4 ms·

Where would you go? Asking as a Silicon Valley person looking for a place that’s a step less Silicon Valley, but not quite middle America.

JohnFen 8y ago
Personally? I don't go anywhere, I start my businesses where I already am (a relatively small town in the Pacific Northwest). I don't know what would work for you, though, because it depends on your business goals. If your goal is to get as wealthy as possible as quickly as possible, then you need to be where the VC money is. That isn't my goal, however, so I have no such need. For my purposes, there is usually plenty of high-grade engineering talent in the area. If I can't fill a need locally, then it's fairly easy to get someone remote that can handle it. Likewise, there is no problem with sales and distribution (I produce software -- if I produced hardware, that might change the equation). I rarely need financing -- I prefer to bootstrap that stuff rather than sell equity positions or take on debt -- but if I do, there are lots of options for that as well. If you are happy with where you live, then the only reason to consider moving elsewhere for business purposes is if you can't meet a business need otherwise. If you aren't happy with where you live, then choose a new place based on what would make you happy. Then analyze if it would work for you business-wise. I do have another observation, if you're the sort who doesn't want to start your own business but just wants to do interesting engineering work: look outside of the computer industry itself. Pretty much every industry needs engineers, and most have difficulty finding exceptional ones. If you're a solid engineer, you can often write your own ticket if you avoid the obvious employers.
- magduf 8y ago
  >If your goal is to get as wealthy as possible as quickly as possible, then you need to be where the VC money is. That isn't my goal, however, so I have no such need. Well, that is the goal of most start-ups, so it sounds like, by your own admission, they're right to found in Silicon Valley.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
sudosteph 8y ago
Well the author of the article seems to think Philly is a good option, and to be fair, I do know some very smart and ambitious engineers working and living in Philly these days. Some of it probably depends on the company and the founders, but in general, I would look for signals like good universities, positive inflow of people moving there, and decent cost of living. I like Raleigh, Durham and Charlotte for those things, but I'm from that area am a bit biased because I have a network there and know it's a environment and culture I can operate in. Raising capital is a real issue in those places, but I know tons of talented people around there who feel underutilized working at satellite offices for the big corps (IBM, Cisco, NetApp, etc) and do seek out places with a more startupy culture. Raleigh and Durham are more tech centric (companies founded include RedHat, Ansible, SAS ) while Charlotte is more financially-oriented, but both are growing like crazy and still very affordable. I'd say they're at least worth a visit if you're giving other locations serious consideration.
angersock 8y ago
> not quite middle America. What's wrong with middle America?

JohnFen 8y ago

Personally? I don't go anywhere, I start my businesses where I already am (a relatively small town in the Pacific Northwest). I don't know what would work for you, though, because it depends on your business goals. If your goal is to get as wealthy as possible as quickly as possible, then you need to be where the VC money is. That isn't my goal, however, so I have no such need. For my purposes, there is usually plenty of high-grade engineering talent in the area. If I can't fill a need locally, then it's fairly easy to get someone remote that can handle it. Likewise, there is no problem with sales and distribution (I produce software -- if I produced hardware, that might change the equation). I rarely need financing -- I prefer to bootstrap that stuff rather than sell equity positions or take on debt -- but if I do, there are lots of options for that as well. If you are happy with where you live, then the only reason to consider moving elsewhere for business purposes is if you can't meet a business need otherwise. If you aren't happy with where you live, then choose a new place based on what would make you happy. Then analyze if it would work for you business-wise. I do have another observation, if you're the sort who doesn't want to start your own business but just wants to do interesting engineering work: look outside of the computer industry itself. Pretty much every industry needs engineers, and most have difficulty finding exceptional ones. If you're a solid engineer, you can often write your own ticket if you avoid the obvious employers.

magduf 8y ago
>If your goal is to get as wealthy as possible as quickly as possible, then you need to be where the VC money is. That isn't my goal, however, so I have no such need. Well, that is the goal of most start-ups, so it sounds like, by your own admission, they're right to found in Silicon Valley.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

sudosteph 8y ago

Well the author of the article seems to think Philly is a good option, and to be fair, I do know some very smart and ambitious engineers working and living in Philly these days. Some of it probably depends on the company and the founders, but in general, I would look for signals like good universities, positive inflow of people moving there, and decent cost of living. I like Raleigh, Durham and Charlotte for those things, but I'm from that area am a bit biased because I have a network there and know it's a environment and culture I can operate in. Raising capital is a real issue in those places, but I know tons of talented people around there who feel underutilized working at satellite offices for the big corps (IBM, Cisco, NetApp, etc) and do seek out places with a more startupy culture. Raleigh and Durham are more tech centric (companies founded include RedHat, Ansible, SAS ) while Charlotte is more financially-oriented, but both are growing like crazy and still very affordable. I'd say they're at least worth a visit if you're giving other locations serious consideration.

angersock 8y ago

> not quite middle America. What's wrong with middle America?