How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub • Hacker News Board

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#321

Post by kriro » Wed, Apr 13, 2016, 11:28 AM UTC

It's an interesting article but I feel like the investor/entrepreneur relationship isn't quite as simple. I'd be really interested in a meaningful analysis of why investors cluster in SV. The obvious explanation is because that's where the talent is. However I feel there are a lot of social factors at play, too. It's cool to be in SV, people start companies there and change career path from selling their company to becoming investors etc. [lifestyle wise the city of SF doesn't sound all that great and Cali seems to be full of strange regulations and the like]

What if investor seeding would be hugely beneficial for a hub to become "the next SV". Imagine this thought experiment...pg overcome with nostalgia convinces YC to permanently move to Pittsburgh and change the standard recommendation to "stay 3 month in Pittsburgh". I'm not convinced YC would implode..there'd be some difficulties sure. But I'd also expect (some of) the money to follow YC.

A "Pittsburgh batch" (to go along with the regular one) might actually be an interesting experiment to run.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#322

Post by ssharp » Wed, Apr 13, 2016, 11:47 AM UTC

netman21 wrote: post #191

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…

Long time SE Michigan resident here. You are spot on. Gilbert may be actually be making a change though. Starting to feel different downtown.

Gilbert seems to have seen the trend of midwesterners embracing their central cores well ahead of everyone else.

What he's done in Cleveland has been pretty smart. He started by purchasing the Cavaliers and becoming a relatively vocal owner (at least compared to the previous owner). That won him a lot of favor with public. He opened up a Quicken Loans office in the city, providing jobs. He then was able to put a deal through public election granting him a casino monopoly in the city. He leased (and later bought) a mostly empty old department store building to house the casino that conveniently connected to the Cavs' arena. He later bought the Ritz hotel that also connects to the casino and arena and just recently purchased the shopping mall / train station that is the connecting piece to all of those.

There are definitely some negatives to be seen from what he's doing, but I think in the end it will be an impressive improvement for that part of downtown, which was already in the upswing.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#323

Post by GFK_of_xmaspast » Wed, Apr 13, 2016, 12:01 PM UTC

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…

If you can drive 5 minutes and still be in town, it's not "small".

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#324

Post by VLM » Wed, Apr 13, 2016, 12:16 PM UTC

BinaryIdiot wrote: post #307

prgmatic wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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? It's almost never necessary but try telling an investor that. The amount of investors that said no to the start-up I'm currently working at, simply because it was on the East coast (that was literally the only reason given), was simply astonishing. In a world where you can be anywhere in es…

> "digitally technology investors would stick their noses up due to physical location."

Either they're correct, although there seems to be no logical reason why or any sane rationalization for it, or they're leaving great piles of money on the table for more open minded investors to snatch up, or they're not really in it for the money (retirement hobby, its for social signalling, etc).

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#325

Post by hawkice » Wed, Apr 13, 2016, 12:16 PM UTC

malloryerik wrote: post #298

hawkice wrote: post #204

Surprised no one has mentioned the gravitational effect these hubs have -- Sacramento will never really blossom in the tech industry because so much talent gets sucked into SF. But as plane ticket prices go down, those areas get larger and larger. It's worth saying: "Pittsburgh, this is time sensitive! Boston will eat your lunch by default, so make your moves quickly." Also, if plane trips get cheap enough, look at h…

Could be good, but Hong Kong is massively expensive and mainland China is censored, with slow int'l data connections, presumably because they have to scan for words like "Panama Papers." Goodbye Google, Facebook, real news... well you can have (need) a VPN, but that could also be attacked at any moment. You also kind of end up having to be a member of the Party, and are reliant on fickle gov't approval. Which makes o…

So, obviously that is the core issue -- a tiny correction is that very few Chinese people are members of the communist party, less than 7%, and there is no expectation that foreigners join considering they have not been allowed to be members of the party since 1956.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#326

Post by jrochkind1 » Wed, Apr 13, 2016, 12:50 PM UTC

Sometimes I Feel Like I'm The Only One Trying To Gentrify This Neighborhood

http://www.theonion.com/blogpost/sometimes-i-feel-like-im-th...

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#327

Post by jrochkind1 » Wed, Apr 13, 2016, 12:51 PM UTC

pesenti wrote: post #232

brandonmenc wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Oh my, never considered Pittsburgh as part of "Appalachia" - I thought that was West Virginia! I guess the US looks at Pittsburgh like Pittsburgh looks at WV...

Pittsburgh is about 50 miles from West Virginia at the closest point.

It's a beautiful town.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#328

Post by kom107 » Wed, Apr 13, 2016, 12:52 PM UTC

kriro wrote: post #321

It's an interesting article but I feel like the investor/entrepreneur relationship isn't quite as simple. I'd be really interested in a meaningful analysis of why investors cluster in SV. The obvious explanation is because that's where the talent is. However I feel there are a lot of social factors at play, too. It's cool to be in SV, people start companies there and change career path from selling their company to b…

Ooooh. Talk dirty to us. YC Pittsburgh batch. Dig it.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#329

Post by kom107 » Wed, Apr 13, 2016, 12:54 PM UTC

LordKano wrote: post #242

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…

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…

Snagged my house in Morningside, which is in the city. You can still get pretty inexpensive houses throughout the East End, but you'll need to put in some elbow grease. Average prices seem to be around $200,000 for a decent home in the city. $500,000 and it's a move in ready palace.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#330

Post by kom107 » Wed, Apr 13, 2016, 1:00 PM UTC

drpgq wrote: post #313

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.

Agreed. I've just gone about it by refusing to sign the IP agreements, OR by editing the document to say that anything I do on my own time is mine. Have yet to run into an issue with those approaches.

I wonder how much innovation here is stifled because there are still only a handful of major employers, and all of them have blanket IP agreements. Frankly, if I was running UPMC, PNC, or Highmark, I'd set up a VC arm and encourage any employee with a good idea (related to the industry) to start a company with seed capital from the VC arm. UPMC is KIND OF doing this (I work for them now), but they're not quite there yet, and it doesn't seem like current employees can swing over there to start their own company easily. Still, I think they're headed down the right path.