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

311–320 of 367 posts

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#311

Post by eloisant »

MicroBerto wrote: post #213
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.

The problem is you'll be putting out a 5 persons team, hope you don't get a Silicon Valley competitor who hires a 50 persons teams and spends ad money with their VC funding.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#312

Post by mooreds »

rmason wrote: post #260
calbear81 wrote: post #151

Detroit fits the bill on the whole lots of old buildings that were once built when the city was rich but then turned poor. You can buy a 6 bedroom placial estate in Indian Village for $350,000 and live next to estates once owned by the Fords and the Dodges, etc. It's near a world class University (UMich) and has an abundance of office space, mostly owned by Dan Gilbert. The challenge is that it's just not that safe o…

There is most definitely a frontier spirit emerging there. I actually thought of Detroit when I was reading PG's essay. The food scene is really exploding with new restaurants opening all the time. http://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/dining/restaurant-o... Even month to month when I visit I see the changes. There's getting to be a real cluster of tech people living and working near Grand Circus park.

Anecdata: I have a friend who is from Detroit. A techie, lived in the East coast and works for a company on the west coast. Visits Detroit to see family.

He says that the Detroit "rejuvenation" is a complete scam. That all the articles in the press reference the same three or four restaurants. That, yes, there is a nice area in Detroit around what he calls "the green zone" (not sure if that is the accepted term or just a reference to the protected area in Iraq) but once you leave that square mile it is a wasteland.

Again, I have never been. But my friend gets annoyed at all the "Detroit is the next big thing" talk for these reasons.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#313

Post by drpgq »

kom107 wrote: post #190

Born in Pittsburgh, raised in Pittsburgh, started (and failed, 2009-2014) my own company in Pittsburgh, currently have an excellent tech job in Pittsburgh and am going to launch the beta product of my new company (YC reject) in Pittsburgh in June. So. First off, I nearly cried reading this headline, and did tear up reading it. So whether or not he reads this, thanks, Paul. Second. To the hard work of it all. I agree…

"and get our major employers here to knock it off with their ridiculous IP agreements"

What's Pennsylvania like for non-competes? I often think what a state or province could do for startups would be to shift to California style non-competes.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#314

Post by marincounty »

vacri wrote: post #282
LordKano wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're not set on living in the city, housing is fantastic in the Pittsburgh area. I live 20 minutes from Downtown and I bought my house for $74,900 in 2008. 3/2, two car garage and driveway sitting on about 1/8 of an acre. It blows my mind when I hear how much money people are paying for housing in bigger cities. The salary would need to be significantly higher to make it worth my while to move to a place like SF…

> Additionally, this area is fairly centrist politically. I spent three months crossing the US in 2009 as a tourist. I had developed a light-hearted measure of the patriotism of an area by how many US flags were seen in suburban front yards. Before I visited Pittsburgh, I had rated '1 house in 4-5 with a flag' as a very patriotic area on this scale. Then I hit Pittsburgh, and the area where my hotel was had one house…

While I live in a neighborhood where you will get an annoymous letter from a neighbor if dare to fly the US flag.

Crazy?

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#315

Post by crispyambulance »

I've been born and raised in Pittsburgh, went to CMU for undergrad and Pitt for grad but eventually left for other places.

Pittsburgh has plenty of business opportunities. There is A LOT of industry within the metro area. A small group of folks can relatively easily set up shop and make excellent careers doing tech in Pittsburgh.

The "bones" of the city are excellent. It is a medium-size compact urban area surrounded by streetcar main-streets, industrial areas, and older 'burbs. Neighborhoods are relatively stable, there aren't insane fluctuations in property values, many places are walkable/bikeable and there's at least a corner in pittsburgh for every taste.

As for it being a "start-up hub" where "start-up" is defined in the silicon valley sense of going from idea to VC investment to IPO in a few dozen months-- no that is not common. But that's such a narrow band of activity, can you really say it is common anywhere?

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#316

Post by lmm »

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)

Bear in mind that's using the legal definition of Paris which excludes many of its suburbs.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#317

Post by ido »

lmm wrote: post #316
dotch wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Bear in mind that's using the legal definition of Paris which excludes many of its suburbs.

The SF definition is also excluding its suburbs (i.e. Silicon Valley).

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#318

Post by unprepare »

brandonmenc wrote: post #222
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 in the US still perceived Pittsburgh as a bad place They still do. I'm originally from the area and when I mention this everyone thinks I come from either a Deliverance-like backwoods or a bombed-out Detroit-style factory town. No one takes me seriously when I call it The Paris of Appalachia.

>bombed-out Detroit-style factory town.

Yeah, it sure is annoying when people mindlessly insult your city....

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#319

Post by CalRobert »

abalashov wrote: post #102
Cshelton wrote: post #80

Dallas: - Highest growth rate in the nation (especially for 18 - 30 years old), after Houston, which is down now due to the oil industry, placing Dallas at #1 - Highest spending on food and alcohol at restaurants - http://bizbeatblog.dallasnews.com/2015/09/dallas-fort-worth-... - One of the most affordable places to live in the U.S. - Large number of top tier universities within 3 hours (Univ of Texas, Baylor, TCU, S…

Yes, but Dallas fails abysmally on the urban livability and density test. It's one giant exurb. Much of it should be reclassified as a rural area. (Speaking as an Atlantan -- we have the exact same problem.)

Atlanta actually scored better than Detroit in this regard, but is still asphalt hellscape.

http://usa.streetsblog.org/2014/03/20/parking-madness-matchu...

Of course, the bay is no exception. Here's the "city" of San Jose, and an explanation of how it might be fixed.

http://usa.streetsblog.org/category/special-reports/parking-...

Streetsblog's Parking Madness is an interesting tournament they run discussing cities that have been destroyed by parking craters. I know a lot of people disagree with me but I really think that when you have these levels of parking the city itself is gone, destroyed and replaced by suburb, or maybe some other human/auto organizational structure we need a new word for.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#320

Post by CalRobert »

Cshelton wrote: post #134
paulsutter wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dallas misses on a few of pg's key points: it's a sprawling driving city, lack of a top university, and a red state culture. > Pittsburgh is fortunate in being a pre-car city. It's not too spread out. Because those 25 to 29 year olds do not like driving. They prefer walking, or bicycling, or taking public transport... Cities where you can get around without driving are just better period. > Pittsburgh has something P…

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…

"I wouldn't associate "red state culture" and a particular city in that state together"

You might not, but many of the people you're trying to recruit will. I realize it may not be accurate but there's a perception that Texas is universally horrible except for Austin, at least if you're left of center or want urban living. It doesn't matter if that perception's wrong if it means you never even talk to your potential candidate to say how great Dallas is.

Also, having the most track is a dubious distinction, just as having the most miles of road would be; that makes it sounds like commutes are long too. Interestingly a lot of the earliest suburbs weren't enabled by the car but by rail; San Diego and Los Angeles both have neighborhoods (now considered pretty close-in) whose construction was really enabled by rail.

Post reply on HN