Greener pastures? A tale of the Minnesota startup that was
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Re: Greener pastures? A tale of the Minnesota startup that was
#2On radio in the Twin Cities, you continually hear advertising for companies to move to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The Tax Foundation rates SD #1 and MN #43 in their State Business Tax Climate Index.
Texas is rated #11, and I am pretty sure it is not hyperbole that if all their MN staff moved to TX they could hire another developer.
Re: Greener pastures? A tale of the Minnesota startup that was
#3On radio in the Twin Cities, you continually hear advertising for companies to move to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The Tax Foundation rates SD #1 and MN #43 in their State Business Tax Climate Index. Texas is rated #11, and I am pretty sure it is not hyperbole that if all their MN staff moved to TX they could hire another developer.
It's not--want to see my excel sheets?
Re: Greener pastures? A tale of the Minnesota startup that was
#4What? I take everything seriously.
Re: Greener pastures? A tale of the Minnesota startup that was
#5Welcome to Austin! Not only taxes are lower here, but the city has a real downtown, tons of interesting and educated people, great outdoor activities and a nice dating scene. I can't think of a more balanced place to start a company.
The only drawback is lack of VCs in the area. Austin Ventures are the only girl in town and they tend to favor "seasonal CEOs" over young engineers and are extremely conservative with their investments.
Re: Greener pastures? A tale of the Minnesota startup that was
#6People are moving their startups from Minnesota to the Dakotas? Does your startup need hundreds of square miles of empty land?
Re: Greener pastures? A tale of the Minnesota startup that was
#7It helped through the learning curve and cut through red tape with connections. I mean, you can�t just walk up to a guy like Paul Buchheit or Joshua Schachter and have them take you seriously.
When I was reading it I thought "sure you can!" (I was thinking about me talking to Paul Bucheit at startup school in 08) but then I realized "oh, that event was actually organized by YC too! ) :)
Re: Greener pastures? A tale of the Minnesota startup that was
#8As a lover of the Twin Cities, this is definitely a saddening read. Minnesota is a pretty great place to work in tech as an employee, but it's not currently the thriving area of tech innovation I'd love to see it become. It's too bad, too, since in theory the Twin Cities has a lot going for it for startups: lower cost of living, highly educated workforce, and theres nothing like a long, bitter, winter to justify long periods of time spent indoors hacking ;).
Obviously there's no simple button-press solution for a city to become a startup capitol, or else every city would have pressed that button by now, but I do think that the focus on Corporate Tax rates is particularly wrongheaded. Just about every survey of "Business-Friendly Tax Rates" tends to put CA, MA, and NY near the bottom, surely a higher tax rate can't be that discouraging to potential startups?
Re: Greener pastures? A tale of the Minnesota startup that was
#9On radio in the Twin Cities, you continually hear advertising for companies to move to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The Tax Foundation rates SD #1 and MN #43 in their State Business Tax Climate Index. Texas is rated #11, and I am pretty sure it is not hyperbole that if all their MN staff moved to TX they could hire another developer.
That Tax Foundation survey would seem to suggest that CA (48), NY(49), and MA (36) aren't good places to start a startup either.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/bp59_es.pdf
I think that the other factors mentioned in the article: innovative incentives for investors, locality to VCs and experienced (successful) startups, and a great community of developers all factor in more heavily than tax policy.
Re: Greener pastures? A tale of the Minnesota startup that was
#10On radio in the Twin Cities, you continually hear advertising for companies to move to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The Tax Foundation rates SD #1 and MN #43 in their State Business Tax Climate Index. Texas is rated #11, and I am pretty sure it is not hyperbole that if all their MN staff moved to TX they could hire another developer.
That Tax Foundation survey would seem to suggest that CA (48), NY(49), and MA (36) aren't good places to start a startup either. http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/bp59_es.pdf I think that the other factors mentioned in the article: innovative incentives for investors, locality to VCs and experienced (successful) startups, and a great community of developers all factor in more heavily than tax policy.
CA has those in spades (it overcomes the whole tax thing), MN does not.