densely populated state overall, so it presumably has more of most kinds of people per square meter than most if not all states. See also: https://xkcd.com/1138/ https://xkcd.com/1138/
ovet 9y ago
NJ also has the most people per square meter than any other state so that might be misleading. Also many of them might live in NJ but work in NYC/Philly Not trying to diss NJ though, it definitely gets a bad rap from a few trashy people. They're in NYC and Philly too but Jersey seems to get blamed for it.

aswanson 9y ago

Nah, Jersey is done. The same 1950s attitudes/laws that caused it to lose the industry are still there. That's why it's tech scene consists mostly of big doofy defense contractors and Comcast.

throwawaymanbot 9y ago
Perhaps, But, I'm wagering that with NYC pricing out anyone but wall st banks, the pressure will build and it will change out of necessity. NJ shall be remade and reborn!
- briandear 9y ago
  Not with the insane property taxes and other regulatory friction. Highest property taxes in the country. It also has some of the highest auto insurance rates in the country as well. Health insurance is also higher than in neighboring NYC (at least the last time I checked a few years ago.) All of the Democrat candidates for NJ governor want to raise taxes even more. NJ also has the most underfunded public pension system in the country. -- a $44 billion shortfall. As a tech entrepreneur, I'd be very nervous about locating in a state that could, at any moment decide that those "wealthy tech companies" ought to be bailing out decades of financial mismanagement. NJ also ranked 49th in "Small Business Friendliness" -- California was 50th. New York was 48th. http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2014/12/nj_is_a_terrible_place_for_small_businesses_analysis_finds.html http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2014/12/nj_is_a_terribl... South Dakota, Nevada and Texas were the top three. If anywhere should be the "next" place, it should probably be Houston -- one of the most diverse cities in the country, low taxes, access to a massive academic medical center, NASA, the energy industry, low cost of living, Rice University (pioneers in nano-tech including a Nobel winners,) University of Houston, including Paul Chu in superconducting. Texas A&M is about an hour away with more Nobel winners, including the 1996 Nobel in Physics and substantial engineering and science research programs New Jersey does have Princeton of course and access to NYC (if that actually matters.) New Jersey's only "attraction" other than Princeton is "proximity to New York." I would have to see some actual data to be convinced that "proximity to New York" actually has a material affect on the success of startups. It's a fallacy that being in San Fran or NYC actually matters.
  - cylinder 9y ago
    Yeah, any engineer would look at the government situation closely. No thank you to NJ. I'm not going to voluntarily take on that ridiculous pension burden. Houston is a quiet tech hub, it's completely overlooked. But if you're building robots wouldn't you want to sell to the industry that actually uses them and has lots of money to spend? However, Houston has livability issues, and the nice places to live aren't that cheap especially when you factor in property taxes. Still better than NJ.
  - jpmattia 9y ago
    > California was 50th. What a strange metric they must be using: Silicon valley erupted (and continues to erupt) in CA, land of high taxes and high regulatory environment. And it seems many areas are trying to figure out how to be the next silicon valley.
  - dmode 9y ago
    There is almost zero chance that Houston or anywhere in Texas will be the next place to be. These small business studies have been around for a long long time and has hardly any effect. In fact, the gulf between VC funding in Texas compared to Bay Area and NYC are actually increasing. http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/texanomics/article/Venture-capital-funding-continues-to-sink-in-10850227.php http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/texanomics/article/...
  - s73ver 9y ago
    I don't trust measures of "small business friendliness", because more often than not, how "business friendly" a state is really is a measure of how willing they are to gut consumer protection and employee protection laws. Having grown up in South Dakota, I can assure you this is the case there.
  - s73ver 9y ago
    "It's a fallacy that being in San Fran or NYC actually matters." If you want money, which let's be honest, is one of the most important things in this context, it highly does. All of the major VCs are in SF or NYC, and have shown very little desire to branch out from there. While we occasionally hear stories of a startup outside of those places doing well, it's generally the exception, not the rule.
nunez 9y ago
and Verizon Wireless!

GeneralMayhem 9y ago

It's also the most densely populated state overall, so it presumably has more of most kinds of people per square meter than most if not all states. See also: https://xkcd.com/1138/ https://xkcd.com/1138/

ovet 9y ago

NJ also has the most people per square meter than any other state so that might be misleading. Also many of them might live in NJ but work in NYC/Philly Not trying to diss NJ though, it definitely gets a bad rap from a few trashy people. They're in NYC and Philly too but Jersey seems to get blamed for it.