Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

paulgraham.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 367 posts

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#211

Post by fiblye »

pesenti wrote: post #197

I bootstrapped a company in Pittsburgh in 2000 (the founders all came from CMU - I am from France originally) with a good exit in 2012. When I moved there the food scene was nonexistent and people in the US still perceived Pittsburgh as a bad place to be (e.g., a lady I met in CA responded with "Oh I am so sorry" when I told her I was living in Pittsburgh). CMU also didn't really understand startups - we were the fir…

People still seem to think Pittsburgh's a hellhole even though it's anything but.

Honestly, I don't think it's a bad thing that people think this. The city's steadily drawing in talent yet rent/cost of living is remaining low and stable. Every once in a while I see people say "Pittsburgh's the next Portland!", but good god, I hope not. Too many people from SV have flooded into Portland and driven rent up to insane levels in just a few years while offering nothing of substantial value--Pittsburgh doesn't need the same.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#212

Post by graycat »

tryitnow wrote: post #100

Hmmm. Does he even reference the fact that the SF Bay Area was the recipient of massive amounts of government and government contractor money? And what about the free-wheeling, non-traditional culture (embodied in the Homebrew Computing Club)? These two factors created Silicon Valley. Federal money subsidized the semiconductor boom, which brought a lot of technical expertise to the area. Then the open-minded culture…

Interesting to hear so much good about CMU: Long the president there was one of my Ph.D. dissertation advisers.

> Honestly, there's just not a lot of places that qualify.

I'm not so sure location has much to do with it or that there is much a location can do that would help.

But for places:

Sure, within 100 miles of the Washington Monument.

Federal spending? Awash in it. For technology? Same.

Universities? Johns Hopkins, Maryland College Park, Maryland Baltimore County, Catholic, American, Georgetown, George Mason, VPI, UVA.

VCs? There are some.

There is Boston with Harvard and MIT and no lack of Federal research spending. And lots of VCs and bigger bucks, too.

Then, sure, there is NYC:

Universities? Columbia, Rockefeller, and NYU and a new, growing tech educational center on Roosevelt Island.

VCs? Plenty of them, and bigger bucks, too.

Can make a good case for a large fraction of the college towns around major US universities, e.g., the Big Ten.

Maybe the bottleneck is elsewhere, say, finding the next Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, Sun, Google, Facebook? If there is one and it goes through YC, then it's not in stealth anymore and, if it looks really good, can set up shop the same place as that 900 pound gorilla -- anywhere it wants to.

Net, I'm not sure location has much to do with it. And I'm not sure that the 25-29 age range PG has in mind is now the most promising. And, net, net, IMHO the bottleneck is just better ideas.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#213

Post by MicroBerto »

pesenti wrote: post #197

I bootstrapped a company in Pittsburgh in 2000 (the founders all came from CMU - I am from France originally) with a good exit in 2012. When I moved there the food scene was nonexistent and people in the US still perceived Pittsburgh as a bad place to be (e.g., a lady I met in CA responded with "Oh I am so sorry" when I told her I was living in Pittsburgh). CMU also didn't really understand startups - we were the fir…

Why do you need access to so much money that you can't get it in Pittsburgh or remotely?

Seems like an insanely cheap place to bootstrap. Get to break even far faster, etc...

If you're living in Manhattan now, you could reduce costs by over 75% by moving back and put it into the next venture instead.

Plus, the kids get the dog and a yard.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#214

Post by abalashov »

_delirium wrote: post #206
Xcelerate wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Atlanta — a massive metro region with the emptiest downtown area I've ever lived in. It's a bit of a paradox.

If you want a "downtownish" area of Atlanta, Midtown is really the place to look, a little over a mile north of the official Downtown. It has a lot more residents and consistent pedestrian traffic. I lived there for a few years in the 2000s and it felt very bustling to me. I almost never drove anywhere either. Now, Downtown Atlanta is often crowded, but it's basically a giant convention center, so it depends on when…

You're not Delirium from K5, are you?

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#215

Post by mindcrime »

Apocryphon wrote: post #144
L_Rahman wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To everyone proposing places like Nashville and Dallas - do you have any idea what it's like being a not-white person outside of the major coastal cities? It's a miserable experience. You go from seeing a lot of people who look like you in the industry of your choice, to being one of a token few. Food and grocery options go from omnipresent to something you have to hunt down. The way you lead your life goes from some…

That's definitely an important consideration. From what I've heard, Raleigh-Durham RTP actually has had a huge influx of immigrant engineers, and so is more diverse than one would expect from the South. Shame about their recent legislative decisions, though.

The Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area is extremely diverse and multi-cultural. Between the major universities here (UNC, Duke, NCSU) and all the big companies in RTP (IBM, Glaxo, EMC, Cisco, etc.) people come from all over to work here or go to school here. And this area (colloquially, "the Triangle") is much different than most of the rest of NC in terms of being socially tolerant and inclusive.

Yeah, the whole HB2 thing was something of a stain on our state (OK, we're the laughing stock of the whole damn country, fine...) but that really does not accurately reflect what life is like in the Triangle area.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#216

Post by lewis500 »

I used to live in pittsburgh. I wish I still did but I have to live here in the Bay for work. Other than the work environment, unless you're a millionaire, this place sucks compared to pittsburgh: takes an hour to get anywhere, insane cost-of-living and sanctimonious locals who openly loathe "the tech elite" while they sit in their million-dollar ranch houses.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#217

Post by _delirium »

CptJamesCook wrote: post #181
robg wrote: post #53

This is perhaps the first essay I read from pg and thought "You're hopping aboard this bandwagon now?". Even he admits to following the lead of the NY Times Food section. Having attended grad school in Pgh from 1999-2004, it was clear back then the city was on it's way back. Now with Apple, Google, and Uber, the question isn't how to make Pgh a startup hub, it's how much it will be.

What successful startups are in Pittsburgh?

Celsense, Rorus, and PieceMaker are three that come to mind. There are especially a lot of biotech startups. Not as many of the consumer-web type startups that are more commonly seen on HN though.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#218

Post by MicroBerto »

ProAm wrote: post #46
ausjke wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While not a perfect fit, Austin seems like a good enough match for this.

Too crowded and pricey currently. It was but I think it's losing luster because of those reasons.

Austin isn't even close to finishing its growth. It's currently "burroughing" out with me SoDoSoPa style mini-downtowns like The Domain and Mueller due to the awful traffic situation.

There's an issue with getting huge money still, but you can live cheap in the burbs and bootstrap to your heart's content.

If the REAL tech / hardware industry doesn't have a collapse, there will be no stopping the growth.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#219

Post by gkop »

Would you help me compile a list of interesting software companies in Pittsburgh? (I'm seeking to relocate there from SF but am having a hard time sourcing an attractive employer)

* DuoLingo

* Google

* Oculus (Facebook)

* ShowClix

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#220

Post by dotch »

imissmyjuno wrote: post #207
beatpanda wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PG was wrong to say that you cannot be too strict about historic preservation because it leads to the exact problem we have in SF right now -- there is no physical reason this city can't be more dense and remain beautiful (look at Paris for an example of how this might be possible), but there are many, many political reasons.

Can you elaborate on Paris? It was my impression it was full of historical buildings and is expanding outwards, which isn't an option for SF.

It's an argument that gets made over and over again:

Paris: density 55,673/mi^2

SF: density 17,246/mi^2

(source: wikipedia)

Post reply on HN