You misspelled Berlin.
Do the Most Hipster Thing Possible – Move to Des Moines
41–50 of 92 posts
Re: Do the Most Hipster Thing Possible – Move to Des Moines
#42I thought Detroit was the hip place to move to.
Detroit has basically no city services, so important things like police and emergency services fall by the wayside.
Re: Do the Most Hipster Thing Possible – Move to Des Moines
#43I'm from Des Moines (now in SF); it has really matured in the last twenty years. It's a great place to live: inexpensive, nice people, plenty of space, definitely worth overlooking the stereotypes. Weather? You got it: feet of snow in the winter, hot in the summer, perfect in the fall and spring.
Re: Do the Most Hipster Thing Possible – Move to Des Moines
#44The Social Club is now lodged in an old firehouse built in 1937, and has a theater, classrooms, bars, art gallery, and adjoining restaurant [...] Mannheimer created something that would have taken the rest his life and $300 million to complete if he'd stayed in New York. It took him seven years and $12 million. Ok, I haven't seen Mannheimer's place, but something that matches this description just opened up across th…
A newly established startup that just needs an Internet connection maybe could be created anywhere - but a company, which at some point may want to bring in more seasoned talent as it grows, is probably better off near the coastal areas, with a few exceptions.
That view is still too limited in my opinion. There are massive companies coast to coast in the USA, and they seem to have no problem finding talent (to the extent that of course they do - who doesn't? - but it's survivable). Dallas for example has a large concentration of Fortune 500 companies, which is about as "grown" as you can get.
Re: Do the Most Hipster Thing Possible – Move to Des Moines
#45Having moved from Des Moines to San Francisco, I can say with confidence that Iowa has its upsides. A flourishing community of startup founders, hilariously low rents (my perfectly nice studio ran for Lack of diversity is a serious problem; most people in Des Moines were born there. From a startup perspective, there's also not much of an investor ecosystem, and some companies struggle to find local funding. It's a sm…
> most people in Des Moines were born there The opening bit of this book talks about that: http://www.billbryson.co.uk/index.php/the-lost-continent/#ex... (click on extract to read) "I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to. When you come from Des Moines you either accept the fact without question and settle down with a local girl named Bobbi and get a job at the Firestone factory and live there for ever and ever, or…
It's great that this has changed in the 25 years since he wrote this, and even longer since he lived it.
I live in Des Moines. I choose to. There are many people intent on improving Des Moines. It's easy to get in touch with the people that have the political and economic ability to drive that change. Zach is an example of this.
Re: Do the Most Hipster Thing Possible – Move to Des Moines
#46As a Brit, pretty much all I know of Des Moines is what I've learned from Bill Bryson, the first line of his book "Travels in Small-Town America" is "I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to."
Here's a couple views that aren't as stale as one written 25 years ago about a childhood that ended 42 years ago.
- http://davidbyrne.com/des-moines - http://altonbrown.com/ab-road-eats-des-moines/ -
Re: Do the Most Hipster Thing Possible – Move to Des Moines
#47The Social Club is now lodged in an old firehouse built in 1937, and has a theater, classrooms, bars, art gallery, and adjoining restaurant [...] Mannheimer created something that would have taken the rest his life and $300 million to complete if he'd stayed in New York. It took him seven years and $12 million. Ok, I haven't seen Mannheimer's place, but something that matches this description just opened up across th…
A newly established startup that just needs an Internet connection maybe could be created anywhere - but a company, which at some point may want to bring in more seasoned talent as it grows, is probably better off near the coastal areas, with a few exceptions.
"Bring in seasoned talent.." All seasoned talent needs is an Internet connection. A successful company doesn't require a ping pong table. Basecamp makes more money each year than most startups ever will and they're entirely remote. I love in the south of France and work just fine without having to go to company HQ in New York. The only folks working in the office are just the sales guys and even they could do their work just fine from home if they were so inclined. Location is only relevant if you need an address to impress a particularly unelightened investor. The myth that the talent is only in San Fran or NYC is getting played out. I have several devs that work for me that live in Portland, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Belgrade-- folks all over the place and they're "top tier" talent. In fact I would argue that it's harder to recruit talent in NYC and San Fran.. Real wages are comparatively lower than pretty much anywhere else in the country and you're competing against places like Google, Twitter, Apple. Why would a Dev come work for your (figuratively) rinky-dink startup for likely less money and likely worthless equity (statistically speaking) when they could walk down the street and work for any number of successful companies? However if I lived in a place like Grand Rapids, your startup might be an attractive choice.. And it would even save you money: you can pay the same salary but you'd pay less for their health insurance and you could save on the extra office space. You could also save on the silliness like a "beer fridge" or whatever else is the latest trend in an attempt to be a great place to work.
My criteria for a great place to work: competent product managers, an interesting product, a good salary, equity that isn't insulting, proper vacation time and other folks working with me that value high quality code. That's pretty much it. Your awesome office space is a waste of money and doesn't attract "good" developers -- a good dev is not going to sign up with you because of office space; those other elements must be there. Anyone that places a value of the office space over the value of those other things is an idiot. When I did work in an office in New York, I enjoyed my time the most with a company that had no windows, was in a cramped, shared space with barely enough room for a laptop, let alone a massive desk for my 27" monitor much more than the hip place with great coffee, a ping ping table and catered lunches because of the work we were doing and the people I had to work with.
Talent should be location irrelevant for an Internet company. Actually, unless you have a warehouse or must meet customers in person or sell retail (or build a physical product,) the entire concept of an "office" is about as relevant as a VCR.
Re: Do the Most Hipster Thing Possible – Move to Des Moines
#48I currently live in Cedar Rapids, which is largely referred to as the "corridor" area; the region joining the "separate" cities of Iowa City, Coralville, Cedar Rapids, Marion, Hiawatha which are all sort of converging into one larger metro area as population and grow increases. We are about a 2 hour drive from Des Moines and there is a lot of collaboration happening across the state outside of just Des Moines.
There is huge growth happening in the tech sector within Iowa, but also in other areas, education, medical, insurance, agri-business, being a few of the key areas.
I've seen mention on here already of RAGBRAI and the bike friendliness of Des Moines; this is more true in the Iowa City/Coralville areas, and equally true in the main Cedar Rapids districts.
Here are some things that are more interesting though; the midwest has some of the lowest in the nation, and Iowa sits at an average unemployment rate of 4.5%. In terms of diversity; it may not have been that diverse 20 years ago, but these days Iowa is ranked as the 3rd most progressive state, right behind Massachusetts and California.
We have huge incentives for technology, start-up accelerators, local tech conferences, low cost of living, local re-investment. Personally, I hate the "Silicon Prairie" term, because it means that people turn it into a us vs them sort of comparison. In terms of raw numbers, more successful start-ups are going to come out of California; or I would certainly hope so since the population of the state is in excess of 38M whereas as Iowa is just barely over 3M. However in terms of your chances of success; these days I think the odds are probably in your favor in Iowa.
I'm just some dude, and I've had beers, dinner, or just visited with CEOs of many of the tech businesses (long established & start-ups) and the thing is these are great people. They still relate to their humble beginnings and they want to give back and grow business right here. They are so approachable, and I think this is in large part due to the fact that the lines aren't as long because we are still small.
Right now I seriously have to give a shout-out to Eric Engelmann, founder of the Iowa Startup Accelerator and the CEO of Geonetric. He is an all around great guy, who has done so much for this area and continues to do so, and there are too many more around here to name.
Is it Hipster? Some yes, some no. Is it a great place to be right now? Unequivocally; Yes. But you don't have to join us; we'll continue to do just fine on our own. If you do though; you just might fall in love.
To end with; here's some links to a few things that are happening in Iowa
http://www.iowastartupaccelerator.com/
http://uipartners.uiowa.edu/deviowa
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6uYhe4TzHsCNjNWVlhDMXAwVFE... (Mapping Venture Capital In Iowa)
http://www.welchavenue.com/ (Iowa only start-up news)
http://siliconprairienews.com/ (Midwest start-up news)
Re: Do the Most Hipster Thing Possible – Move to Des Moines
#49The Social Club is now lodged in an old firehouse built in 1937, and has a theater, classrooms, bars, art gallery, and adjoining restaurant [...] Mannheimer created something that would have taken the rest his life and $300 million to complete if he'd stayed in New York. It took him seven years and $12 million. Ok, I haven't seen Mannheimer's place, but something that matches this description just opened up across th…
Clearly you haven't seen the Des Moines Social Club, or you're massively underestimating the cost of real estate in New York City. The DMSC is 37,000 square feet of finished gallery, restaurant, and theater space. Conservatively estimating a lease at $15 net-net for unfinished warehouse space in Bushwick you're looking at 6 million dollars a year to rent, plus the cost of renovations. The Des Moines Social Club owns their building.
I'm not saying there aren't advantages to living on the coasts - I'm a Des Moines native who moved to New York. But please stop talking out of your ass about something you're so clearly uninformed on.
Re: Do the Most Hipster Thing Possible – Move to Des Moines
#50If you're interested in alt-startup US cities, here's my list of places I would be interested in if I were a founder or early employee: 1. Boulder 2. Austin 3. Omaha 4. Des Moines 5. Reno (the real sleeper, but just look at the low, low business tax rate and proximity to SF). The above list isn't meant to be chiseled into stone—it's just a thought experiment on my part and I'm interested in what others think the pros…
I would add Madison and Minneapolis to this list.