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San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

nytimes.com

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Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#21

Post by Bjorkbat »

aresant wrote: post #6

Add to the stack that the startup ecosystem sucks. 1) Raising an angel round - and certainly a Series A - in San Diego means getting on a plane to the Bay Area or a 2.5 hour drive to LA. 2) Potential acquirers are all up north which means not only do you have to figure out how to sell your tech people on SD while you're building, you have to then sell them on relocating when you get a term sheet.

I could always put it into perspective for you and tell you about the Albuquerque, New Mexico startup ecosystem.

As far as quality of life goes, it's still pretty good, but the startup ecosystem doesn't factor into that equation at all.

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#22

Post by Grishnakh »

ikeyany wrote: post #10
John23832 wrote: post #2

It's interesting that he says location is the cause. I think I agree, but then I think about DC, where most of the tech jobs (aside from some government ones) seem to be located outside of the city

The problem in San Diego is that although traffic blows, there's no strong public transit like you have in DC.

There's no strong public transit in DC either.

There's the Metro, which occasionally kills people due to terrible maintenance, but it's only really useful for DC proper. There's not many tech jobs in DC, they're all outside in northern VA or southern MD, quite some distance from downtown DC. And those places are not well-served by Metro at all; basically there's some giant park-and-ride centers where commuters can drive in, park ($$$) and ride ($$$) the subway to their job in downtown DC. This isn't useful at all to people who actually work out in the suburbs in places like Reston VA (near the airport) or Manassas VA or Laurel MD, which are popular places for tech companies.

From what I've seen on my visits to San Diego, I'd say the situations are pretty comparable actually. Terrible, terrible traffic, and terrible public transit outside the city center, and all the tech companies are nowhere near the metro center.

On top of all that, the other problem in the DC area is that almost all the tech jobs are defense-related, so if you're not interested in that industry (or in working on projects that drag on and on for years and basically never get anywhere, and definitely aren't anywhere near the cutting edge of technology), DC is not the place for you.

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#23

Post by cylinder »

Who cares? Where are the articles about San Antonio losing its "young oil and gas talent" to Houston? How about Philly losing its "young finance talent" to New York?

Also, I'm pretty sure biotech counts as "tech." Hey, it even has it in the name. Too bad they don't have more on demand laundry startups, since apparently that's the key to success as a city.

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#24

Post by Grishnakh »

djKianoosh wrote: post #12
ikeyany wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem in San Diego is that although traffic blows, there's no strong public transit like you have in DC.

wait what? DC has one of the worst public transit systems of a major city in the world. portions of it are constantly shut down for maintenance. there was a week this summer with 2-3 fires in the system. "strong" it is not. carry on

Why is this being modded down? It's absolutely correct, as anyone who lives in the DC area would know.

Come to DC and try riding the Metro on Saturday or Sunday night and see how you like it.

Metro used to be a pretty decent system 20 years ago; today it's a disaster.

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#25

Post by tantalor »

howuudoin wrote: post #8

Slightly off topic, maybe. I live in San Diego. Anyone here from the area know of any local resources a novice developer can use? I searched through ycombinator and the one book everyone refers to is the Big Nerd Ranch one. Currently going through that. I see that the article mentions Origin Code Academy. However, I already work full time and can't use the day time to take classes at an academy. I have a few ideas fo…

San Diego Hacker News Meetup http://sdhn.org/

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#26

Post by mikekij »

zaking17 wrote: post #20

It's fun to see San Diego at the top of HN. I'm finishing a PhD at UC San Diego, and I've noticed a few things. First, there is a different dynamic for biotech talent. The biotech scene in SD is strong, and people seem drawn to that. Second, in contrast to LA at least, commuting in SD is not terribly difficult. And there is a light rail (trolley) beginning construction up to the UCSD campus from downtown. Third, this…

What are you doing your PhD in? I'm working on a healthcare software company in San Diego. We should chat.

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#29

Post by mikekij »

aresant wrote: post #6

Add to the stack that the startup ecosystem sucks. 1) Raising an angel round - and certainly a Series A - in San Diego means getting on a plane to the Bay Area or a 2.5 hour drive to LA. 2) Potential acquirers are all up north which means not only do you have to figure out how to sell your tech people on SD while you're building, you have to then sell them on relocating when you get a term sheet.

We're starting a company in San Diego and can attest to this. Of our seed round, only ~10% came from San Diego investors. The rest are from the Bay Area / Northeast. This is the single biggest problem that needs to be solved if SD wants to have a viable startup ecosystem going forward.

Re: San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

#30

Post by adrianm »

Grishnakh wrote: post #13
eugenekolo2 wrote: post #7

Little do they know that SV is just as desolate? Most of the big tech firms are 1-2 hours away from SF in suburbia.

Not only that, but isn't there a massive shortage of single women there? I guess the Millennials aren't interested in dating....

What does this have to do with anything? And why do you assume all "Millenials" in tech are either male or exclusively interested in women?
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