59 ms·
Where’s the Next Silicon Valley? VC Is Betting on the Midwest
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- Dowwie 9y agoNew Jersey.
- thevardanian 9y agoWhere's the next Hollywood? This question has always been absurd to me. Silicon Valley is here to stay.
- winslow 9y agoObviously Bollywood.
- santaclaus 9y ago> Where's the next Hollywood? Georgia, it would seem. If being in New York isn't the key point of the show, chances are it is filmed in Georgia nowadays.
- jedberg 9y agoFilmed yes. But then where does the film go for editing, color correction, adr, and other post? Hollywood. And then the executives screen it and then it’s dostributed and all of that is in LA too. The expensive parts have moved elsewhere (principal photography and special effects) because it’s easy to transmit data, but all the stuff that comes before and after still happens in Hollywood for the most part.
- disordinary 9y agoThere are post production facilities all over the world, for instance Wellington has a cluster of world class facilities in the suburb of Miramar like Park Road Post and Weta Digital With 2Gbps fibre connections there is no reason to think that places are required to be geographically in the same area.
- owenmarshall 9y ago> The expensive parts have moved elsewhere (principal photography and special effects) because it’s easy to transmit data, but all the stuff that comes before and after still happens in Hollywood for the most part. So you'll concede that a strong cost play exists to move away, and are basically betting that inertia maintains the status quo? Good luck. ;)
- jedberg 9y agoAbsolutely. I myself run my company as fully remote for this very reason. But I think I'm pretty leading edge in that respect -- most companies still believe having an office is important.
- creaghpatr 9y agoGeorgia will soon pass a post-production tax incentive designed to draw the other parts of the industry to Atlanta and capitalize on the production momentum.
- addicted 9y agoIt was Louisiana before that until Georgia started offering better tax breaks. Companies don't seem to find it very hard to move filming locations based on what state is offering them the most money.
- wellboy 9y agoYes, it's like what's going to be the next craigslist. Craiglist has unbelievable traction, just as Silicon Valley. If you want to be the next Silicon Valley or even 1/10th of its quality, it requires at least 20 years of work.
- synaesthesisx 9y agoI would disagree - as someone from Cambridge/Boston that frequents SF I would say Silicon Valley isn't all it's hyped to be. The majority of startups I come across out there are simply looking to get rich quick and are in it for the game rather than actually innovating anything. When it comes to actual innovation I have yet to find anything comes close to the level Cambridge/Boston is on, especially in life sciences & AI. If only it weren't for the frigid winters... https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/startups/2017/10/boston-is-no-1-in-the-country-for-startups-again.html https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/startups/2017/10/bos...
- ng12 9y agoAs someone who would love to move back to Boston that's a very hard sell. Especially when the biggest success story is Hubspot (of "Disrupted" fame) which is more Silicon Valley than Silicon Valley is.
- ghaff 9y agoA lot of perception is flavored by the fact that a lot of the time "tech" gets defined as what dominates Silicon Valley. So you get taxi companies counted as tech and bio/pharma or fintech often not. That said, while California does have a lot more VC funding, New York and Massachusetts and #2 and #3 even though Boston/Cambridge in particular tend to not be mentioned in these kind of discussions. https://ssti.org/blog/useful-stats-venture-capital-dollars-and-deals-state-2010-2015 https://ssti.org/blog/useful-stats-venture-capital-dollars-a...
- drharby 9y agoThe fact that hubspot is the premeir success startup in boston signals to me the journey BOS has to go to compete with sv. That said tho, the cambridge intellectual bubble is real and has its advantages
- tensor 9y agoToronto has been Hollywood North for a long time now. It's interesting to see how defensive people from SV are on this topic. No empire lasts forever and SV won't either. It's naive to genuinely believe that there are no smart people outside of SV, or that everyone wants to move to SV.
- Apocryphon 9y agoSurely it's Vancouver if we're going to talk Canada.
- nostrademons 9y agoNew Zealand. Lord of the Rings, King Kong, Whale Rider, The Last Samurai, The Hobbit, Bridge to Terabithia, Avatar, The Lovely Bones, etc.
- rconti 9y agoToo expensive, too remote. It's going to be North America when cost isn't a huge factor, and Eastern Europe when it is.
- walshemj 9y agooh you mean north Hollywood aka Vancouver :-)
- jedberg 9y agoI was recently having a discussion with the founder of a very successful company. I was asking him how they got their start and their initial customers. They were not from the Silicon Valley originally. He said it was slow going at first, until they moved to the Bay Area and started going to meetups. He said that meeting potential customers in person was what really accelerated their initial adoption, far more than their write-ups in the press or their "free customers" from their accelerator program. My point is, that will be hard to replicate anywhere else for a long time. The density of startups and the opportunities that presents will be hard to have somewhere else -- it's a chicken and egg problem. I had a friend who started a VC in Montreal. You know what happened as soon as the companies got successful? They took a round from a VC in the Bay Area and then moved here. They kept their dev office in Montreal for the "cheap labor" but made their HQ here. I suspect that is what will happen with these investments too. Most of the companies will probably leave Ohio when they get successful. And then they'll exit and have a bunch of money to invest where they now live -- the Bay Area.
- ourmandave 9y agoAnd it's probably cheaper to live in Ohio and fly to the office than pay SV rents.
- sidlls 9y agoIt isn't, unless we're talking a few flights per month at most.
- maxxxxx 9y agoI think you have to specialize on a certain industry, not just tech in general. Minnesota has quite a few startups in medical tech and there are big med tech companies there too that buy these startups. Same in Boston. That's an industry SV simply doesn't understand and being in SV is not an advantage. Banking may be a similar case.
- irrational 9y agoSame thing with athletic/outdoor apparel/footwear. There are so many companies headquartered in Portland, Oregon in this industry. It started with Nike, then Adidas and Columbia Sportswear. Now it seems like you can't throw a crampon without hitting another athletic/outdoor apparel/footwear startup.
- dalacv 9y agoAustin
- forgotpassagan 9y agoThe Midwest has crappy weather, and rich people as a rule don't like crappy weather. This alone will prevent many investors from moving to the Midwest. Geographically, Texas and the east coast near North/South Carolina are the most likely places for the next silicon valley. Both are in proximity to large population centres and have relatively good weather, cheap COL, low taxes, and plenty of 'natural beauty' type things that rich people like. Hills, driving distance to ocean, forests, etc... I lived in the Midwest and IMO it's mostly cold flat and boring endless farmland with little natural beauty and no access to large water bodies outside of Chicago area. It also has high taxes and cost of living. Not really anything attractive about starting business is there.
- mieseratte 9y agoAs a lifelong South Carolinian, I sincerely doubt the next Silicon Anything will arise here. Texas, I can see.
- forgotpassagan 9y agoNorth Carolina has the 'triangle' area which has seen huge growth for many years. Texas has Austin, which is probably the closest to SV of any place I've ever been. It looks so much like SV you could probably confuse the two in pictures
- Yhippa 9y agoMy bet is on the Raleigh-Durham triangle, Atlanta, or Austin.
- forgotpassagan 9y agoSame. Except I'm not as optimistic about Atlanta because the state is mostly poor and it's farther from the huge cities on the upper east coast. NC and Texas are both booming state-wide and have 'world cities' in reasonable driving distance.
- 9y ago
- rglover 9y agoPlease, no. It's still peaceful here. Stay in California.
- irrational 9y agoYou don't know what you're saying. They'll bring higher home prices, more traffic, Californian politics, complaints about the weather, snide remarks about how things are better in CA. What's not to love?
- lazerpants 9y agoJust ask Coloradans, it's wonderful to have your state taken over by people who don't share the same political culture, have far more money, and don't care much about land use!
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- deadmetheny 9y agoDon't worry, most of them would freeze to death come the first winter, and we'd have things back to normal.
- emerged 9y agoYep, I like the current trend where remote jobs are becoming more common so you can live in the Midwest while employed by a high paying SV/NYC/etc job. I don't really need the cultural elements of SV being spread across the US, that's part of the whole reason why I love the Midwest to begin with.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- bllguo 9y agoWouldn't diversity be an issue in a place like Ohio? My perception of the Midwest is that it's much more homogeneous and less inviting of minorities than California. Consequently it might be hard to attract diverse talent to relocate there.
- vforgione 9y agoNot really, no. Especially in cities and immediate suburbs, the Midwest has diversity and is welcoming of new people. Maybe you should come to Chicago or Cleveland or Columbus or Milwaukee sometime and see for yourself.
- sidlls 9y agoMilwaukee, seriously? I've family who live there and I visit regularly. There is a higher percentage of African Americans there than in the Bay Area, but diversity beyond that is practically non-existent (by comparison).
- bluedino 9y agoMidwest cities will often be black or white, very few Asians, Indians, etc. And very segregated. Look at Milwaukee for instance: http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wuwm/files/styles/medium/public/201504/Census_Map.jpg http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wuwm/files/styles/med... Detroit and Chicago are not much different.
- tzakrajs 9y agoCleveland is not diverse compared to most US cities, it's below average. Edit: Source: I lived in Cleveland ~20 yrs
- muninn_ 9y agoWhat do you mean by diverse talent?
- pythonistic 9y agoThis is purely anecdote, but I found Seattle to be significantly less diverse than Cincinnati or Columbus. The larger cities in the Midwest tend to have governments with goals that are hard to distinguish from any of the Democrat controlled coastal cities.
- tankenmate 9y agoUnless the Midwest replicates California's laws on ownership of IP vis-à-vis employment (i.e. it is illegal for companies to claim employee IP for work done outside of work even via a contract), and that non compete clauses are invalid it's at a huge disadvantage. Without at least those two the Midwest don't even stand a chance.
- devmunchies 9y agoWhat are the laws on ownership IP in Washginton state (Seattle, a.k.a silicon valley 2)?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- tankenmate 9y agoWashington state law says in Title 49, Chapter 44, section 140[0]; Requiring assignment of employee's rights to inventions - Conditions. (1) A provision in an employment agreement which provides that an employee shall assign or offer to assign any of the employee's rights in an invention to the employer does not apply to an invention for which no equipment, supplies, facilities, or trade secret information of the employer was used and which was developed entirely on the employee's own time, unless (a) the invention relates (i) directly to the business of the employer, or (ii) to the employer's actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development, or (b) the invention results from any work performed by the employee for the employer. Any provision which purports to apply to such an invention is to that extent against the public policy of this state and is to that extent void and unenforceable. (2) An employer shall not require a provision made void and unenforceable by subsection (1) of this section as a condition of employment or continuing employment. (3) If an employment agreement entered into after September 1, 1979, contains a provision requiring the employee to assign any of the employee's rights in any invention to the employer, the employer must also, at the time the agreement is made, provide a written notification to the employee that the agreement does not apply to an invention for which no equipment, supplies, facility, or trade secret information of the employer was used and which was developed entirely on the employee's own time, unless (a) the invention relates (i) directly to the business of the employer, or (ii) to the employer's actual or demonstrably anticipated research or development, or (b) the invention results from any work preformed [performed] by the employee for the employer. Please note I have made another comment in reply to someone else's about California state law, you can search for it. [0] https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=49.44.140 https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=49.44.140
- jpao79 9y agoThe key would be some fiber optic enabled always on teleconferencing pipe which connected teams in Silicon Valley to teams in the Midwest. At this point the differential for rents and cost of living between the two locales is high enough that it would far surpass the Verizon Fios/Google Fiber monthly bill. That said, my bet would be Fresno, Brentwood, Sacramento, Morgan Hill, Santa Cruz, Monterey, Madera. California High Speed Rail is going to be a game changer. Plus even today those locations are on the way to VC vacation destinations (i.e. Yosemite, Tahoe, Monterey) which could then be expensed as business travel. And they are in the same timezone.
- kolanos 9y agoThe only one I agree with here is Tahoe. No idea why more startups don't operate out of NV.
- seehafer 9y agoNevada side of Lake Tahoe? Easy. No space. Reno? Easy. No ecosystem, aside from specialized things (Gigafactory etc). I would LOVE to start an accelerator type thing just over the border of SLT, CA. But I would expect everyone would leave at the end of the it for a larger metro.
- intrasight 9y agoI agree with Reno. I actually think some good things are gonna start happening there due to several positive aspects. It's a big enough city to have nice cultural features. It has pretty good air connectivity. There's a younger crowd arriving and opening restaurants and brewpubs.
- kolanos 9y agoRe: the ecosystem. I think that's in the process of being addressed. If I'm starting a startup, I'm looking seriously at the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center [0].. Tahoe/Reno are only a few hours drive out of the Bay Area and the Reno area has a dramatically lower cost-of-living. [0]: http://tahoereno.com http://tahoereno.com
- sputknick 9y agoOn rainy Seattle days I often research other tech cities I could live in without a large mortgage and larger commute. I've decided, for me at least, Raleigh offers the best balance. Good economy, small-ish city, vibrant downtown, cheap-ish houses. As soon as I can, I'll be leaving Seattle for Raleigh.
- intrasight 9y agoI'm curious what other criteria and what other cities you've considered.
- jpao79 9y agoI found this the other day. Seems interesting: https://teleport.org/welcome https://teleport.org/welcome
- intrasight 9y agoVery cool! Thanks for sharing.
- robbintt 9y agoThis is cyclical news. It's an amazing marketing campaign for VCs. This is an interesting armchair idea for lots of people, but absolutely inspiring for people VCs are targeting to work for them and shoulder the non-cash component of their risk.
- sremani 9y agoThe Next Silicon Valley will be in Texas, because I live here :) That is wrong kind of thinking, but here is my 2-cent thesis, Tech has not outgrown into such mature industry, you will have whole series of regions with robust tech and venture economies, so in that sense there won't be one next silicon valley, but a whole series of mini-silicon vallies.
- sidlls 9y agoI don't know what's more amusing: the thought that VCs think they'll get plentiful cheap labor in the Midwest (that's what this is really about) or devs in the Midwest thinking VCs will bring SV-level wages and benefits to them instead of saving on all that because "cost of living."
- chiefalchemist 9y agoWhat's amusing is a legit VC thinking it's about devs. Technology is (relatively) the easy part. Critical thinking, finding problems, identifying opportunities, assessing risk, "what if...?", product, UX, etc. That's where the magic happens.
- chiefalchemist 9y agoPerhaps I'm mistaken but my impression is... Silicon Valley isn't a pin on a map. It's a culture. It's a collective mindset. It's a process. It's a high-tech Wild West. It's also an outlier. Startups + VCs !== Silicon Valley. It's more complex and more complicated than that.
- tzhenghao 9y agoI work at a Drive portfolio startup. This is neither Drive's nor my employer's opinions on this topic. There are pros for living here (lower cost of living etc.), but I genuinely hate the weather here. I find every opportunity to be out in SF during the winters. Oh and there aren't many meetups/conferences here, which is a HUGE problem if you're looking to grow/network with people as an engineer. People are generally skeptical and uninviting for newer ideas. Hiring is difficult too. If given the chance, I'd choose Seattle or SF.
- csixty4 9y agoI don't know where to start because all of this is true. I miss my mortgage that was less than my rent here in Boston. The weather in Boston is pretty much the same as Chicago, so I'm incredibly jealous of my co-workers on the west coast. There were some good meetups in the Chicago metro area though. I think what got me the most was a dearth of jobs outside finance & Content Management Systems.
- aantix 9y agoThe lack of network reveals itself in subtle ways. I'm at a tailgate, a curious friend of mine reveals that he was trying to learn Ruby. I ask a couple very _basic_ questions, and I get looks of "not here". Anything too technical comes across as exclusionary. The nice thing about SF is that every third person you run into is an engineer, so you never have that social problem. In fact, you have the opposite problem of always defaulting to "talking shop" with someone new.
- cylinder 9y agoI really admire how engineers like to be around other engineers and share ideas/knowledge rather than view them as competition.
- Hasz 9y agoCome to Denver. Better weather than SF and Seattle, and lower (relatively) cost of living.
- proc0 9y agoSV didn't just pop up in NorCal. It's a historical place where the first software companies and the internet were born. Silicon Valley was involved in creating Google, and self-driving cars. In other words, it's not like any city can, all of sudden, change its industries to compete with the level of IT/software innovations happening in SV.
- ghaff 9y ago>and the internet were born There are people from MIT, BBN, CERN, etc. that would like to have a talk with you. (Yes, Stanford was involved early on but pre dot-com, a great deal of the early Internet work was well outside of California.)
- walshemj 9y agoer no it was the massive defence spending during ww2 and after and the traitorous 8
- addicted 9y agoWon't tech development be automated by then anyways :)
- rmason 9y agoThere is only one Silicon Valley. It's silly to think otherwise, although it seems to be getting recycled constantly by journalists and economic development people. It's high time however that startups become more popular in the Midwest. If you are profitable, growing rapidly you can raise venture capital in the Midwest. However that rules out the majority of startups. That's a big reason that our best and brightest make the pilgrimage out West. What we need to see are startup clusters, let the companies stay in place. In Michigan it is starting to happen, but progress is still woefully slow. Angels are in just as short supply as venture capital.
- freehunter 9y ago>If you are profitable... you can raise venture capital in the Midwest This is the number one biggest difference between Midwest startups and SV startups. Even Basecamp said it, Midwest startups have to prove their profitability on day one before any VC will pay any serious attention. Whereas in SV, you can get money with just a team and a Powerpoint presentation. Wonder why there are no unicorns from the Midwest? Because if unicorns made money their valuation would be significantly lower. They're only unicorns because no one knows how much they're worth, and everyone knows exactly how much Midwest startups are worth on day one.
- adamw2k 9y agoAs someone born and raised in the Midwest (and who takes great pride in that) now leading a company in SF, the difficulty truly isn't lack of capital, it's lack of founder talent (and ideas). People with big ideas that can inspire the best technical leaders to join their crusade. There are plenty of great schools (Michigan, Purdue, IU, ND, U of Chicago, Northwestern, Rose Hulman, Depauw, U of I, and many more) churning out folks that are hungry to work hard and get ahead. What's missing is a sufficient population of 25-45 year old inspiring founders with enough of a nest-egg to take a big risk, willing to put a hold on family life, and with a big idea. There's a second problem that comes about when these rare combination of things come together - which has to do with cap tables... In that good teams get pummeled on early stage valuations compared to the coasts, resulting in exits that return far less to founders than investors (and thus stunt "the ecosystem" growth that exists in SV), but this is secondary to above IMHO.
- decentralised 9y agoWhy do you think that is the case in the Midwest and how would you see it changing in the short /medium term? edit: I ask this because in Portugal we also lack the entrepreneurial mass to match the tech talent.
- adamw2k 9y agoI don't see it changing in the short term, though I think there's potential in the long term. In between, I feel like towns need to organize around a particular niche / focus. For example, Indianapolis is a hub of marketing technology (ExactTarget, Aprimo, etc.). It's hard to compete w/ the (PR?) machine the coasts give you, but if you have a competitive advantage in some market - don't ignore it just because it's not SaaS. Examples include autos in MI, Medical Devices in Northern Indiana, manufacturing region-wide, distribution, real estate (Simon Malls, General Growth in Indy, Chicago respectively), etc. Build for those local customers and then spread geographically. I feel like that's overlooked far too often in the "David" (non-Goliath) markets.
- adventured 9y agoThe midwest isn't in any regard lacking entrepreneural mass. The parent is taking liberties with the premise. There are as many entrepeneurs per capita in Ohio and Illinois as there are in California (defined by new business formation and new employer business formation). The problem is what you'd expect in fact: network effects, hyper concentrated talent pools, extraordinary expertise, very large amounts of capital tilted toward higher risk / higher return pursuits. If you're in Kansas and have the next big tech idea... - If it requires significant venture capital, you're not going to be able to locate that capital in Kansas. The capital available in Kansas, isn't interested (it's only interested in hindsight; Silicon Valley capital is actually often interested a decade or two before an idea / business concept is ready to boom, which produces a constant cycle of being early with things, which finally only work years later). If you're in Kansas and need to raise $100m or $300 million over six years to build the next great fast growing technology business, you will not be able to find that scale of VC there, period. I can't emphasize that enough, there is no scenario under which you will ever raise that capital in Kansas - it did something like $13m in total traditional VC deals in 2016. - If it requires the most talented engineers (and lots of them) to scale big + fast (ie the engineers that are among the best in the world at that thing), you're not going to find that talent in Kansas. The hyper concetrated talent pools available in California, give you that critical mass for almost any given technology focus. You see similar effects for eg biotech in the greater Boston area (which gives that area vast advantages for the next great biotech start-up as opposed to somewhere in Ohio). - If you need exceptionally talented managers, with experience at building large, fast growing, cutting-edge technology companies. You're not going to find very many of them in Kansas. There's an immense experience advantage in Silicon Valley, generations of it has built-up in fact. These people make a critical difference during any kind of meaningful ramp growth phase. - If you need the world's best venture capitalists, to help steer your new tech company through all the typical dangers for such a company, you're not going to find them in Kansas. The best VCs can help you recruit in a huge way, for both executives and engineers; they can steer you through all sorts of problems in fund raising and public relations; they can push through political obstacles with their connections and wealth (ie pick up the phone and get someone politically powerful in Washington DC on the other end of the line). A VC in Kansas has no ability to do most of those things. The list just keeps going. In short: the risk capital isn't there, the hyper concentrated large talent pools for a given expertise are not there, the management experience is not there, the venture capitalists are not there. There are plenty of entrepreneurs to go around, and if they want to create the next great tech company they usually have to leave for all the previously listed reasons.
- SkyMarshal 9y agoThe next SV is more likely to be China than anywhere in the US other than SV. Massive amounts of capital + appetite for risk and experimentation + love of technology + huge market. Just don't get on the wrong side of the CP and you're golden.
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoNo way! China is basically a closed system. You can’t even give stock or stock options to foreign employees if the company is not foreign. Don’t get me wrong, there is a lot going on in zhongguangcun and Shenzhen, it’s just mostly chinese startups employing Chinese, nothing like SV at all.
- SkyMarshal 9y ago>nothing like SV at all Seems there are different definitions of "SV". Mine is a geographic region with the unique combination of ingredients for incubating new technologies into valuable businesses and services that mature to some form of market liquidity. Has nothing to do with where they hire their employees from.
- seanmcdirmid 9y agoSo a monoculture hiring Chinese employees catering to Chinese consumers. Why should we even care then? Google and Facebook employ more Burmese employees in SV than China does in all of its tech companies, guess what companies are dominating the emerging internet sector in Myanmar, a country literally in china’s own backyard? China’s Silicon Valley is an internal concern that has nothing to do with the rest of the world.
- SkyMarshal 9y ago>China’s Silicon Valley is an internal concern that has nothing to do with the rest of the world. This is pretty short-sighted and naval gazing, but I cbf to argue it. I'll just point out there are people with far more credibility than HN rando's demonstrating with their actions the opposite of what you're saying. [1] [1]:https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-04/cook-kisses-the-ring https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-12-04/cook-kiss...
- natural219 9y agoMidwesterner -> SF transplant here. There's fundamental cultural problems in the Midwest that are basically insurmountable. Outside of pockets like Boulder, people are simply culturally uninterested in the future, changing things, or improving on their situation. People correspondingly are very content; they immerse theirselves in their families, their relationships, Football, etc. Starting a technology company here would be a very lonely endeavor.
- dsfyu404ed 9y agoI suppose many of them could craft a similar statement about the culture in SV
- deadmetheny 9y ago>people are simply culturally uninterested in the future, changing things, or improving on their situation I'll give you not wanting to change things, but people here are certainly interested in ensuring the future is good for themselves and their kids - there's just a lack of bullshitting ourselves about changing the world by working on a cell phone application. >People correspondingly are very content; they immerse theirselves in their families, their relationships, Football, etc. You say all of that like it's a bad thing. The Midwest is a peaceful place, and I happen to like it that way. I don't want or need a constant bombardment of Things To Do, my situation is exactly where I want it to be.
- natural219 9y agoI totally agree actually, and maybe worded it a little poorly. I love it back in the Midwest and mostly think positively of it, I just think starting a technology company here would be a mistake, since they are inherently risky endeavors, and Midwesterners are culturally adverse to taking risks in my experience.
- deadmetheny 9y agoI think it would largely depend on what sort of company you wanted to start - I would agree that a traditional SV-style startup is probably going to spectacularly fail. However, my experience with starting a small bootstrapped company was very positive, especially given the lower cost of living. It wasn't anything that was gonna make me rich but it was definitely doable. Honestly, I think the idea that anywhere other than SV is gonna be come SV is silly - but I also do want to help dispel the notion that the Midwest has no technical talent or is unfriendly to tech. We have a lot of tech talent - a large portion of it just ends up leaving for the coasts for better networking rather than setting up shop here, or working for large established companies for steady pay.
- stinky613 9y agoFrom a 2012 episode of The Office: Ryan: “I’ve actually done a lot of market research and it actually turns out that southwestern Ohio is going to be the next Silicon Valley. They call it the Silicon Prairie.” For those not familiar with the episode: the character is totally full of crap; trying to explain that his reason for moving to Ohio has nothing to do with his ex-girlfriend moving to Ohio. Funny to see "Ohio is going to be the next Silicon Valley" come around again (but this time in actual news).
- phkahler 9y agoI've had an idea for a startup for over a decade and have wanted to go to YC. But hell if I'm gonna go to San Francisco from Detroit area. You guys are freaking insane dealing with that cost of living. BTW, said idea is more than ripe now and the right team could get it running it in a month. BTW, my concept seems like it needs to be a nonprofit. It could make money but if that ever corrupts it people would be very unhappy.
- tjr225 9y agoI'm from Kzoo/GR but landed out in the Seattle area. While the sticker price might seem shocking at first, as a tech worker I've found my salary has scaled to meet the high cost of living (and then some). I think the high cost of living is more of a problem for people who are outside of the tech industry.
- sreyaNotfilc 9y agoJust go forward with it anyway and see where it leads. The trick to entrepreneurship is to bring out the "great" ideas you have in your head and see where it goes. You can deal will an anti-corruption slant later.
- freehunter 9y agoHave you looked into Dan Gilbert's various VC projects in Detroit?
- nimbius 9y agoBorn and raised in the midwest here, and the article has done well to cherry-pick a relatively liberal spot in an otherwise conservative state. The same could be said of the Carolinas and the infamous research triangle park. I left the midwest for the west coast because of the culture, full stop. I was tired of my state representatives writing my sexual preference off as a disorder. I was angry when the state decided a pharmacist could refuse to sell me birth control and I hated the legislative decree that tried to exert control over what gender got to use the bathroom or not. In short, I did not want to live in a state where the legislature had nothing better to do than fight the culture war to win votes for the next election. Yeah, I cant buy a house in san jose, but at least I dont have to worry about the ten commandments showing up at the DMV in stone or some toothless anti-shariah legislation burning through my tax dollars. Drive 15 miles outside Columbus and it doesnt matter how many VC firm employees you have in the city, the bible thumpers win this state by a landslide of gerrymandering and arent ashamed to force their backwoods culture on you from the hinterlands. The midwests relationship with silicon valley terminates at the facebook, google, and twitter HTTP connection for a damn good reason.
- 013a 9y ago> Yeah, I cant buy a house in san jose, but at least I dont have to worry about the ten commandments showing up at the DMV in stone This is such a strange priority to have. Do you even hear yourself? If you want to talk about culture war, we can talk about supporting illegal immigration against Federal law, or about downgrading knowingly transmitting HIV to sexual partners from a felony. Ultimately, everyone has different cultures. No one requires you to respect other peoples' culture, but your blatant ignorance of what actually happens in the midwest shows that you don't even care enough to learn about it.
- sidlls 9y agoI come from the Midwest. Nothing the GP described is inaccurate. It's not a strange priority to want to live some place that society doesn't try to enforce rules from a 2000 year old religious text.
- unabridged 9y agoRemote only is the next silicon valley. Office space in a major city is a luxury, and having to do all of your work 8 hours in a row at a specific time is a waste of productivity.
- cylinder 9y agoDon't underestimate the impact of the generational gap here. As an 85er I grew up on IRC, AIM, Gchat, etc. I just moved into my first management role. It only took me a few months to realize I'm a better manager of remote staff than in person staff. I actually prefer remote now. I'm not in tech nor am I someone who's considered socially awkward or anxious at all.
- walshemj 9y agoIf I had a pound for every time I have seen an article proclaiming xxx is the new SV id be rich. Whilst some areas do have the required teir 1 universities and USP eg silcon fen or wider the oxford to cambridge belt a rust belt state is unlikely to succeed.
- patientplatypus 9y agoHonestly? Austin is probably already the next "Silicon <Noun>". We have like 160+ people net move here a day and it's a massive tech hub with UT Austin here, Oracle building a big office here, some good coding bootcamps, etc etc. Fastest growing city in the country several years running. Very liberal with plenty of cultural attractions (SXSW, cafes/bars, "keep Austin weird" etc). I'm guessing due to a combination of close cheap land (to build large logistic centers), access to good highways, access to a port, generally permissive state/business relationships, growing young demographic that Amazon will probably build their headquarters either in Austin or somewhere along the Dallas/San Antonio corridor. I mean, where else is there in the midwest? Illinois is dying under poor governance and high taxes (pension obligations are constitutionally protected until hell freezes over). Indiana and Ohio just don't seem prosperous. Maybe Atlanta Georgia is the only other growing mid-size city outside of the coasts?
- justin66 9y ago> Oracle building a big office here Well...
- patientplatypus 9y agoWell what?
- brian-armstrong 9y agoAs someone who left the midwest for SV, I'm not looking to go back any time soon. Going to the midwest is like getting in a time machine set for 40 years ago. You have so many good food and coffee options in SF. In the midwest? Hah, nope. Can I work on my open source without my employer owning it? No. Can I get places easily just by walking or taking Lyft line? Fat chance. Not to mention, I experienced a shocking level of casual racism growing up there. Culturally it is not a pleasant place to be. No, I don't think we'll be seeing an exodus there any time soon.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- Mc_Big_G 9y agoI'm from Ohio and moved SF almost exactly 7 years ago. 8 plus years ago I felt like a complete outsider the the business world. I'd been using linux since redhat since version 2, taught myself perl, php and later rails and javascript. I'd go to small business association "meetups" and events and talk to people about a website I built that would allow non-developers to build customized open source software packages like wordpress/oscommerce/phpbb and have it auto-installed and hosted on a custom domain using ec2. Even the successful tech investor there, who seemed more lucky than anything, didn't have a clue what I was talking about or why anyone might want to do that. I also went to the local small business offices seeking help and they didn't get it either. If you weren't an automotive, manufacturing or physical product company, they didn't take you seriously, didn't know what you were talking about and didn't see value in anything computer or web related. I also didn't really know anyone remotely interested in the web or linux except one guy. If I had to sum it up I'd say that they're generally quite a few years behind in everything from technology to civil rights. Finding good employees will be hard but possible. Finding forward thinkers is going to be exceedingly difficult. When I lost my job working on microsoft products at an automotive logistics company, I gave up on Ohio and moved to SF. It was one of the best decisions of my life. Since I moved it's been horrifyingly clear that Ohio is in a downward spiral. I joke that I'd sleep on the ground in SF before I'd go back to Ohio but I'm not entirely sure it's a joke.
- poulsbohemian 9y agoI used to be a 100,000+ / year flyer as a consultant, plus I spent four years in college in the midwest. I'm a white, straight, male, but most of the country scares me to the point I have no desire to go outside the pacific northwest any longer. I've never been treated so badly by TSA as I was in Columbus, and I'm somewhat disappointed in myself that I did not file a lawsuit. To think that anywhere in the midwest or the southeast could become a prosperous center of innovation? Good effing luck with that. Oh sure, there are pockets where this bank or that manufacturer will settle for a tax deal or cheaper labour, but there's a big difference between that and the west coast culture that enables breakthrough science and engineering.
- namlem 9y agoWell they shouldn't, because it's probably Ontario.