"I Have a Startup" - Midwest vs Bay Area
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"I Have a Startup" - Midwest vs Bay Area
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Re: "I Have a Startup" - Midwest vs Bay Area
#2I'm from rural Vermont and more recently Boston. I'm moving to the Bay Area next week. I'm really curious to see how pronounced this effect is.
Re: "I Have a Startup" - Midwest vs Bay Area
#3I'm from rural Vermont and more recently Boston. I'm moving to the Bay Area next week. I'm really curious to see how pronounced this effect is.
I started a company in Chicago and moved to the Bay Area. the differences are almost exactly what was described in the article. I jumped from a fairly large and prestigious company to start the company and people automatically were incredulous that I would quit. There is no area like the Bay Area for starting company in terms of emotional well being and having fellow entrepreneurs in the same boat.
Re: "I Have a Startup" - Midwest vs Bay Area
#4I'm in the Bay Area, but really I find the "I have a startup" only has the desired affect on similarly afflicted individuals.
If I say the same thing to my relatives, no matter where they live, I get the same blank stares.
I personally think it's not "where" but "who".
Re: "I Have a Startup" - Midwest vs Bay Area
#5I'm in the Bay Area, but really I find the "I have a startup" only has the desired affect on similarly afflicted individuals. If I say the same thing to my relatives, no matter where they live, I get the same blank stares. I personally think it's not "where" but "who".
I've noticed this too, but all my relatives are from the Midwest!
Re: "I Have a Startup" - Midwest vs Bay Area
#6Isn't this exactly what PG said in his Cities and Ambition - http://www.paulgraham.com/cities.html - essay?
How much does it matter what message a city sends? Empirically, the answer seems to be: a lot. You might think that if you had enough strength of mind to do great things, you'd be able to transcend your environment. Where you live should make at most a couple percent difference. But if you look at the historical evidence, it seems to matter more than that. Most people who did great things were clumped together in a few places where that sort of thing was done at the time.
Re: "I Have a Startup" - Midwest vs Bay Area
#7I'm from rural Vermont and more recently Boston. I'm moving to the Bay Area next week. I'm really curious to see how pronounced this effect is.
I'm from Chicago as well and I also find it hard for even my friends to understand why I would bother doing a startup. The people who do understand or relate are fellow tech startups of which there are quite a few actually.
Re: "I Have a Startup" - Midwest vs Bay Area
#8Not always true. I'm in Bay Area, but when I left a big co to join a start-up, I got the question of "why would you quit a big company to join a small place?" and got blank stares as an explanation.
By default joining start-ups, founding businesses just isn't what educated intelligentsia do. If pg is right, that will change.
Re: "I Have a Startup" - Midwest vs Bay Area
#9Having a higher level of respect and more assurance will make a huge difference in your general happiness and future success.
I'm not too sure about that. If other people's opinions will strongly influence your mood and business outlook, entrepreneurship might not be for you.
For myself, visualizing how those politely nodding and smiling "that's nice" people would one day be green with envy was a delightful motivator.
These days, the condescension is gone and smiles are a bit tighter.
Re: "I Have a Startup" - Midwest vs Bay Area
#10Having a higher level of respect and more assurance will make a huge difference in your general happiness and future success. I'm not too sure about that. If other people's opinions will strongly influence your mood and business outlook, entrepreneurship might not be for you. For myself, visualizing how those politely nodding and smiling "that's nice" people would one day be green with envy was a delightful motivator…
I disagree. Morale is huge deal within a startup. Startups are emotional rollercoasters, and if your environment is always negatively affecting your morale, the lows will eventually drag down your productivity. That doesn't mean you aren't fit for entrepreneurship - if so, why are the majority of successful web startups clustered in the Bay Area?