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Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

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Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#211

Post by derefr »

barrkel wrote: post #187
BeetleB wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Bay area in a nutshell. You can have higher savings rates too Your example is a higher savings amount , not rate. In your example, I may still prefer the 80K one. Why? Assume taxes are a third of your salary in both places. In the 80K job, you save 40K, and your living expenses are 13.3K In the 160K job, you save 56K and your living expenses are 50.7K In Nowhereville, you are saving 3 times your annual cost of livin…

You'll still need to retire in a cheap city in Nowhereville. Why not live in SV when you're young and retire to Nowhereville, vs living in Nowhereville all your life?

Alternatively, if you can get a remote job, live in Cambodia or the Phillipines or somewhere else with an extremely low cost of living while getting paid 0.5x SV salary, and end up with 95% savings. Then you can retire anywhere.

Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#213

Post by derefr »

humanrebar wrote: post #88
koolba wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Emphasis mine): > I lived with 3 roommates to save money, I sold my car, you won't get stabbed anywhere in SF (so live in the sketchy area it'll get nicer each year) . I'm not willing to test that theory and there's an inherent value to not thinking about getting stabbed on a daily basis. > My rent was $1,200 a month, a lucky find. To live with 3 other people in the sketchy part of town? Yeesh.

It's also not sustainable since, you know, most people eventually start families and settle down. Roommates don't work then. Even if that's not you, you have to realize that everyone else needs that option if we're going to have a functioning community.

The SV "rationalist community" seems to think group homes work fine for married couples. Then again, they're almost universally swingers.

Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#214

Post by ryandrake »

luckydata wrote: post #197
foundart wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's easier to take a risk on a startup in a tech hub because you can likely find a job elsewhere if things don't work out. In a non-hub area, it's riskier to take the leap because fallback options are much more limited.

In my limited experience outside of one of those hubs I can say that's definitely a factor. I've spoken to a few good candidates that when decision time came got cold feet because of fear that the local ecosystem not being strong enough to provide a security cushion in case something went poorly.

This is what ultimately led to my moving to the Bay Area despite the pay increase not being even close to the cost of living increase. In Nowheresville, USA, a job change usually means moving to a different city. In the Bay Area and other tech hubs, you have a menu of options to choose from that don't involve picking up and moving your family.

Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#215

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

jbeckham wrote: post #132
krat0sprakhar wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For someone who recently graduated and quite clueless about financial planning, do you have some resources to get started?

Absolutely. Dave Ramsey's approach is probably my favorite. Basically, don't buy it if you don't have the money for it. https://www.daveramsey.com/

I'd say that isn't enough. Don't buy it unless you honestly believe that your life will be better for having bought it. Take the time and really think about it before making a purchase. You'll be shocked how much useless impulse buying the average person does.

Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#216

Post by TimPC »

humanrebar wrote: post #81
cachemiss wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are bootstrapping, and you are starting a company in an area that does not need the top tier of engineers (which is most of them, regardless of how they talk about hiring the best), I'd consider starting someplace low cost. I think college towns in the midwest / rust belt are untapped resources, or areas that used to have strong technically focused companies that moved away. I've personally seen founders boots…

I share you bullishness about "untapped" cities, but: > ...starting a company in an area that does not need the top tier of engineers... As far as quality of talent, the "top tier of engineers" aren't all in SF, Seattle, or NYC. There are plenty of "top tier" engineers in all kinds of places. If you mean the "top tier" in pay rates are in those cities, that probably true. But those cities also have a ridiculous cost…

A good measure of where the best engineers are is where the best engineers migrate to. In the smaller communities I’ve been in over time I’ve seen the top engineers in the community migrate away. Engineers that come back from effectively unsuccessful 1-yearish stints at Big X companies often become top engineers in the communities to which they return. I think I’d want a lot of people evidence to agree with the claim that the top engineers that stay behind in communities that have substantial migration to the Valley are as good as the top engineers in the valley (Which hires engineering talent from all over the world). There may be a handful of people who are great and stay for various reasons. But there are very few teams in Champaign, Ill. Where every team member is in the top 5% of engineers globally. There are quite a few teams like this in the valley.

Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#217

Post by rpeden »

aswanson wrote: post #194
rpeden wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like Uber already gave it a try :) http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/uber-kittens-1.3292441

Maybe he can come up with a better pivot of it.

- Use CRISPR to create hypoallergenic cats

- Create a mobile cat service in a high end Winnebago or Gulfstream business jet; stock with hypoallergenic cats from step 1

- Use mobile cat service to fly/drive in to festivals and corporate events; create pop-up cat lounges where visitors can have a drink and pet a cat

- ??

- Profit

Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#218

Post by TuringNYC »

gxs wrote: post #54
ryandrake wrote: post #7

> Often times there are hard barriers preventing people from starting a company. In these cases my best advice is to move to a tech hub (preferably the Bay Area) and work for a tech company until you can save the money I had to laugh there. Moving to the Bay Area will reduce your ability to save money, not increase it. I was probably saving 40-50% of my salary when I worked in Nowhereville, Florida. With the housing…

This is an insult to the thousands of people who make it in the bay area on barista wages. Just fucking wow. You can save in the bay area, live with roommates and pay comfortably . You don't even have to do that forever, just long enough to move up a bit in your job and save for a downpayment if buying a home is your goal. Not to mention if your spouse works and makes similar money then you can live a really high qua…

>> live with roommates and pay What if you are married with children? Not sure about you, but I would definitely not feel comfortable having roommates in my 1.5BR. With me + wife + 5yo son + 2yo daughter, how would the logistics even work? -- where would the roommates sleep? In the kitchen? In the kids' bedroom? In our bedroom with my wife and me?

Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#219

Post by stevenwoo »

derefr wrote: post #106
alexandercrohde wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just for comparison, I lived in SF for about 4 years. I saved a huge amount of money. I lived with 3 roommates to save money, I sold my car, you won't get stabbed anywhere in SF (so live in the sketchy area it'll get nicer each year). My rent was $1,200 a month, a lucky find. Now don't get me wrong I hated living there, no girls, homelessness everywhere smelled like garbage, and a self-obsession that pretended to be…

> no girls Now consider: what would you do if you were already married and wanted to do this? (Meaning, move to the Bay with your SO, not leave them behind.)

It kind of feels like an ad, but WeLive/WeWork is betting on shared housing as a future of city living. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/09/cozy-ov...

Re: Three Paths in the Tech Industry: Founder, Executive, or Employee

#220

Post by ulfw »

cbr wrote: post #123
nkrisc wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Um, what's cheaper than a studio? Anything with one or more bedrooms is going to be more expensive. Perhaps you're not familiar with American apartment terminology or I'm missing something? A studio apartment is as cheap as you can get normally.

what's cheaper than a studio? Splitting a several-bedroom apartment several ways. For example, where I live [1] a studio is $1,700 but one room in a 3br is $1,100. [1] http://www.jefftk.com/apartment_prices

And then you have several more people living in your dwellings. Not everyone is a student anymore.
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