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We're not based in the valley.
- zephjc 16y ago"The weather is awesome! We’ve got a humid subtropical climate." These two sentences seem contradictory to me.
- jeremymims 16y agoIn North America it probably doesn't mean what you think: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humid_subtropical_climate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humid_subtropical_climate
- ryanwaggoner 16y agoNo, it means exactly what you think. Summer in Texas is miserable. Highs exceed 90 °F (32.2 °C) on 109 days per year, and 100 °F (37.8 °C) on 12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin,_Texas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin,_Texas
- jnovek 16y agoIt depends on what you like. I spent my entire life until I was 27 in the frigidity of Northern Minnesota. After that, I rather enjoy the fact that nearly every day in Austin is a t-shirt day.
- ryanwaggoner 16y agoTrue, but I suspect the average person wouldn't describe a humid day at 95 °F as "awesome weather".
- juiceandjuice 16y agoAustin isn't Houston, it's not that humid.
- ryanwaggoner 16y agoIt is in the morning: http://www.cityrating.com/cityhumidity.asp?City=Austin http://www.cityrating.com/cityhumidity.asp?City=Austin
- grayrest 16y agoIf you're coding, you're in the air conditioning when it's 95°F and out in the mornings/evenings. I spent 9 months in Austin starting in February and it's not that bad. I grew up in Atlanta (85-95°F and 80% humidity) and summertime was about the same but the winter was nicer. I still miss the food. I can get the quality here in NYC in a restaurant near the barrio but not the prices.
- jarek 16y agoCiting air conditioning doesn't mesh very well with describing the weather as awesome. Lows of >70 with humidity mean you're going to need some AC help sleeping, too.
- zephjc 16y agoCompared to, say, Santa Cruz (just over the hill from the Silicon Valley) with yearly average ranges from 39-60 (Jan), to 52-76 (Aug), with most of the days from the spring thru fall in the high 60s, low 70s, which I personally think is ideal.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- jeremymims 16y agoOr, for us northern folks that the winters are nice and mild. I guess it depends where you're coming from. Point taken.
- davidw 16y agoThat means 3 months of "a bit too hot" (although 90ies isn't too bad), and 9 months of "pretty good". Someplace like Oregon, where I grew up, has 2/3 months of beautiful summer weather, and 9 months of mostly crappy weather.
- mindcrime 16y agoThese two sentences seem contradictory to me. They don't sound remotely contradictory to me. Heat and humidity FTW, as far as I'm concerned. Cold weather bites. :-(
- Skywing 16y agoCongratulations. I've been looking at moving to Austin, recently. I'm from Dallas, so I'm familiar with the area and it's a great one.
- CoachRufus87 16y agoI moved down to Austin (for school @ UT) from Arlington about 5 years ago and haven't left since :)
- staunch 16y agoNo one ever claims it's impossible to be successful outside of The Valley. All anyone ever says, at most, is that all things considered it's an advantage. It's a completely false controversy, and always has been.
- catshirt 16y agoI think the true controversy actually lies in how many of those advantages are even still advantages, or how much longer they will be.
- jcr 16y agoThere's a difference between being defensive about where you are not located, and actively promoting your favored location. I was born, raised and still live in the Silicon Valley, but even a remote simpleton like me knows how cool tech can be in Austin TX... http://geekaustin.org/ http://geekaustin.org/ http://sdf.lonestar.org/ http://sdf.lonestar.org/ As for startup stuff going on in Austin, from JUST today's reading I noticed the following being in Austin: http://blog.asmartbear.com http://blog.asmartbear.com http://wpengine.com/ http://wpengine.com/ http://www.capitalthought.com/ http://www.capitalthought.com/ I'll still prefer my home over yours, but your home is also pretty sweet (and worth bragging about).
- StavrosK 16y agoAs far as I'm concerned, you all have it easy. Try running a startup from a remote town in Greece!
- dbrannan 16y agoTry Alaska. I keep getting phone calls at 4 AM several times a month.
- jnovek 16y agoOK, you guys both win.
- foxylad 16y agoThat's nothing! When I were a lad, we ran our startup from Arrowtown in the heart of New Zealand's Southern Alps - and we still do! www.schoolconferences.com
- norbu09 16y agook, you won, Wellington is clearly less remote than Arrowtown. iWantMyName is based in NZ and we love it. I see the valley not as a requirement to be a successful startup "in the US".
- jpcx01 16y agoAlso, no state income tax! Is living in california worth over 10k a year? (assuming you have a reasonable salary)
- pclark 16y agoYou pay no income tax in Texas? Really?!
- lloydarmbrust 16y agoYes really. No state income tax.
- cookiecaper 16y agoHow are the other taxes? I know that some Oregonians I know often talk about how no-sales-tax Oregon has very high property tax to compensate.
- bretthoerner 16y ago8.25% sales tax in Texas (8.25% in CA, 8.875% in NYC).
- anamax 16y agoCA's sales tax is county/city dependent, starting from a 8.25% base. It's 9.25% in San Jose, 9.5% somewhere nearby, closer to 9.75% in SF, and less than 9% some places. see http://www.boe.ca.gov/sutax/pam71.htm http://www.boe.ca.gov/sutax/pam71.htm .
- kscaldef 16y agoProperty taxes in Oregon are a little funny. It depends a lot on where your house is located and when it was built. I pay about 0.6% of current market value annually. I have friends that pay 2%.
- StavrosK 16y ago
- aothman 16y agoWhy Austin (and not New York or Boston)? What was it like doing YC and then not staying in SV? Was there any disagreement among the founders or investors about moving away from the valley?
- lloydarmbrust 16y agoNot really. The investors like it because we save a bunch of money. And the founders are both from the Midwest so we like it. Actually, we're a Texas-based company (maybe the only YC company that's not a DE corporation) and have always planned to have this be our base of operations.
- fretlessjazz 16y agoAustin startup here as well. I actually moved from San Francisco to Austin to launch http://www.ideaffect.com http://www.ideaffect.com. Also, hey Jason! Still owe you a beer sometime.
- hkarthik 16y agoThat's awesome, I was going to go with UserVoice for my feedback widget, but I'm gonna have to support a fellow Texas startup and go with you guys now. I'm based in Dallas myself.
- dr_ 16y agoThe NYC technorati feel that with enough investments it will one day usurp the Valley as the technology hub of the world. I'm pretty certain that will NOT happen and it will be more widespread. In fact, places like Austin with it's climate, the young people it attracts, atmosphere and relatively reasonable prices have a greater chance of becoming a global tech hub than NYC does. NYC has way too many other things going on to be heavily focused on tech.
- bretthoerner 16y agoDo you have office space in Austin, or are you really in Pflugerville? Your contact page only mentions College Station and Pflugerville. Anyway, this was news to me - are there any other YC companies here in Austin? I thought I (and I'm just an employee of one) was alone. We should have beers. :)
- arohner 16y agoMe too. I'm the founder of a company in Austin that interviewed for YC this winter, but got rejected. If anyone reading this wants to meet up in Austin, my email's in my profile.
- lloydarmbrust 16y agoOkay Okay, Austin area. The plan is to move downtown once we've figured out how big of a place we need--right now we're growing at 200% every three months so we need that to level out first as everyone wants a five year lease. Feel free to hit me up (lloyd@seeinginteractive.com) or stop by our office in Pflugerville.
- geekinthecorner 16y agoThe problem with being in Austin is that everywhere you go, you're surrounded by Texas.
- hkarthik 16y agoGlad to see you guys coming back to Texas. We definitely need a larger startup community out here.
- bane 16y agoThe model of SV has proven to be one to emulate. It's only a matter of time before other locals with that crucial mix of money and good schools get some version of it.
- egometry 16y agoI moved from Austin to the Valley three years ago. When I came here, I missed Austin a lot. Now, although I know I'll move back there some day, I'm going to miss the Tech Culture of the valley. Austin's missing populated hackerspaces like the Hacker Dojo and Noisebridge, and generally lacks technology meetups and hacker parties. The tech-based people are there, but there's not much of a cohesive culture yet. (This is a solvable problem!) Of course, Silicon Valley is missing out on the Alamo Drafthouse... which is one of the best reasons to live in Austin.
- niravshah 16y agoThis is the second link from seeinginteractive.com in as many days that didn't say much of anything other than 'work for us'. I wonder how much fake controversy they are going to keep throwing at HN in order to recruit.
- jeremymims 16y agoThis was written as a clarification since so many people who applied assumed we were in the Bay Area or Silicon Valley.