BankSimple moves to Portland • Hacker News Board

Re: BankSimple moves to Portland

#41

Post by jvoorhis » Wed, Aug 24, 2011, 5:35 PM UTC

shrikant wrote: post #36

jvoorhis wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's already here. Our company (AppFog) was founded in Portland and we just secured our Series B. We have offices in the same building as JanRain and yet another co-working space. In Old Town or the Pearl District, there are startups on every other block. Interestingly, our biggest challenge right now is recruiting. If you're considering moving to Portland, we could use you. http://blog.phpfog.com/2011/06/10/we-are-h…

OT, and completely uninformed question: how's the scene in recruiting straight from Portland State University? (I ask out of idle curiosity, because I once had the opportunity to do an MS in CS there a while (6 years) back, and I passed up because I couldn't take on the financial burden - please drop me an email if you feel this might threadjack the discussion here.)

We haven't tried recruiting from PSU ourselves, but we probably should. Galois (http://corp.galois.com/) recruits students from PSU's CS program. My colleagues from PSU's mathematics dept have also been a pleasure to work with.

Re: BankSimple moves to Portland

#42

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Aug 24, 2011, 5:36 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: BankSimple moves to Portland

#43

Post by larrykubin » Wed, Aug 24, 2011, 5:38 PM UTC

Pakourama wrote: post #17

dminor wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What disgusted you?

Probably the rampant unemployment, underemployment, low paying jobs if you can actually get one, and the huge homeless population which is more a reflection on how abysmal the city and local economy is than those unfortunate enough to be homeless themselves. Don't forget the nonstop rain and suicide hotline numbers posted on every bridge or parking garage higher than 20 feet, since nearly everyone is cranked out on a…

Wow, can't believe all of the negative comments on here towards Portland. My wife and I moved here a couple months ago and can't stop thinking about how much we love the place. We were just joking last night about how if we listened to people on the internet, we would have never made such a great move out of fear we would be depressed and living in the streets. We've had a completely opposite experience from the points listed here:

1) Impossible to find a job? My wife just applied to 3 companies and got offers from all 3 within one month of us getting here, all paying equal or higher to her previous jobs -- and we knew literally zero people when we arrived.

2) Filthy and disgusting? Sorry, I've seen some disgusting shit (literally) on the streets in some of the other cities mentioned in this thread. People have tattoos and piercings? I'm surprised that bothers anyone. Who cares.

3) Rain? Sure, it rains. Not many cities have perfect weather. Where I just moved from (Austin), it has been 105 degrees for 70 days straight. That can be pretty depressing.

Since we've been here, we've gone to O'Reilly's OSCon, went to multiple beer festivals, went to multiple block parties, went to the coast, visited Cannon Beach, Rockaway Beach, Cape Meares, went to the Columbia River Gorge, saw many waterfalls, saw the Shins perform live in a small bar, also Phife from A Tribe Called Quest. Frequently visit amazing coffee houses and breweries, went to a neighborhood picnic, ate at a jillion food carts for less than $5, worked at a free coworking space downtown, walked/jogged/hiked in many beautiful parks, and browsed badass bookstores.

I like the food better, the public transportation is better, the rent is affordable, it is bike friendly, there are beautiful flowers in the neighborhood, the people are chill.

Depressing? Not at all.

Re: BankSimple moves to Portland

#44

Post by arjn » Wed, Aug 24, 2011, 5:50 PM UTC

ronnier wrote: post #16

dminor wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What disgusted you?

The place was filthy and dilapidated. Seeing people covered in tattoos and piercings gets old and tiresome for some reason. It's just not the place for me, but awesome for those who fit in there.

dunno what you're talking about. Portland is not filthy and dilapidated.

Re: BankSimple moves to Portland

#45

Post by mattmanser » Wed, Aug 24, 2011, 5:52 PM UTC

al3x wrote: post #38

pchristensen wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are clues there: 1) they wanted everyone to be in once place 2) they're hiring a lot of people, especially customer service. Customer service in NYC or SF would be prohibitively expensive, so if they want to be all in one place, they would have to move anyway. This is no different than Zappos being in Las Vegas or Groupon being in Chicago (I think Zappos relocated). Personnel costs when you have 50 employees pe…

You got it.

Probably worth putting who you are in your profile, at least one of your other answers has been killed, possibly because it wasn't obvious you were answering for the company and it's a one worder:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2921563

Re: BankSimple moves to Portland

#46

Post by KirinDave » Wed, Aug 24, 2011, 5:53 PM UTC

heyrhett wrote: post #12

reustle wrote: post #5

BankSimple == Duke Nukem Forever

Duke Nukem Forever, you mean that established product with nearly half a million customers?

Just downrate the unfair comparison and move on.

There is no way to positively spin a comparison to Duke Nukem Forever. Don't even try.

Re: BankSimple moves to Portland

#47

Post by arjn » Wed, Aug 24, 2011, 5:54 PM UTC

ronnier wrote: post #4

dminor wrote: post #2

Portland seems to be attracting a lot of hackers lately, so it will be interesting to see if the startup scene and investment money follow.

I don't understand why, other than being among other hackers. I recently visited there and was really disgusted with the place.

You're just trolling right ? Portland is a great place. And its good even though Oregon (in general) has had an unemployment problem for longer than most other states.

Re: BankSimple moves to Portland

#48

Post by dreamdu5t » Wed, Aug 24, 2011, 5:58 PM UTC

Pakourama wrote: post #11

Portland? WTF? Why? It's a hipster dump. Rains 9 months a year, has 12% perpetual unemployment, plus the USA's largest resident homeless population, which isn't terribly shocking given the awful job market. But, if you can actually get a job the salary will be circa 1994 and yet the property and rent prices are in fantasy land stuck in the 2006 housing bubble. Oh, plus the city has one of the highest suicide rates in…

LoL, like Boston, NYC, or the Valley are any less of a joke.

All of America is same sprawling hollow suburbia.

Re: BankSimple moves to Portland

#49

Post by thinkcomp » Wed, Aug 24, 2011, 6:00 PM UTC

al3x wrote: post #34

thinkcomp wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BankSimple isn't a bank! What I don't understand is the fact that all of BankSimple's customers (banks) are in...New York...

We're not a bank, but we view our customers as being the people who would use traditional banks. We partner with banks, and those banks are located around the country. That said, our processing technology partner, TxVia, is located in NYC, as are several of our investors.

I don't know your plans, but if banks (or Fiserv or FIS) are the ones paying you for a license to your front-end, then they are your customers. End users are the banks' customers, and in whatever contractual agreements you end up signing, based on my experience, the banks and their regulators will make absolutely sure you know that.

Also, you should change your name now before the regulators make you. Consumers think that financial companies with "bank" in their names are banks.

Re: BankSimple moves to Portland

#50

Post by Lewisham » Wed, Aug 24, 2011, 6:05 PM UTC

pchristensen wrote: post #27

ry0ohki wrote: post #6

I really love Portland, and I'm sure it's a great new home for BankSimple, but I am a little shocked that a company would move to a city where literally everyone in the company would have to be relocated. I've seen companies move to SF or NY before because of VC raised, but this is almost the opposite!

There are clues there: 1) they wanted everyone to be in once place 2) they're hiring a lot of people, especially customer service. Customer service in NYC or SF would be prohibitively expensive, so if they want to be all in one place, they would have to move anyway. This is no different than Zappos being in Las Vegas or Groupon being in Chicago (I think Zappos relocated). Personnel costs when you have 50 employees pe…

I wonder how well Vegas is doing for Zappos.

Portland, from all accounts, is beginning to look like a city-sized SOMA startup scene, and the city's personality certainly jives with the common stereotype of the hipster startup developer.

Vegas is certainly ideally situated for a place that wants a big warehouse, but I wonder how well Zappos are attracting tech talent. I can imagine Vegas might be a fun place to be, or it might be hell. I'd try it out for a year. It's certainly very different.