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Sam Altman: Bay Area is no longer the obvious place for startups

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Re: Sam Altman: Bay Area is no longer the obvious place for startups

#121

Post by burlesona »

randomacct3847 wrote: post #118
burlesona wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone from Austin living in SF I disagree. Austin has better housing affordability and less severe homelessness. To me, just about everything else is nicer in SF. But more to the point, everyone is different and you really can’t generalize about what place is better or worse, because people’s tastes, interests, and logistics vary so widely.

Define nicer. To me housing affordability is a massive lever that drives quality of life. You can find a place for 300k in Austin (renovated) what would cost 1.5m in SF.

There isn’t a neighborhood in the entirde Austin metro where you can walk to all your daily needs. The summer heat is brutal and the winters are surprisingly chilly given how hot the summer is. You don’t have anything like the natural beauty of California at your doorstep.

For me though the walkability is the biggest thing. There’s not a single neighborhood in Austin that can compare to the quality of life in my “middle of the road” SF neighborhood. Miles of beautiful archictecture all around. My kids can and do walk everywhere.

It’s just a completely different experience, being in an actual pre-car city, and unfortunately there’s nothing like it in Texas.

Re: Sam Altman: Bay Area is no longer the obvious place for startups

#123

Post by baddox »

sytelus wrote: post #103
vincentmarle wrote: post #79

> I still expect a significant % of the $10B+ startups will get created here, so it makes sense for investors to still focus here. But I bet a lot of the ~$100M startups will happen elsewhere. > There are still some things—e.g great startup executive talent, particular kinds of engineering talent—that are much harder to find outside the bay area. This is spot on and it becomes a real bottle neck if you want to scale…

Why doesn’t your employees move out of Bay Area with you? Assuming if you keep offering same comp, this would cut down mortgage expenses to half and even gain much better housing in better school areas. It should be no brainer to move out if comp remains same. So you can come in to shop for talent, have them work remotely until they are ready. No need to open expensive offices in Bay Area.

Why would the assumption be that most people would want to move away from their homes because their current employer wants to save money?

Sure, many tech employees probably moved to the Bay Area primarily to find employment, but even if they don’t enjoy other aspects of the area, a place you live in for a while will become your home, and abandoning your home is not an easy or obvious decision to make.

Re: Sam Altman: Bay Area is no longer the obvious place for startups

#124

Post by baddox »

enra wrote: post #80
eanzenberg wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then why dont they? Or are there 2 people willing to take the place of every person leaving?

I think for many people it comes down to go exactly where and do exactly what there. Once lived in Bay Area for while, you have certain expectations on compensation, services, things to do, career growth etc. If you are used to a city like SF and enjoy the level of things in there, in the world and US there only few cities similar. Like nyc, la, London, Tokyo etc. Portland, Seattle, Austin, Berlin are all good but no…

But then the meaning of “want to leave” seems unclear. Of course everyone by definition wants to leave if there is somewhere else to go that is strictly better according to their personal preferences.

Re: Sam Altman: Bay Area is no longer the obvious place for startups

#125

Post by myspy »

baddox wrote: post #123
sytelus wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why doesn’t your employees move out of Bay Area with you? Assuming if you keep offering same comp, this would cut down mortgage expenses to half and even gain much better housing in better school areas. It should be no brainer to move out if comp remains same. So you can come in to shop for talent, have them work remotely until they are ready. No need to open expensive offices in Bay Area.

Why would the assumption be that most people would want to move away from their homes because their current employer wants to save money? Sure, many tech employees probably moved to the Bay Area primarily to find employment, but even if they don’t enjoy other aspects of the area, a place you live in for a while will become your home, and abandoning your home is not an easy or obvious decision to make.

Yey, living in SF where junkies shoot on the street and everything is littered with excrements because fuck you good social security system.

Let‘s live there!

Plus, everything really expensive to live there. And if I work at Google I drive two hours with a bus there.

I don‘t know but reading about that place it‘s insanity.

And the output is Hit and miss. I know of no startup in the last ten years that‘s any substantial or enhancing live tremendously.

Re: Sam Altman: Bay Area is no longer the obvious place for startups

#126

Post by nindalf »

myspy wrote: post #125
baddox wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would the assumption be that most people would want to move away from their homes because their current employer wants to save money? Sure, many tech employees probably moved to the Bay Area primarily to find employment, but even if they don’t enjoy other aspects of the area, a place you live in for a while will become your home, and abandoning your home is not an easy or obvious decision to make.

Yey, living in SF where junkies shoot on the street and everything is littered with excrements because fuck you good social security system. Let‘s live there! Plus, everything really expensive to live there. And if I work at Google I drive two hours with a bus there. I don‘t know but reading about that place it‘s insanity. And the output is Hit and miss. I know of no startup in the last ten years that‘s any substanti…

If you’ve lived in any place long enough, most of your friends and support network do as well. Think about that.

Re: Sam Altman: Bay Area is no longer the obvious place for startups

#127

Post by raverbashing »

vincentmarle wrote: post #79

> I still expect a significant % of the $10B+ startups will get created here, so it makes sense for investors to still focus here. But I bet a lot of the ~$100M startups will happen elsewhere. > There are still some things—e.g great startup executive talent, particular kinds of engineering talent—that are much harder to find outside the bay area. This is spot on and it becomes a real bottle neck if you want to scale…

I wonder if the "kinds of engineering talent" issue aren't a bit an issue of finding people that can be trained on the job/betting on the right people instead of just trying to get "person that does this exact thing at FAANG".

Re: Sam Altman: Bay Area is no longer the obvious place for startups

#128

Post by cbHXBY1D »

neonate wrote: post #90
cbHXBY1D wrote: post #72

Sam just realizing this in 2019 is a testament to how insulated the millionaire VC class is from the everyday struggles of the of the middle and lower classes. This is something everyone in my circles have been talking about for 5+ years, it's not a particularly novel take in 2019.

He's talking specifically about startups.

His whole point is that the individuals that make up a startup don't want to live in the Bay Area anymore because of cost of living and other factors.

Re: Sam Altman: Bay Area is no longer the obvious place for startups

#129

Post by chillacy »

raverbashing wrote: post #127
vincentmarle wrote: post #79

> I still expect a significant % of the $10B+ startups will get created here, so it makes sense for investors to still focus here. But I bet a lot of the ~$100M startups will happen elsewhere. > There are still some things—e.g great startup executive talent, particular kinds of engineering talent—that are much harder to find outside the bay area. This is spot on and it becomes a real bottle neck if you want to scale…

I wonder if the "kinds of engineering talent" issue aren't a bit an issue of finding people that can be trained on the job/betting on the right people instead of just trying to get "person that does this exact thing at FAANG".

I think it could happen if the incentives are set up differently, otherwise right now you spend time and effort training people only to have them change jobs in 2 years at a better company.

Re: Sam Altman: Bay Area is no longer the obvious place for startups

#130

Post by stouset »

BadassFractal wrote: post #116
vincentmarle wrote: post #79

> I still expect a significant % of the $10B+ startups will get created here, so it makes sense for investors to still focus here. But I bet a lot of the ~$100M startups will happen elsewhere. > There are still some things—e.g great startup executive talent, particular kinds of engineering talent—that are much harder to find outside the bay area. This is spot on and it becomes a real bottle neck if you want to scale…

Your likelihood of being in the 500M+ valuation bracket is so infinitesimally slim, that optimizing for that case is almost pointless.

Agree with the assumption, disagree with the conclusion.

Optimizing for that as a founder only doesn’t make sense, but when your investor money is trying to chase after $1B+ grand slams to make up for the dozens of failures, it probably makes a lot more sense.

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