Absolutely. There are many parts of the USA/Canada that have enough population density and local universities to have a decent talent pool but aren't SF or NYC

Absolutely. There are many parts of the USA/Canada that have enough population density and local universities to have a decent talent pool but aren't SF or NYC. I'm a big urbanist so my immediate thought is smaller post-industrial cities with lots of cheap building stock and old universities around like Buffalo and Pittsburgh, but you could do the same thing in well-gridded suburban sprawl areas, as long as they haven't hit full-bore gridlock yet (Boston or Toronto suburbs are right out).