I see a bright future for products and services focused on remote team management
primitive.io is a collaboration tool for developers that uses VR telepresence and code visualization
Sam Altman: Bay Area is no longer the obvious place for startups
21–30 of 263 posts
Re: Sam Altman: Bay Area is no longer the obvious place for startups
#22One of the biggest reasons so many startups moved (or started) in the Bay Area was because VCs didn't bother traveling and funded mostly local companies. Has that changed?
My understanding also was that VCs wanted startups close by, so if they found someone elsewhere... they moved them to the area.
Re: Sam Altman: Bay Area is no longer the obvious place for startups
#23I wish he shared more reasoning in why he decided in 2017 being the pivotal year. I mostly agree with 2017 being a bad year for the bay area startup as that was the period where a lot of the top startups like airbnb, uber, and theranos were getting significant negative outlooks, and probably some others that I have forgotten about.
I think it basically became the year when the "norm" for talent in SF Bay Area was 1) work at a FAANG or 2) work at a late stage private co (like Uber).
Working at an early stage startup was already risky, but the opportunity cost sort of peaked around then and remains high.
Unless the opportunity cost noticeably drops (i.e. a massive recession that causes a 50%+ drop in public stock market) I think smaller startups will thrive in places like NYC more so than SF.
Re: Sam Altman: Bay Area is no longer the obvious place for startups
#24Totally agree. From my experience, operating out of the bay area means you pay more for rent, employee salaries, and employee retention (higher turnover). All up, it costs somewhere around ~$50K/year more per employee.
If you run a modest team of 10, you're paying an additional $500K/year to be in the bay area. That's huge for a large fraction of startups.
Re: Sam Altman: Bay Area is no longer the obvious place for startups
#25One of the biggest reasons so many startups moved (or started) in the Bay Area was because VCs didn't bother traveling and funded mostly local companies. Has that changed?
Hasn't changed much, but I think the trend Sam is predicting is that startups will move here to raise money and then relocate.
Re: Sam Altman: Bay Area is no longer the obvious place for startups
#26One of the biggest reasons so many startups moved (or started) in the Bay Area was because VCs didn't bother traveling and funded mostly local companies. Has that changed?
It's changed in that there are more VC's in other places now, and more branch offices. There are VC backed companies that are entirely remote as well.
Re: Sam Altman: Bay Area is no longer the obvious place for startups
#27I see that myself. And I mean this as absolutely no offense to anyone in the area. I've met incredibly intelligent people there, among the best. Though, I believe the very best are distributed throughout the world, and command the ability not to move.
All that said, first, well, the silicon part is all but gone. I find the signal to noise ratio pretty low. For every 10x developer, there are 50 people who did a bootcamp and/or moved for the easy jobs. Salaries are high because the cost of living is on the breaking point. People complain about the area because of high taxes, high cost of living, and of course the homeless epidemic. And to top it off, everyone who can seems to leave the area when they get the chance.
Again, I mean no offense, I think it's a nice area on the whole. But if I were in need of a lot of good engineers today, I'd first offer remote only. If I needed collaboration or a lot of people in one area, I'd look to New York or Northern Virginia before the bay area.
Re: Sam Altman: Bay Area is no longer the obvious place for startups
#28I see a bright future for products and services focused on remote team management
I agree, but quite a few people get lonely working remotely and not having a proper office to go into, and software won't solve that (at least not until VR presence or something of the sort is really good). I've managed great engineers who have complained about this and I haven't seen a good solution.
Re: Sam Altman: Bay Area is no longer the obvious place for startups
#29I suspect the VC industry itself will be disrupted at some point (the irony of the VC industry is that the biz model has remained basically the same for 50 years when everything else has changed).
It will become incrementally easier to raise money from non-traditional sources at better terms as "accredited investor" laws are relaxed e.g. through a Security Token Offering.
Re: Sam Altman: Bay Area is no longer the obvious place for startups
#30I see a bright future for products and services focused on remote team management
I agree, but quite a few people get lonely working remotely and not having a proper office to go into, and software won't solve that (at least not until VR presence or something of the sort is really good). I've managed great engineers who have complained about this and I haven't seen a good solution.
A coworking space stipend perhaps?