I was in NYC during that time period, and very few people (approaching zero) at the hot startups were from hedge funds. You maybe had a DBA or sysadmin from a

I was in NYC during that time period, and very few people (approaching zero) at the hot startups were from hedge funds. You maybe had a DBA or sysadmin from a failed investment bank. In fact, it seemed like a non-trivial number of startup engineers and product people in NYC were people who were sick of living in Silicon Valley. Maybe it prevented certain smart people from going into hedge funds in the first place, but I wouldn't be so sure. Firms like 2 Sigma and Jane Street were still hiring, and actually had more startup-like attitudes towards workspace and technology than many of the startups.