4 ms·
I have been tracking Austin's hype as a tech hub for over a decade. And I have to admit that is waay overrated. For example, Austin startups only raised $1.5bn
by dmode 8y ago
I have been tracking Austin's hype as a tech hub for over a decade. And I have to admit that is waay overrated. For example, Austin startups only raised $1.5bn VC funding in 2018 [1] Compare this to the $45bn [2] raised by SF Bay Area companies and you get why Austin is all hype. The only true next SV in US are NYC, Seattle, and Boston. Everything else is a PR piece from that city or state government.
[1] https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2019/01/10/austin-companies-hauled-in-1-5b-in-funding-in-2018.html https://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2019/01/10/austin-co...
[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-01-08/venture-capital-still-flowing-to-silicon-valley-and-bay-area https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-01-08/ventur...
- EpicEng 8y agoWhy is VC funding your only metric? I work in Austin and we don't take much VC funding. You know why? We're _profitable_. Yes, a tech startup that actually makes money. We don't feel the need to grow at some arbitrary and ridiculous rate in order to please VC's looking for an exit. I have the added bonus that my cost of living I less than half of what it would be in SV, but I don't make half as much. Certainly there are more meaningful metrics to consider. Like... number of tech jobs.
- dmode 8y agoIt is just a proxy for other tech metrics. If VC funding is that high, number of software engineering jobs will be as high. And you can also conclude that public company presence will be equally high. I just did a quick LinkedIn job search and filtered by location. My rudimentary math suggest that there are over 12,000 "software engineer" jobs open in Bay Area, compared to ~2500 in Austin. Keep in mind, the Bay Area number is actually underreported as Google, Facebook, and many others just use a representative job posting