8 ms·

Battle of the Tech Ecosystems: Boston vs. New York

24 points by wmougayar 13y ago

arxpoetica 13y ago
Boston Strong.
- wmougayar 13y ago
  Good momentum in Boston startup tech, for sure.
  - stephenhuey 13y ago
    When I was living there, it was encouraging interacting with people at various hubs of activity around town such as the Cambridge Innovation Center and Dogpatch Labs.
photorized 13y ago
We are closer to NYC (Stamford CT) - but as far as startups are concerned, I like Boston ecosystem more. More vision.
xfax 13y ago
I recently moved to NYC to join a startup and I must say the community is thriving here. You can find a lot of like-minded people at local Meetups. This was on the front page a couple of days ago - should give you a good idea of ecosystem here: http://www.cbinsights.com/new-york-venture-capital http://www.cbinsights.com/new-york-venture-capital
jrkelly 13y ago
Boston has such a lead in the biotech ecosystem compared to anywhere else that I wonder if they could establish a tech niche of bio/pharma-related tech. Chasing traditional consumer mobile/web-tech seems like swimming upstream in Boston.
SwellJoe 13y ago
Silicon Valley. If you're moving somewhere, why waste time on a city that is distant second, in terms of startup ecosystems? It's not like Boston or NYC are significantly cheaper than the valley.
- jrkelly 13y ago
  Biotech ecosystem is better in BOS and maybe finance-related stuff in NYC, but otherwise I agree with you.
  - w1ntermute 13y ago
    > Biotech ecosystem is better in BOS That's debatable. I think Boston and the Valley are about the same (with the Valley maybe a little ahead) for biotech. Either way, Boston (as a city) is depressing as fuck, so I would avoid it like the plague.
    - nikomen 13y ago
      Why is Boston depressing?
  - refurb 13y ago
    BOS has certainly made huge gains in biotech. BOS has more mid-size biotechs than SFO, but SFO has an edge in tiny, less than 10 person start-ups (but not by much). The biggest difference between BOS and SFO are the big biotechs. SFO has one (GNE), while BOS many.
- kintamanimatt 13y ago
  One of the big ones is availability and cost of labor, and how much your neighbors are competing for that same labor pool.
- seiji 13y ago
  My short list of pro-NYC (and thereby anti-SF) points: There's plenty of tech stuff and tech people in NYC. That little kickstarter site isn't in san mateo after all. Your new best friend digital ocean isn't making white house rooms across from twitter. etsy is allowed to be as dumb as it wants. In NYC you have non-scary transit running 24 hours that'll take you home because everybody is within walking distance of a metro station (and not just to a parking lot where you pick up your car then drive another 30 minutes home while tired at 2am). Population. SF: 800k (bay area entire: 7 million, but over 40+ miles) NYC: 8 million. In NYC you have lots more people within transit range making people-involved things like meetings, dating, and varied social contexts immensely easier (and more interesting, exciting, unexpected, varied, ...). NYC has its street people population under control so it's less scary walking around fighting off beggars are street pooers. NYC's parks are kinda great. and best of all, no Karl.
pingswept 13y ago
Somerville (bordering Boston and Cambridge) is home to one of the world's largest makerspaces: http://artisansasylum.com http://artisansasylum.com and a big cleantech incubator: http://greentownlabs.com/ http://greentownlabs.com/
- nickpinkston 13y ago
  The area between Kendall and Davis Squares must be on some list of most bookstores, coffeeshops, etc. with so many amazing people to bump into. I live in SF, but I have a special place in my heart for this area because the density and diversity of thought that you just don't get in SF/SV.
  - pingswept 13y ago
    Hey, that's where you bumped into me. Yeah, the Cambridge/Somerville nexus is pretty amazing. http://www.paulgraham.com/cities.html http://www.paulgraham.com/cities.html
unabridged 13y ago
This site is purposely made hard to read if you do not have javascript enabled. The creator should be ashamed of himself.
isalmon 13y ago
When we discuss "Tech Ecosystem" - why does it always have to be about funding? There are so many different factors that can make a certain area better or worse: real estate prices, salaries (esp. for engineers), access to colleges, etc. Besides, not every tech company is VC-backed.
NathanKP 13y ago
Personally I'm a big fan of the NYC startup scene. First of all if you are creating a B2B that isn't selling to tech companies then NYC is ideal. Many times we've been able to take a quick subway ride across town to pitch our product at the NYC headquarters of some large company that is interested in our product. And that's helped us sell our product to businesses like Hugo Boss and Ralph Lauren. Second of all I like the community. There are lots of interesting meetups and hackathons going on, and while I'm sure SF has more I feel that NYC has more than enough to satisfy me. And third I like the energy of NYC. It is a great city to accomplish things in because it really has an infective spirit of getting things done. It's hard for me to explain, but the city is always busy and there are always people around you working and getting things done. Anyway I don't know much about the Boston scene so I can't properly compare the two, but I can say that I like NYC a lot.
erichmond 13y ago
I spent 6 years in the boston tech startup scene (2004-2010) and have spent 2010-2013 here in the NY tech startup scene. My quick observations: - Better engineers in Boston - Larger thinking business ideas in NYC Fusing the business ambition of NYC with the technical acumen of Boston would be an amazing ecosystem.

24 points by wmougayar 13y ago

arxpoetica 13y ago

Boston Strong.

wmougayar 13y ago
Good momentum in Boston startup tech, for sure.
- stephenhuey 13y ago
  When I was living there, it was encouraging interacting with people at various hubs of activity around town such as the Cambridge Innovation Center and Dogpatch Labs.

photorized 13y ago

We are closer to NYC (Stamford CT) - but as far as startups are concerned, I like Boston ecosystem more. More vision.

xfax 13y ago

I recently moved to NYC to join a startup and I must say the community is thriving here. You can find a lot of like-minded people at local Meetups. This was on the front page a couple of days ago - should give you a good idea of ecosystem here: http://www.cbinsights.com/new-york-venture-capital http://www.cbinsights.com/new-york-venture-capital

jrkelly 13y ago

Boston has such a lead in the biotech ecosystem compared to anywhere else that I wonder if they could establish a tech niche of bio/pharma-related tech. Chasing traditional consumer mobile/web-tech seems like swimming upstream in Boston.

SwellJoe 13y ago

Silicon Valley. If you're moving somewhere, why waste time on a city that is distant second, in terms of startup ecosystems? It's not like Boston or NYC are significantly cheaper than the valley.

jrkelly 13y ago
Biotech ecosystem is better in BOS and maybe finance-related stuff in NYC, but otherwise I agree with you.
- w1ntermute 13y ago
  > Biotech ecosystem is better in BOS That's debatable. I think Boston and the Valley are about the same (with the Valley maybe a little ahead) for biotech. Either way, Boston (as a city) is depressing as fuck, so I would avoid it like the plague.
  - nikomen 13y ago
    Why is Boston depressing?
- refurb 13y ago
  BOS has certainly made huge gains in biotech. BOS has more mid-size biotechs than SFO, but SFO has an edge in tiny, less than 10 person start-ups (but not by much). The biggest difference between BOS and SFO are the big biotechs. SFO has one (GNE), while BOS many.
kintamanimatt 13y ago
One of the big ones is availability and cost of labor, and how much your neighbors are competing for that same labor pool.
seiji 13y ago
My short list of pro-NYC (and thereby anti-SF) points: There's plenty of tech stuff and tech people in NYC. That little kickstarter site isn't in san mateo after all. Your new best friend digital ocean isn't making white house rooms across from twitter. etsy is allowed to be as dumb as it wants. In NYC you have non-scary transit running 24 hours that'll take you home because everybody is within walking distance of a metro station (and not just to a parking lot where you pick up your car then drive another 30 minutes home while tired at 2am). Population. SF: 800k (bay area entire: 7 million, but over 40+ miles) NYC: 8 million. In NYC you have lots more people within transit range making people-involved things like meetings, dating, and varied social contexts immensely easier (and more interesting, exciting, unexpected, varied, ...). NYC has its street people population under control so it's less scary walking around fighting off beggars are street pooers. NYC's parks are kinda great. and best of all, no Karl.

pingswept 13y ago

Somerville (bordering Boston and Cambridge) is home to one of the world's largest makerspaces: http://artisansasylum.com http://artisansasylum.com and a big cleantech incubator: http://greentownlabs.com/ http://greentownlabs.com/

nickpinkston 13y ago
The area between Kendall and Davis Squares must be on some list of most bookstores, coffeeshops, etc. with so many amazing people to bump into. I live in SF, but I have a special place in my heart for this area because the density and diversity of thought that you just don't get in SF/SV.
- pingswept 13y ago
  Hey, that's where you bumped into me. Yeah, the Cambridge/Somerville nexus is pretty amazing. http://www.paulgraham.com/cities.html http://www.paulgraham.com/cities.html

unabridged 13y ago

This site is purposely made hard to read if you do not have javascript enabled. The creator should be ashamed of himself.

isalmon 13y ago

When we discuss "Tech Ecosystem" - why does it always have to be about funding? There are so many different factors that can make a certain area better or worse: real estate prices, salaries (esp. for engineers), access to colleges, etc. Besides, not every tech company is VC-backed.

NathanKP 13y ago

Personally I'm a big fan of the NYC startup scene. First of all if you are creating a B2B that isn't selling to tech companies then NYC is ideal. Many times we've been able to take a quick subway ride across town to pitch our product at the NYC headquarters of some large company that is interested in our product. And that's helped us sell our product to businesses like Hugo Boss and Ralph Lauren. Second of all I like the community. There are lots of interesting meetups and hackathons going on, and while I'm sure SF has more I feel that NYC has more than enough to satisfy me. And third I like the energy of NYC. It is a great city to accomplish things in because it really has an infective spirit of getting things done. It's hard for me to explain, but the city is always busy and there are always people around you working and getting things done. Anyway I don't know much about the Boston scene so I can't properly compare the two, but I can say that I like NYC a lot.

erichmond 13y ago

I spent 6 years in the boston tech startup scene (2004-2010) and have spent 2010-2013 here in the NY tech startup scene. My quick observations: - Better engineers in Boston - Larger thinking business ideas in NYC Fusing the business ambition of NYC with the technical acumen of Boston would be an amazing ecosystem.