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Anyone find it strange how few tech startups come out of Seattle despite all the tech workers? It is the land of the big tech co and big tech co satellite offic
by tempsy 7y ago
Anyone find it strange how few tech startups come out of Seattle despite all the tech workers? It is the land of the big tech co and big tech co satellite offices, and can think of few actual startups and believe it comes in low as far as VC dollars go (will find source)
- filereaper 7y agoI'd say it has to do with these three points: - Ownership of IP: IP produced in your own time on your own equipment doesn't belong to your employer. - Non-competes: Not enforceable in CA - Access to capital: Plenty in CA. I'd say the first two points are what differentiate Silicon Valley from the rest of the tech capitals.
- tempsy 7y agoOk but fairly certain NYC and Boston attract multiples more VC dollars as well vs Seattle, and at least can think of far more startups out of those cities than Seattle. I don’t think it’s just a state specific thing.
- Analemma_ 7y agoI don't have any proof or even tangible evidence of this, but anecdotally I wonder if, even though Seattle has a lot of tech workers, they're a self-selecting population of tech workers who don't want to be entrepreneurs. I'm in Seattle, and I've worked at Microsoft, Amazon, and a couple of smaller companies, and I've run across quite a few people who could've gone to either Seattle or the Valley, and deliberately picked the former because they didn't want to participate in the startup rat race and just wanted a stable job. And of course, this trend would be a positive feedback loop over time: the more the Valley is associated with entrepreneur culture and Seattle is not, the more that potential entrepreneurs go to the Valley and the day-jobbers go to Seattle, which reinforces the original perception. Again, this is all guesswork, but it does line up with my anecdotal experience.