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As someone on both coasts often, NYC seems to have many fewer tech events. I might get a hackathon or two a month in NYC, but in SF/SV sometimes there are 7 in
by lnanek2 13y ago
As someone on both coasts often, NYC seems to have many fewer tech events. I might get a hackathon or two a month in NYC, but in SF/SV sometimes there are 7 in a single weekend and it is rare to have a weekend without one. The prizes are much better too. A 5k purse is normal, but they often go up to 40k or even 850k investment for the top two with the upcoming LAUNCH hackathon. The conference situation is the same. You get much bigger, much more frequent, with many more companies in SF/SV. If you are looking to do business development or just find a job, your chances are much better. I'm not saying NYC is bad, it has something. The something it has is just much less than the tech center of the country.
- JohnTHaller 13y agoAs someone based in NYC (since 1996) but debating a move to SF, I'd agree. I was here through the .com boom and used to attend NYNMA events (remember those?), but NYC has never really been tech startup-oriented in the way SF is. They've tried, what with billing it as 'Silicon Alley' and all, but it never really seemed to take hold. And the big tech events where they'd have Bloomberg as a keynote and then do a handful of tech demos... the demos would be things that we'd seen before coming out of SF and seemed like copycat products. A big part of it is the culture here. If you tell someone in NYC that you're bootstrapping a startup out of your living room, the response is 'oh, so you're unemployed'. Do the same in a conversation in SF and people start talking about who might be a good fit for you to meet. So, I wouldn't recommend starting a tech company here. Don't get me wrong, NYC is a great place for tech. But I'm talking about tech in service to financial services institutions. So, web development, financial software, etc. And mostly around Microsoft tech (ASP.NET, SQL nowadays). I've worked at corporate banks, I've built ecommerce systems, I've built events management systems. They've paid the bills. But the dream change-the-world startup idea? It's just not part of the culture here. Fashion? Absolutely. Food? Sure. Music? Maybe. But tech that's not gonna be a financial services play? I'd suggest looking elsewhere.
- rexreed 13y agoWhere's a good place to find (and list) tech events that happen in NYC?
- rexreed 13y agoThere's a ton. There's even some new ones sprouting up. Have you checked out the NYC Innovative Tech meetup? http://www.meetup.com/innovative-tech http://www.meetup.com/innovative-tech
- jortiz81 13y agoI get the same impression. I have worked at startups in SF/SV and recently relocated to NYC. Even if you look at job posts in both cities/areas. The SF tech scene is much more vibrant, the startups cover a broader range of sectors and interesting problems, and VC money is easier to find, i think, in SF than in NYC. NYC is definitely 2nd, but it's still quite a ways away from the SF/SV area. I also observe that there are riskier startups in SF/SV than NYC and as a CS researcher, I think the SF/SV area has much more interesting positions and opportunities. For example, Nanosatisfi is launching mini satellites into orbit. I don't think you'd find something like that in NYC.