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How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

paulgraham.com

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Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#261

Post by colindean »

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?

Lots. "$280 million was invested in Pittsburgh technology companies in 2015."

https://www.innovationworks.org/Portals/1/documents/Pittsbur...

Off the top of my head, Duolingo, 4moms, Treatspace, Wombat Security, Redzone Robotics got big $$$. That doc has more that I'm less knowledgeable of.

Exits:

Vivísimo acquired by IBM 2012 (I was a part of this one) M*Modal acquired by One Equity Partners 2012 Carnegie Learning acquired by Apollo Group 2012 BlackLocus acquired by The Home Depot 2012 The ExOne Company IPO 2013 BodyMedia acquired by Jawbone 2013 Mobile Technologies acquired by Facebook 2013 BPL Global acquired by Qualitrol 2013 Shoefitr acquired by Amazon 2015 Giftcards.com acquired by Blackhawk (I think 2013) LightSide Labs acquired by Turnitin 2014 Powered Analytics acquired by Target 2014 Millennium Pharmacy Systems acquired by PharMerica 2014 RedPath Integrated Pathology acquired by PDI 2014 Aesynt acquired by Omnicell 2015 iGate acquired by Capgemini 2015 Blue Belt Technologies acquired by Smith & Nephew 2015 Ottomatika acquired by Delphi 2015

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#262

Post by colindean »

srinivasan wrote: post #243

Points I would like to have seen mentioned: 1. Non-competes are enforceable in Pittsburgh, PA. Unlike in California. 2. Intellectual property rights over personal projects.

I feel that the non-compete thing is one of the biggest problems that PA technologists face. I'd be willing to put money on a state legislature candidate who would vow to get rid of them.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#263

Post by colindean »

gkop wrote: post #219

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

Have at it: https://discover.imaginecareers.com/

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#264

Post by somberi »

dotch wrote: post #220
imissmyjuno wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

To expand:

All of NYC - 28,053/mi^2 Manhattan alone - 72,033/mi^2 London - 13,410/mi^2

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#265

Post by colindean »

There are some big things happening in Pittsburgh:

Code & Supply (http://codeandsupply.co) is growing very quickly. It is just more than two years old and has nearly 2,200 members of its Meetup group. It holds 6-10 meetups per month, ranging from language talks to toolkits, WiFi, mental health, design, career management, and more.

C&S is hosting Abstractions (http://abstractions.io), probably the largest ever software conference in Pittsburgh. It's in August and will likely sell out of its 1,500 tickets at the current rate (40% sold as of this writing). We've got big names speaking, like Stallman, Zeldman, Sandi Metz, Scott Hanselman, Mike Montiero, Raffi Krikorian, Mitchell Hashimoto, Joe Armstrong, Larry Wall, Allison Randal, Aaron Patterson, Jono Bacon, Kelsey Hightower, and lots more. The full lineup will be announced in May.

Disclosure: I am an organizer of both.

There are lots of other meetups that are big, too. PGH Python just merged into C&S. The PGH FP meetup is growing quickly, too. Pittsburgh hosted Midwest UX last year and Pittsburgh Web Design Day is a pretty big event.

TL;DR the Pittsburgh software community is booming.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#266

Post by hueving »

throwaway3724 wrote: post #149
eropple wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is speculation, but like most parts of the U.S., I'd suggest that maybe it's more an urban/rural split than anything else. Texas has its pockets of reasonableness and progressivism (and outside of Austin, too--I quite like San Antonio, Dallas is fine, and while Houston is best described as a highway in a swamp a million lanes wide that you merge across to get anywhere, it's a very tolerant community with a gay w…

I've lived in small towns in Texas, and I've only found good natured people. Small town life is different. It's a little bit slower, I never had to deal with traffic, and I could drive anywhere in town in 5 minutes. But even my medium sized hometown (pop 60,000) stocked vegan cupcakes in the town bakery. Maybe it's not as progressive as Austin, but I don't appreciate how everybody else in the world writes it off as a…

Did you notice anyone openly gay or transgender there? One of the issues with small towns is that you end up thinking people aren't racists, bigots, whatever because there just aren't that many people there for them to discriminate against. I grew up in a small town and thought it was open minded and didn't realize how wrong that was until I was older when I would listen to political conversations in bars, restaurants, and coffee shops how much mindless hatred was hiding beneath the surface.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#267

Post by _wp3r »

Xcelerate wrote: post #157
forrestthewoods wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if you didn't have to attract the "most" 18 to 30 year olds? What if what you really needed was to attract an underserved niche of 18 to 30 year olds? I think Atlanta or Nashville is ripe. Northeasterners can and do move to California already. Southerners are much less likely to do so imo. The rural market is grossly underserved right now. Almost none of the efforts to get people into computer science are hittin…

> Northeasterners can and do move to California already. Southerners are much less likely to do so imo The South is in dire need of at least one giant tech city. I can't be the only person who wants to stay here near family, but the lack of any world-class tech opportunities is extremely frustrating. My girlfriend doesn't understand why I keep wanting to move to the west coast — "Surely you can find a decent job some…

There are mountains of tech Goliaths in the SE. If you look beyond social and gig, you will find very interesting and challenging scale companies. Most of the big retail chains(Home Depot), huge DoD and Federal(NASA, CDC, DARPA) opportunities, huge transportation(Air, Rail), infrastructure(ATT, VZ), GE's entire physical, firmware, and on-board development division(ie it has to work level smart people).

These are huge companies with bleeding edge technology problems and solutions, that also have ample vertical mobility.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#268

Post by tirant »

carboncopy wrote: post #251
Kinnard wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I forgot, "with at least one level of underground parking" so there's no net loss in parking spaces

That's incredibly expensive to build.

It's not. And it is a common practice (or even required) in lots of cities with tight space (e.g. Barcelona).

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#269

Post by kzhahou »

hoodoof wrote: post #135
delish wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In California, anything you do on your own time belongs to you, and the previous employer can't enforce most non-compete agreements. I work in Pittsburgh, and recently learned that my employer can own intellectual property that I created on my own time in my home. I was appalled.

It's a normal employment clause, don't freak out. Just fix it. Tell them that you would like your own projects excluded and your agreement should exclude your own personal projects as long as you inform them in writing of what those projects are. It's not something to be appalled about. They aren't trying to be evil overlords.

If the default is terrible, then be appalled.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#270

Post by evantahler »

I love Pittsburgh... but now too many of you know about it... so it's over ;p

My Family is from Pittsburgh, I went to CMU for undergraduate and then graduate school. I helped found/bootstrap a video game company there that did quite well for a few years form 2009-2011. The city is manageable, quirky, tolerant, fun, and affordable. I agree with everything PG says here... including the lack of funding. I was with ModCloth when they had to "move the core team to SF to get investment". My video game company's troubles can be traced to lack of funding (and the CEO used too much personal capital remain objective).

I would add one more negative: a bad airport. The Pittsburgh airport used to be a world-class hub for US-Airways and offered a ton cheap flights everywhere. A good airport is important for attracting talent and business... now this huge airport is less than 1/2 utilized and due to poor mass transit, it's hard to get to (I guess Uber is fixing that for the city). You could be in Philadelphia, DC, and NYC within an hour... but I always opted to drive to save on those overpriced domestic flights tier-2 airports are known for.

There are investors in pittsburgh (like http://www.bluetreealliedangels.com), but they aren't used to investing in "digital" tech. There are some early-stage incubators (http://alphalab.org and some others) but they don't have the network reach to justify their high stake in the company. I would argue that capital exists, but isn't as loose as it is out west. The folks who have it aren't as risky... which might be because they don't have as much to play with, but I think it simply is that they aren't used to the type of businesses Silicon Valley is starting... and that seems too risky.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittsburgh_International_Airpo...

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