Union Square Ventures is only a small part of the NYC funding landscape. First Round, Betaworks, RRE, DFJ Gotham, IA Ventures, Starvest, SAVP, Softbank, Rho, G

Union Square Ventures is only a small part of the NYC funding landscape. First Round, Betaworks, RRE, DFJ Gotham, IA Ventures, Starvest, SAVP, Softbank, Rho, Greycroft, and that's just off the top of my head (I know I'm missing some), in addition to firms like Spark / True / Kodiak / CRV that often come here to invest and Sand Hill Road firms that are newly opening offices here like Canaan and Accel. Don't get me wrong, USV is a great firm to work with, but you can comfortably do a round in NYC without ever having to talk to them. Don't let the fact that Fred has a popular blog blind you to the rest of the ecosystem. I also think you're underestimating how much interesting technology there is in NYC. Yes, a lot of it is related to advertising or the financial sector. But the type of scale many of these companies are working with requires 'hardcore software' by anyone's definition. I do agree that recruiting is hard here, but recruiting is hard everywhere.