I'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 red

I'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.