Why I'm Moving My Business From San Francisco To St. Louis

Post by Crake » Sat, Jan 25, 2014, 4:38 AM UTC

pkinsky wrote: post #41

timr wrote: post #18

The current San Francisco influx is unsustainable. If you're somewhere else in the world and thinking about coming here to do a startup, I wish I could convince you to change your mind. San Francisco is incredibly expensive. Rents have shot up by ~50% since 2008, office space is following the same trend, and competition for (even mediocre) programmers is intense. Worse, a lot of the cultural diversity that made San F…

>Which brings us to a very important point for all the young programmer dudes: when you all crowd into the same tiny city and bid up the rents into the stratosphere, your available dating pool shrinks to a puddle (yet another consequence of the skewed gender balance in tech. sigh.) All the pour-over coffee in the world doesn't make you happy when you can't get a date, and those artisan cocktails are far less cute whe…

Post by otoburb » Sat, Jan 25, 2014, 4:46 AM UTC

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #98

lostcolony wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why you offer relocation. If a startup has a cool mission, a cool tech stack, -and- operates in an area with a low cost of living, low congestion, and plenty of culture, art, and restaurant variety/quality, it can compete quite nicely with yet another Silicon Valley company when it comes to attracting talent.

Relocation for a startup? If your startup employer fails, you are stuck in a city far away from your support network. If you chanced a startup in the city you lived in, at least you could recover quickly, get a new job, whatever. Relocation can work well for more established companies (and even then, two body problems often kill that), but it doesn't make sense at all for a semi-risky startup.

Post by HorizonXP » Sat, Jan 25, 2014, 5:02 AM UTC

eliteraspberrie wrote: post #70

jack-r-abbit wrote: post #6

Right now it is noon in St. Louis and 19 degrees. Right now it is 10:00 in SF and 53 degrees. I think weather plays a large part in why people like to live in the Bay Area. Many refer to the high cost of living here as the "sun tax." As I sit in my office wearing shorts and a t-shirt, I can't even fathom living in St. Louis.

In the Toronto area this week, temperatures are about -20 degrees Celsius (-4 F) with 40-60 km/h (25-40 mph) wind. ;)

Post by mitchty » Sat, Jan 25, 2014, 5:03 AM UTC

protomyth wrote: post #95

eliteraspberrie wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the Toronto area this week, temperatures are about -20 degrees Celsius (-4 F) with 40-60 km/h (25-40 mph) wind. ;)

Cold winters always gave me time to do more coding so I could enjoy the summer more, but I'm in North Dakota these days so I might have a odd view of cold.

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jan 25, 2014, 5:08 AM UTC

lostcolony wrote: post #89

sabbatic13 wrote: post #34

The problem with these places is what happens, when you need to hire people to build your company. The tech world is full of impressionistic statements like 'they have a startup scene,' but when you start getting numbers on available talent, you'll see you're putting yourself in a bad position. To take an example where I have better data, people have commented on the vibrant and growing startup scene in Santiago, Chi…

That's why you offer relocation. If a startup has a cool mission, a cool tech stack, -and- operates in an area with a low cost of living, low congestion, and plenty of culture, art, and restaurant variety/quality, it can compete quite nicely with yet another Silicon Valley company when it comes to attracting talent.