4 ms·

What would the opportunity cost? What does silicon valley have that philly doesn't?

by sontek 8y ago

filoleg 8y ago
Talent, VCs, good weather. OP has managed to save $1mil by basing his company in Philly, but could have potentially missed out on multiples of that amount from VCs. Mind you, I don't even live there, because the downsides of living there in my current situation outweigh the upsides. However,I have been there many times, and if I had to start a company right now, that's where I would do it. P.S. Try hiring engineers for a company in Philly and a company in SV. Then try to compare the quality and number of candidates knocking on your door in each scenario.
- donaldknuth123 8y ago
  Yeah all those UPenn grads are trash compared to Uber drivers in SV. /s
eanzenberg 8y ago
He may lose out tons if/when he gets acquired / acquihired.
true_tuna 8y ago
A community of experienced technologists. Veterans of successful ventures can skip many mistakes due to experience.
- driverdan 8y ago
  Those exist everywhere. The Bay Area doesn't have a monopoly on experienced software developers.
  - filoleg 8y ago
    It doesn't have a monopoly on experienced software devs, but it has a monopoly on the highest density of job opportunities in the industry, as well as the number of software devs. Which, in turn, brings more devs and creates even more opportunities. It's like a positive feedback loop that is extremely difficult to escape.
zuhayeer 8y ago
Yeah, network, for example a lot of the companies on http://applytroop.com http://applytroop.com could probably pick his team up later on if they were in the Bay. But the risk becomes having to move again for opportunities.
jedberg 8y ago
Not being around the valley and not having random run ins with people who can help you. I got one of my best employees by running into her roommate at a birthday party and finding out she's looking for work. I've had other cases of running into people at events that later helped me out. Events I wouldn't have gone to if I didn't live in SV. Also I've found that a lot of VCs don't want to talk to you if you aren't local, because they don't seem to believe in video conferencing and like to be able to have last minutes meetings. This seems to be changing though. The key here is that my company is fully remote and my employees don't live here, so they get to take advantage of this purchasing power, while I get the advantages of being SV. I don't think the whole company needs to be in SV, but it certainly helps if the founder is.
- ghaff 8y ago
  Location isn't irrelevant but for both locating in a less fashionable location and teams that are at least somewhat distributed, you probably have to budget for T&E. Traveling to events/meetings aren't a panacea but they can fill in a lot of gaps. I get your basic point though.

What would the opportunity cost? What does silicon valley have that philly doesn't?

by sontek 8y ago

What would the opportunity cost? What does silicon valley have that philly doesn't?

Talent, VCs, good weather. OP has managed to save $1mil by basing his company in Philly, but could have potentially missed out on multiples of that amount from VCs. Mind you, I don't even live there, because the downsides of living there in my current situation outweigh the upsides. However,I have been there many times, and if I had to start a company right now, that's where I would do it. P.S. Try hiring engineers for a company in Philly and a company in SV. Then try to compare the quality and number of candidates knocking on your door in each scenario.

donaldknuth123 8y ago
Yeah all those UPenn grads are trash compared to Uber drivers in SV. /s

eanzenberg 8y ago

He may lose out tons if/when he gets acquired / acquihired.

true_tuna 8y ago

A community of experienced technologists. Veterans of successful ventures can skip many mistakes due to experience.

driverdan 8y ago
Those exist everywhere. The Bay Area doesn't have a monopoly on experienced software developers.
- filoleg 8y ago
  It doesn't have a monopoly on experienced software devs, but it has a monopoly on the highest density of job opportunities in the industry, as well as the number of software devs. Which, in turn, brings more devs and creates even more opportunities. It's like a positive feedback loop that is extremely difficult to escape.

zuhayeer 8y ago

Yeah, network, for example a lot of the companies on http://applytroop.com http://applytroop.com could probably pick his team up later on if they were in the Bay. But the risk becomes having to move again for opportunities.

jedberg 8y ago

Not being around the valley and not having random run ins with people who can help you. I got one of my best employees by running into her roommate at a birthday party and finding out she's looking for work. I've had other cases of running into people at events that later helped me out. Events I wouldn't have gone to if I didn't live in SV. Also I've found that a lot of VCs don't want to talk to you if you aren't local, because they don't seem to believe in video conferencing and like to be able to have last minutes meetings. This seems to be changing though. The key here is that my company is fully remote and my employees don't live here, so they get to take advantage of this purchasing power, while I get the advantages of being SV. I don't think the whole company needs to be in SV, but it certainly helps if the founder is.

ghaff 8y ago
Location isn't irrelevant but for both locating in a less fashionable location and teams that are at least somewhat distributed, you probably have to budget for T&E. Traveling to events/meetings aren't a panacea but they can fill in a lot of gaps. I get your basic point though.