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I am a bit confused about Austin as a candidate partly because I thought that Amazon wanted an east coast presence, not mid-country. So it boils really down to
by devonkim 9y ago
I am a bit confused about Austin as a candidate partly because I thought that Amazon wanted an east coast presence, not mid-country. So it boils really down to Boston, DC, and Atlanta as options.
As another engineer in Atlanta, I’ve got mixed feelings on whether the criteria Amazon put forth is really met. There’s probably more people from Atlanta that leave for tech than stay by a long shot given I’ve probably met more Georgia Tech graduates over my career outside Atlanta than actually in the metro area. Anecdotal evidence aside, there’s been several articles published about Atlanta’s brain drain problem specific to tech (medicine does not seem to apply given CDC and Emory attract world-class doctors just fine). I’m not sure if anyone on HN outside the region can name a single tech company HQed in Atlanta off the top of their head - I certainly couldn’t before I moved here.
- JBlue42 9y agoHonestly, I associate Atlanta with film/music production more these days and never really tech. Much like Charlotte = banking.
- cthalupa 9y ago> I thought that Amazon wanted an east coast presence, not mid-country Amazon never said this, so unsure why you think this.
- devonkim 9y agohttps://atlanta.curbed.com/2018/1/29/16946010/amazon-hq2-headquarters-atlanta-shortlist https://atlanta.curbed.com/2018/1/29/16946010/amazon-hq2-hea... The five primary criteria driving Amazon’s decision, per GBH, include: 1. “East Coast presence.” 2. “Thriving engineering/surrounding university infrastructure and student pipeline.” 3. “Transportation hub with major growth potential.” ...
- theli0nheart 9y agoHmm. Those criteria you posted aren't coming from Amazon, they're just the invented criteria of a single analyst at GHB Insights [1], a market research firm based in NYC. I don't think Amazon has made it public as to which criteria it's using to make this decision. [1] https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/22/gbh-insights-atlanta-and-others-are-likely-to-get-amazons-new-hq.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/22/gbh-insights-atlanta-and-oth...