Don't relocate, bootstrap :)
Location matters for your startup (with city comparisons)
11–20 of 51 posts
Re: Location matters for your startup (with city comparisons)
#12Unfortunately it's almost impossible to move to these hot cities from many countries. Visa is really a problem. So we need to work hard to get our own local startup hub. I'm from Armenia.
FYI, UK introduced a "startup visa" this April.
Re: Location matters for your startup (with city comparisons)
#13Unfortunately it's almost impossible to move to these hot cities from many countries. Visa is really a problem. So we need to work hard to get our own local startup hub. I'm from Armenia.
Agreed. Not just in other countries, but many rural areas of the US. There are some incredibly talented people out there that may not be able to move for one reason or another. How do we bring these startup hub advantages to everyone?
Re: Location matters for your startup (with city comparisons)
#14Don't relocate, bootstrap :)
I completely agree. Your customers will be your best source of funding.
Re: Location matters for your startup (with city comparisons)
#15Why density? Does density really matter? Isn't the absolute number more interesting because whatever be the chance of meeting an important (to your success) person, you have a bigger pool to pick from. Case of city A: Say, there are 50,000 residents of which 500 are of interest. There's an event hosted and 25% of those "interesting" people show up. You, who's attending this event, have a pool of 125 people out of whi…
I think the truth is that the absolute number, along with density are both important. That's why Boulder - apparently 70% more entrepreneurial than Silicon Valley - cannot really claim to be better than SV, which has an entrepreneurial population 15 times larger.
Also New York. I think I've read people talking about New York having over taken Boston and it being a potential threat to the Valley. But density-wise, I don't think it is fairing (I hope I've used the correct spelling of the word) that well.
Re: Location matters for your startup (with city comparisons)
#16If you calculate backwards from these figures to the absolute size of the community, you find that NYC's startup scene is actually twice as large as San Francisco's. As someone from the NYC area, that doesn't seem plausible.
Re: Location matters for your startup (with city comparisons)
#17Re: Location matters for your startup (with city comparisons)
#18If you calculate backwards from these figures to the absolute size of the community, you find that NYC's startup scene is actually twice as large as San Francisco's. As someone from the NYC area, that doesn't seem plausible.
You're right, it's the other way around.
Re: Location matters for your startup (with city comparisons)
#19Unfortunately it's almost impossible to move to these hot cities from many countries. Visa is really a problem. So we need to work hard to get our own local startup hub. I'm from Armenia.
Agreed. Not just in other countries, but many rural areas of the US. There are some incredibly talented people out there that may not be able to move for one reason or another. How do we bring these startup hub advantages to everyone?
Re: Location matters for your startup (with city comparisons)
#20A more important factor compared with density is, in my view, whether startups are the main game in town. This determines what kind of talent you can attract. In London you are competing with cash flow oriented industries that will set expectations for the compensation mix, so you are in practice left with somewhat marginal people and not the best. This crowding out effect, compounded by the relatively small exits pr…
I think salaries for non-contract software engineers outside of finance in London aren't terribly impressive; and not everybody wants to work in finance (or in particular, work with the kind of people who work in finance). Salaries are even worse in the Reading / Thames valley region.