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A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#41

Post by ransom1538 »

Twirrim wrote: post #32
WalterSear wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But I don't want to work for Amazon or Microsoft or at Google's satellite office.

It's almost as if you believe there are only 3 tech companies in Seattle. Heck, those 3 aren't even the only big tech companies in Seattle, there's Apple, Facebook, Oracle, Twitter, etc. etc. let alone all the other smaller ones. There's more tech companies here than you can shake a stick at.

Apple - is in Cupertino

Facebook - Menlo Park

Oracle - Redwood Shores

Twitter - San francisco

Having an office with paint that says 'Twitter' doesn't mean 'Twitter' is in Seattle. Satellite offices are rarely taken seriously.

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#42

Post by jpao79 »

He (and Sam Altman for all YC companies) should have the startup(s) all de-locate to the same town that's within driving distance of the Silicon Valley.

I bet you could convince a lot of tech people to move to Santa Cruz or Monterey. You could also recruit from UC Santa Cruz and Cal Poly. Both downtown Santa Cruz and downtown Monterey feel pretty small town urban-y.

Plus the Silicon Valley VC's can play golf at Pebble Beach or Half Moon Bay Ritz Carlton and make a weekend getaway out of it AND get a business trip tax write-off for mileage and hotel says.

And maybe before descending on the town you can get the city council and a developer to agree to build high density housing in the downtown core.

This Palo Alto planning commissioner/Palantir spokesperson for high density housing in Palo Alto ended up moving to Santa Cruz: http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/08/10/palo-alto-planning-com...

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#43

Post by meritt »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #21
dgfgfdagasdfgfa wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Denver is even better—competitive wages w/ washington & lower cost of living.

There's a fire-hose of Californians directed at CO. In a decade or two they will have recreated the place they left.

The same can be said for WA, OR, and TX (Austin).

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#44

Post by jdblair »

alexbanks wrote: post #13
s73ver_ wrote: post #11

Ok, so I "delocate". Do I then have to take a pay cut because I'm now somewhere else? Spreading the tech sector out around the country even more is great, and things like this can be a step in the right direction. But a big part of why the Bay Area is what it is has to do with funding. Most VCs are there, and don't seem to be willing to move away. Hell, YC requires you to be there, at least during your time with them…

> And the concentration of tech talent means that it's always easy to find a new job, or even to start your own company. I've never been there, but I see this echoed a lot. Is it actually true? I'm interested in both, but I'm wary of the exaggeration that may be "it's easy".

Yes. I know this is just one person's experience, but I've been continuously employed since 1998 except for a 4 week gap after losing my job in 2002. This is at 8 different companies. 10 if you count name changes due to the way one startup was bought and sold.

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#45

Post by EduardoBautista »

WalterSear wrote: post #27
watty wrote: post #3

This seems pretty genius. There is a surplus of highly skilled engineers in the Bay Area who are getting mediocre pay (when cost of living is taken into consideration). This allows Zapier to attract more of these highly skilled workers and not pay a premium to those in the bay area.

It's not the cost of living. It's just the rent.

And going out to restaurants and bars.

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#46

Post by tonyedgecombe »

zitterbewegung wrote: post #14

So by giving them a $10k carrot they can basically lock them in to the company because it would be much more difficult to interview for competitors or even start startups. That's pretty genius.

If they are foolish enough to inflate their standard of living to a level unsupportable by local employers.

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#47

Post by throwaway2048 »

jpao79 wrote: post #42

He (and Sam Altman for all YC companies) should have the startup(s) all de-locate to the same town that's within driving distance of the Silicon Valley. I bet you could convince a lot of tech people to move to Santa Cruz or Monterey. You could also recruit from UC Santa Cruz and Cal Poly. Both downtown Santa Cruz and downtown Monterey feel pretty small town urban-y. Plus the Silicon Valley VC's can play golf at Pebbl…

That would fix things for a few years at best, and then it would likely end up even more expensive than the bay area.

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#48

Post by tonyedgecombe »

stevecalifornia wrote: post #7

Move to Washington State. Don't pay California income tax. Instant 8% boost to your take-home pay.

From someone outside the US, I'm amazed that states vary their income tax so much, I would have thought it's a magnet for fraud and corruption.

Re: A CEO Who Pays Employees to De-Locate from the Bay

#49

Post by kevinnk »

alexbanks wrote: post #13
s73ver_ wrote: post #11

Ok, so I "delocate". Do I then have to take a pay cut because I'm now somewhere else? Spreading the tech sector out around the country even more is great, and things like this can be a step in the right direction. But a big part of why the Bay Area is what it is has to do with funding. Most VCs are there, and don't seem to be willing to move away. Hell, YC requires you to be there, at least during your time with them…

> And the concentration of tech talent means that it's always easy to find a new job, or even to start your own company. I've never been there, but I see this echoed a lot. Is it actually true? I'm interested in both, but I'm wary of the exaggeration that may be "it's easy".

A friend of mine got an offer from a startup in Palo Alto that he wanted to negotiate. He literally walked across the street to another interview and had a counter offer when he met with the founder of the first company the next day.
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