4 ms·

The other side, though, is that it might be much easier to raise the necessary capital (taking into account changing costs due to location) in san francisco or

by joshAg 12y ago

The other side, though, is that it might be much easier to raise the necessary capital (taking into account changing costs due to location) in san francisco or the bay area in general than other places. It might also be easier to find qualified people in the bay area. Certainly they'll cost more than just about any other place, but how important is it to you to find say 5 people within the next month or two instead of the next say 6 to 24 months? I've never needed to actually do either of those two things, so I might just not know what I'm talking about, but for a startup that isn't bootstrapped I'd think that getting a long runway (for wherever you are) and advisers/investors who are knowledgable about your company's market are more important than the raw monthly expense figure, and that quickly getting qualified people working on the product might be more important than saving, say, $75,000 in salary per employee per year.

peteretep 12y ago
> but how important is it to you to find say 5 people > within the next month or two instead of the next say 6 > to 24 months. YMMV but generally: really important. If you are at the point where you are looking for five heads, you likely have competition and investor pressure. If you're bootstrapped or have a significant moat, maybe less so, but when I've been in charge of tech at companies, ability to grow my team quickly has been a major KPI, and a reasonable one. While I am led to believe that the easiest money is in SF, and there are some awesome investment partners, don't assume the best advisers are necessarily there; it's not been true for any of the three industries I've worked in, namely high-end fashion, recruitment software, and news/PR analysis. Digging specifically in to recruitment, the fact that every recruitment startup appears to be another ATS (Applicant Tracking System) - by far the most competitive space, also the one where the established players will be some of your hardest to displace (the reasons are dull but real (ATSs have long tendrils in to all sorts of business processes)) - seems testament to my hunch that "fixing hiring" companies are being guided by advisers with little in the way of recruitment experience. Possibly I'm wrong, and disruption needs to happen from outside, but the prevailing view that the expertise in tech in SF translates to expertise in every thing seems suspect to me.
- joshAg 12y ago
  That's pretty much exactly what I was thinking, but I didn't want to overstate how much better 5 people starting NOW at a higher rate is than 5 people starting soonish for a lesser rate. I'm not surprised at all that there are probably better advisers outside of Si Valley for many industries. I'm a little surprised about recruitment, but not shocked at all for fashion or news. SF doesn't really have much in the way of those industries.
  - peteretep 12y ago
    America does almost everything exceptionally well, but my understanding is that recruitment can be added to the list of: cellphone service; airlines; consumer banking; Internet provision; justice system... (ironic for the country that gave us such marvels as the iPhone, Boeing, Wall Stret, the Internet, and the U.S. constitution)
hackerboos 12y ago
Not hard to raise funds in London...if your startup is in FinTech. Everything else mind... I've read good things about Berlin, but by-and-large investors in Europe are far more cautious and more heavily taxed than the US.
- peteretep 12y ago
  Hard to think of a better place to do FinTech than London
walshemj 12y ago
Just like if you are setting up a new F1 team it would make sense to base it in the Midlands of the UK as that is where a lot of teams an the universities that produce the right sort of graduates and there is a large infrastructure of subcontractors to leverage.

by joshAg 12y ago

peteretep 12y ago

> but how important is it to you to find say 5 people > within the next month or two instead of the next say 6 > to 24 months. YMMV but generally: really important. If you are at the point where you are looking for five heads, you likely have competition and investor pressure. If you're bootstrapped or have a significant moat, maybe less so, but when I've been in charge of tech at companies, ability to grow my team quickly has been a major KPI, and a reasonable one. While I am led to believe that the easiest money is in SF, and there are some awesome investment partners, don't assume the best advisers are necessarily there; it's not been true for any of the three industries I've worked in, namely high-end fashion, recruitment software, and news/PR analysis. Digging specifically in to recruitment, the fact that every recruitment startup appears to be another ATS (Applicant Tracking System) - by far the most competitive space, also the one where the established players will be some of your hardest to displace (the reasons are dull but real (ATSs have long tendrils in to all sorts of business processes)) - seems testament to my hunch that "fixing hiring" companies are being guided by advisers with little in the way of recruitment experience. Possibly I'm wrong, and disruption needs to happen from outside, but the prevailing view that the expertise in tech in SF translates to expertise in every thing seems suspect to me.

joshAg 12y ago
That's pretty much exactly what I was thinking, but I didn't want to overstate how much better 5 people starting NOW at a higher rate is than 5 people starting soonish for a lesser rate. I'm not surprised at all that there are probably better advisers outside of Si Valley for many industries. I'm a little surprised about recruitment, but not shocked at all for fashion or news. SF doesn't really have much in the way of those industries.
- peteretep 12y ago
  America does almost everything exceptionally well, but my understanding is that recruitment can be added to the list of: cellphone service; airlines; consumer banking; Internet provision; justice system... (ironic for the country that gave us such marvels as the iPhone, Boeing, Wall Stret, the Internet, and the U.S. constitution)

hackerboos 12y ago

Not hard to raise funds in London...if your startup is in FinTech. Everything else mind... I've read good things about Berlin, but by-and-large investors in Europe are far more cautious and more heavily taxed than the US.

peteretep 12y ago
Hard to think of a better place to do FinTech than London

walshemj 12y ago

Just like if you are setting up a new F1 team it would make sense to base it in the Midlands of the UK as that is where a lot of teams an the universities that produce the right sort of graduates and there is a large infrastructure of subcontractors to leverage.