How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

Post by thaumasiotes » Wed, Apr 13, 2016, 6:44 AM UTC

abalone wrote: post #230

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.

There are also economic reasons. Parisian density is only possible with a great underground transportation system. That's hugely expensive to build and takes decades. SF has traditionally been a boomtown economy with corresponding bust cycles, so it's harder to make those kinds of investments. They are happening (e.g. the Chinatown extension) but more conservatively.

Post by x0x0 » Wed, Apr 13, 2016, 6:54 AM UTC

prgmatic wrote: post #250

pesenti wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bootstrapped my startup so I indeed never needed outside money (well rather never really tried given that we started during the 2000-2002 nuclear winter). But if I had to do it again, especially in the current VC environment, I would raise money. It can be slow and tedious to bootstrap (took us 12 years to grow to 125 people and exit) and a lot of good startups in Pittsburgh seem eternally stuck in the seed stage.

Even if you do need to raise money, why is it a necessity to run your company out of the same city that your investors are in? I've never had to personally raise money for a startup, but I see a lot of the face-to-face meetings starting off as warm email/phone intros. Even if you have to constantly travel to NY/CA/* to meet prospective investors isn't it still a better value to run a business somewhere with a low cos…

Post by sheel » Wed, Apr 13, 2016, 7:06 AM UTC

Post by BinaryIdiot » Wed, Apr 13, 2016, 8:29 AM UTC

prgmatic wrote: post #250

pesenti wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bootstrapped my startup so I indeed never needed outside money (well rather never really tried given that we started during the 2000-2002 nuclear winter). But if I had to do it again, especially in the current VC environment, I would raise money. It can be slow and tedious to bootstrap (took us 12 years to grow to 125 people and exit) and a lot of good startups in Pittsburgh seem eternally stuck in the seed stage.

Even if you do need to raise money, why is it a necessity to run your company out of the same city that your investors are in? I've never had to personally raise money for a startup, but I see a lot of the face-to-face meetings starting off as warm email/phone intros. Even if you have to constantly travel to NY/CA/* to meet prospective investors isn't it still a better value to run a business somewhere with a low cos…

Post by andrewbinstock » Wed, Apr 13, 2016, 8:53 AM UTC

sotojuan wrote: post #150

Cshelton wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't associate "red state culture" and a particular city in that state together. Remember, Austin is a city in Texas.... The 4 major cities in Texas in fact are either well mixed or liberal (Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio). I hardly move my car on the weekends, get around just fine. My current job I have to commute by car (actually I could ride the train technically...), but many people walk/use public tr…

> Also, what is your definition of a "top university"? Ivy? Great, well-known, research CS university. Think Stanford, Berkeley, etc. In Texas there's UT and to some extent Rice... neither in Dallas.