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What is Boston doing wrong? In the 80s thanks to the 128 Tech Row, it was on par with Silicon Valley as the top spot, then it lost ground and now NYC is conside
by acconrad 9y ago
What is Boston doing wrong? In the 80s thanks to the 128 Tech Row, it was on par with Silicon Valley as the top spot, then it lost ground and now NYC is considered #2? We have the highest concentration of collegiate tech talent, the same weather as NYC (obviously worse than SV), lower cost of living than both cities, and there's been a ton of investment in real estate for tech companies in the Seaport District. Too little, too late, perhaps?
- IntronExon 9y agoNothing wrong? https://tech.co/top-tech-cities-25-tech-cities-ranked-2017-06 https://tech.co/top-tech-cities-25-tech-cities-ranked-2017-0... It depends on the list, but in general Boston is in the top 5 or 10, while being an order of magnitude smaller than either NYC or SF.
- ynot269 9y agoProbably due to not being as diverse, I think the majority of Boston (and Boston's tech sector is focused in health care, HNE Optum comes to mind).
- forgotpwagain 9y agoDifferent kind of tech. Boston is the world's capital of biotech.
- nkassis 9y agoBoston has a lot more than biotech. You have a fairly large amount of internet companies (beyond the top 4 names, you have companies like for example Akamai), and robotics is a big field. (Kiva now part of Amazon, Boston Dynamics). Other engineering fields are well represented too.
- akhilcacharya 9y agoAll of the Big4 are in Kendall Square (on the same street even!). Bunches of neat startups out of Harvard/MIT. I think its a pretty good tech scene all things considered, more notable companies than the tech hub I grew up in IMHO.
- nkassis 9y agoApparently Amazon moving to seaport with a fairly large footprint. https://www.boston.com/news/business/2018/01/10/amazon-is-seeking-up-to-1-million-square-feet-in-boston https://www.boston.com/news/business/2018/01/10/amazon-is-se...
- ocschwar 9y agoNothing really. It's just that NYC decided to go into tech, and they have a lot of capital they can use to take in that direction. NYC could beat Boston in Red Sox fandom if they wanted to.
- jmalicki 9y agoWhat did Boston do wrong? Enforce non-competes. Non-competes may be "business friendly" for individual businesses, but for health of business as a whole, they just allow entrenched mediocre management to stifle technology by preventing employees who see they could do it better from out-competing them. The traitorous eight and the many who have done similar things are what made Silicon Valley.
- s73v3r_ 9y agoIf I remember right, non-competes are still a thing in Boston.
- prophetjohn 9y agoI know it's a minor point, but Boston absolutely does not have the same weather as NYC. The winters are so much worse in Boston. I'm a current NYC-er finding NYC too expensive to raise my family and the winter there is the only thing pulling me away from Boston, which is otherwise quite attractive.
- cimmanom 9y agoYeah, the weather this past holiday season, for instance, was a once-a-decade sort of event and 20-40 degrees colder than usual. Our compatriots in Boston were laughing at us, saying "that's just another Tuesday up here".
- Apocryphon 9y agoCulturally speaking, why does Boston's nightlife end so early in the evening?
- infomofo 9y agoHistorically, it might be because the T (the Boston Subway) doesn't run 24 hours, it shuts around 1am, so most people have to make arrangements to get home well before then or risk having to take a pricey cab home.