4 ms·

Y Combinator’s firms mostly heed ‘go West’ advice

20 points by fallentimes 18y ago

fallentimes 18y ago
What's hilarious is how puzzled many of the VCs I meet with are over the fact that everyone leaves Boston. They constantly ask what they can do to get more startups to stay in Boston. It's simple; invest in more companies. IMHO Boston is an ideal place for a startup: great city with lots to do, solid public transportation, very reasonable living costs (more like Chicago than DC, NYC or SF), tons of talent (oh hai MIT and Harvard) and very close to other metropolitan areas (NYC, DC). But all of this doesn't matter - people follow the money. Also, as big as the discrepancy is between the amount of VCs in the SF area vs. the Boston area, the discrepancy between SF area Angels and Boston area Angels is even bigger.
- menloparkbum 18y ago
  very reasonable living costs http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/09/08/report_rates_boston_most_expensive_city/ http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/09/08/report_ra... Have rental prices collapsed in the past 3 years? When I moved to Boston my apartment cost more than the one I had in NYC and when I left the apartment I moved to in SF cost less.
  - fallentimes 18y ago
    There's two of us and we're paying $1350 per month, total, for a 6 room apartment (3 br, 1 kitchen, 1 family room, 1 "office" room) and we're a 15 minute walk from the Davis Square Redline T stop. Before that we were paying $1450 to live in Somerville. Yes, it's not living in actual Boston, but we're close to everything we need to be close too (i.e. could get by sans car). In the DC area, a similar place in Fairfax or Arlington would be over 2k per month. In SF, we were looking at 2.5k bare minimum for much less spacious places.
    - menloparkbum 18y ago
      Wow, that seems crazy, even for Arlington (that is Arlington out there, right?). I was paying $1650/m to live in a (nice) 1BR on Franklin St. in Cambridge... and I thought I was getting a good deal. I moved into a share in Allston for my final year to save more money. I wonder what my old place rents for now.
      - fallentimes 18y ago
        Just to clarify I meant Arlington & Fairfax, Virginia. Arlington & Fairfax are to DC what Somerville & Cambridge are to Boston. Technically not part of the city, but very accessible.
        menloparkbum 18y ago
        yeah, i thought 15min walk from davis was arlington MA, but I guess that's more like an hour's walk.
  - lsb 18y ago
    Around Harvard Square, it's pretty expensive, but I found a 4br apartment for $2460/month 5 minutes' bike (downhill) from Davis, so it's pretty reasonable if you're willing to live with people. If you need something closer to Boston proper, that's more expensive, but Davis is cute and homey, and people smile at you in the streets.
    - fallentimes 18y ago
      And most importantly the bars and restaurants in Davis are excellent. Email me if you ever want to grab drinks in Davis.
speby 18y ago
This could also be one of those "if you were on the other side" arguments. As much as I am annoyed by the Boston investors' skittshness (not to excuse other investors from being skittish), I wonder if I too would be a pansy when it came down to investing in 21 year olds with startups who have practically no business model or revenue stream. I guess I hope not to be that way one day but maybe I understand why these guys are like that. It's clear, though, they do miss out on huge portfolio gains by passing on a lot of these startups that end up just remaining on the west coast.
josefresco 18y ago
Screw going west, go east .. I'm out on Cape Cod and loving it.
vaksel 18y ago
I wonder what the minimum # of companies you need to get the critical mass for people staying. By which I mean numerous companies staying in the same area where you can stand in the middle of a street and point to 30 different buildings and say which company stays there

20 points by fallentimes 18y ago

What's hilarious is how puzzled many of the VCs I meet with are over the fact that everyone leaves Boston. They constantly ask what they can do to get more startups to stay in Boston. It's simple; invest in more companies. IMHO Boston is an ideal place for a startup: great city with lots to do, solid public transportation, very reasonable living costs (more like Chicago than DC, NYC or SF), tons of talent (oh hai MIT and Harvard) and very close to other metropolitan areas (NYC, DC). But all of this doesn't matter - people follow the money. Also, as big as the discrepancy is between the amount of VCs in the SF area vs. the Boston area, the discrepancy between SF area Angels and Boston area Angels is even bigger.

menloparkbum 18y ago
very reasonable living costs http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/09/08/report_rates_boston_most_expensive_city/ http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/09/08/report_ra... Have rental prices collapsed in the past 3 years? When I moved to Boston my apartment cost more than the one I had in NYC and when I left the apartment I moved to in SF cost less.
- fallentimes 18y ago
  There's two of us and we're paying $1350 per month, total, for a 6 room apartment (3 br, 1 kitchen, 1 family room, 1 "office" room) and we're a 15 minute walk from the Davis Square Redline T stop. Before that we were paying $1450 to live in Somerville. Yes, it's not living in actual Boston, but we're close to everything we need to be close too (i.e. could get by sans car). In the DC area, a similar place in Fairfax or Arlington would be over 2k per month. In SF, we were looking at 2.5k bare minimum for much less spacious places.
  - menloparkbum 18y ago
    Wow, that seems crazy, even for Arlington (that is Arlington out there, right?). I was paying $1650/m to live in a (nice) 1BR on Franklin St. in Cambridge... and I thought I was getting a good deal. I moved into a share in Allston for my final year to save more money. I wonder what my old place rents for now.
    - fallentimes 18y ago
      Just to clarify I meant Arlington & Fairfax, Virginia. Arlington & Fairfax are to DC what Somerville & Cambridge are to Boston. Technically not part of the city, but very accessible.
      - menloparkbum 18y ago
        yeah, i thought 15min walk from davis was arlington MA, but I guess that's more like an hour's walk.
- lsb 18y ago
  Around Harvard Square, it's pretty expensive, but I found a 4br apartment for $2460/month 5 minutes' bike (downhill) from Davis, so it's pretty reasonable if you're willing to live with people. If you need something closer to Boston proper, that's more expensive, but Davis is cute and homey, and people smile at you in the streets.
  - fallentimes 18y ago
    And most importantly the bars and restaurants in Davis are excellent. Email me if you ever want to grab drinks in Davis.

speby 18y ago

This could also be one of those "if you were on the other side" arguments. As much as I am annoyed by the Boston investors' skittshness (not to excuse other investors from being skittish), I wonder if I too would be a pansy when it came down to investing in 21 year olds with startups who have practically no business model or revenue stream. I guess I hope not to be that way one day but maybe I understand why these guys are like that. It's clear, though, they do miss out on huge portfolio gains by passing on a lot of these startups that end up just remaining on the west coast.

josefresco 18y ago

Screw going west, go east .. I'm out on Cape Cod and loving it.

vaksel 18y ago

I wonder what the minimum # of companies you need to get the critical mass for people staying. By which I mean numerous companies staying in the same area where you can stand in the middle of a street and point to 30 different buildings and say which company stays there