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Why entrepreneurs are leaving the Bay Area for their next startup

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Re: Why entrepreneurs are leaving the Bay Area for their next startup

#111
post #51
post #40

California better stop punishing entrepreneurs with it's heavy tax stick before experiencing disaster in it's tax revenues. Exodus seems to be accelerating.

This viewpoint doesn't appear to jive with the one being portrayed currently[1], that the exodus is only among the poor/middle-class and that the immigration of the rich and high-earners is actually accelerating. 1: https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-skelton-income-t...

What do you think is going to happen when significant portions of the poor and middle class leave?

Fewer people to pay for California's absurd public sector pensions and expensive government services -> higher taxes on the people remaining.

Re: Why entrepreneurs are leaving the Bay Area for their next startup

#112

The only reason I am still in SV is because I am stuck on H1B. I think having a better immigration system is a Red president's best bet to finally spite the largest Blue state. You need to bring in talented engineers from world over and let them flood boise, Reno, Austin, Sarasota and Denver. See the Silicon Valley crumble.

H1B is not location specific. You are free to work from anywhere in the US you find employment

Re: Why entrepreneurs are leaving the Bay Area for their next startup

#113
post #15

On a related topic, I’m wondering what careers are like for CS researchers in industry outside of Silicon Valley but still in the United States. My specialties are in systems software research (e.g., operating systems, distributed systems), machine learning, and databases. Most of the companies that I’m familiar with that do research in these areas are Silicon Valley-based, although there are some obvious options in…

Generally the more specific your "requirement" is the more specific you have to get. So if you are looking for something specific you want to (to borrow a YC quote) "do things that doesn't scale". Talk to former faculty, colleagues and other contacts. Manually look up companies who do research or have business in your field. Make diagrams, charts and spreadsheets if you have to. That is how you would find the things that no one would generally advice you to do since they wouldn't know about them because it would be specific to your situation. (I hope that made sense).

Re: Why entrepreneurs are leaving the Bay Area for their next startup

#114
post #40

California better stop punishing entrepreneurs with it's heavy tax stick before experiencing disaster in it's tax revenues. Exodus seems to be accelerating.

California is punishing so much, that actual tax revenue, VC funding, GDP, job, salaries are growing exponentially faster than other states.

https://www.pwc.com/us/en/industries/technology/moneytree/ex...

Re: Why entrepreneurs are leaving the Bay Area for their next startup

#115
post #30

This is the key part of this article (emphasis mine): > This kind of story is often framed as a tug of war between Silicon Valley and the rest of the country. But Silicon Valley isn't going any where, and for every startup or founder who leaves the Bay Area, someone else graduates from Stanford or wants to move here. This is about tech becoming a bigger part of the overall economy.

That does seem to be the crux of the article, but I find it very unsatisfying without data. It's extremely improbable that it is exactly 1 person leaving to 1 person graduating from Stanford or wanting to come. So what is the actual trend? This article doesn't know.

In the absence of housing construction & vacancies, it's probably pretty close to 1 person leaving to 1 person arriving. The limiting factor in the Bay Area is usually housing; if there were really a net outmigration, you'd see vacancies and a drop in rents. If there were a large net inmigration, you'd see new construction (which you do to some extent, but not a lot).

There's probably a mild net inflow that's accounted for by new construction, people doubling up in houses that used to be single-family, and homelessness. The continued rise in housing prices seems to indicate a large latent demand, i.e. many more people want to come or want to stay but are discouraged because they can't get housing at reasonable prices.

Re: Why entrepreneurs are leaving the Bay Area for their next startup

#116
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Political climate, for one thing. (recent anti-LGBT sentiment, anti-refugee/migrant sentiment, anti-EU sentiment and general right/nationalist movement uptick) Did you post this to start a flamewar, because you love campaigning against your own country, or just to spread misinformation? This comment should be flagged.

GP comment can be backed up with news reports and with quotes of MP/government members. What do you need more? > because you love campaigning against your own country Democracy works best when discussion is open.

So, you judge/don't go to a whole country because of what its politicians say?

The USA's president has been saying a lot of questionable things, but I don't see anyone fleeing SF..?

Re: Why entrepreneurs are leaving the Bay Area for their next startup

#117
post #14
post #2

I wonder why entrepreneurs don't come to Poland to build their product. Warsaw or Wroclaw in particular are vibrant, tech-oriented cities where life is about 1/4 of SF. If I had to bet my future on being able to building something with 1M, I would want to get 4 months instead of 1 for the money. Of course, SF might have better investing ecosystem, but once you got the money development should be done in a more approp…

They're probably leaving for home, or for other cities where they have connections. The idea of an entrepreneur taking off from the hottest startup climate in the world to another country, where they don't speak the language, may not have direct access to their target customers, etc... it's just not viable. I'd love to see a startup culture of note form in places like Warsaw, but it's unrealistic to expect cost of li…

More specifically you need to be unique to gather critical mass. It doesn't just help being cheap, you have to cheap and something else that puts you a head of a lot of other similar places that are also cheap. And it has to be different enough that it is worth the extra effort. It can't just be, say, relatively easy to for example find an apartment, it has to be significantly easier so that it is an actual advantage. There have been a bunch of Swedes moving to Berlin the last 10 years, with SoundCloud being the most prominent example.

Re: Why entrepreneurs are leaving the Bay Area for their next startup

#118
post #2

I wonder why entrepreneurs don't come to Poland to build their product. Warsaw or Wroclaw in particular are vibrant, tech-oriented cities where life is about 1/4 of SF. If I had to bet my future on being able to building something with 1M, I would want to get 4 months instead of 1 for the money. Of course, SF might have better investing ecosystem, but once you got the money development should be done in a more approp…

I know the reason I'd be scared to go is Poland's relatively high levels of politicized homophobia. There was this, as recently as checks notes earlier today.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-poland-lgbt/polands-rulin...

Re: Why entrepreneurs are leaving the Bay Area for their next startup

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only there were trailer parks or other cheaper housing options around here. Fuck NIMBY's.

If only there were trailer parks or other cheaper housing options around here. There's one in Milpitas.

There are several large ones in Sunnyvale and San Jose, too. But even mobile homes are expensive in Silicon Valley by the standards of most other places; at this point, $150K would be a steal, and prices approaching $300K aren't uncommon -- and monthly land rental fees in the park can easily be more than the mortgage. (For instance, a listing I just pulled up on Zillow is a reasonable-ish $155K for a 3br/2ba manufactured home in Sunnyvale, for an estimated mortgage of just over $600 a month...and a rental fee of another $1600 a month.)

Re: Why entrepreneurs are leaving the Bay Area for their next startup

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That does seem to be the crux of the article, but I find it very unsatisfying without data. It's extremely improbable that it is exactly 1 person leaving to 1 person graduating from Stanford or wanting to come. So what is the actual trend? This article doesn't know.

In the absence of housing construction & vacancies, it's probably pretty close to 1 person leaving to 1 person arriving. The limiting factor in the Bay Area is usually housing; if there were really a net outmigration, you'd see vacancies and a drop in rents. If there were a large net inmigration, you'd see new construction (which you do to some extent, but not a lot). There's probably a mild net inflow that's account…

I think the housing market indicates a net inflow of engineer types:

(1) There are actually still some low income people living in the Bay Area. For example even in Mt View (home of Google), there are some low income areas. Other cities have them too. The low income people are continuously being displaced by higher earning engineer types. This is reflected in rising rents.

(2) It varies by city, but there is some new construction. Last year, SF issued 6 building permits per 1000 residents, while San Jose issued a little under 3 [1]. Some other cities in the area, like Mt View, Sunnyvale, Fremont, are fairly pro-deveopment.

[1] https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-q6CqiDf9FL8/XINJI7vxJ0I/A...

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