21–30 of 59 posts
I've founded a couple of startups in Austin. The thing to know about Austin is that, at least right now, there are only about 6 consumer Internet startups of note who can afford real talent. Unless you move here for a specific position, or are a developer, finding a decent job will be tricky. If you like enterprise software, though, you'll be happier than a pig in mud.
First, Austin is NOTHING like Texas. It is a beacon of progressive hope in an otherwise bass-ackwards state. I moved to Austin from New York City by way of Portland, Oregon so believe me, when I say that there is no way I would live in TEXAS; Austin is anything but that. Also, other reasons Austin may be attractive to potential candidates: 1.) No state income tax. This is huge. If you make $140k a year in SF, you tak…
Do you get paid the same as in NYC? I get recruited by companies in the midwest who tout that the cost of living is half of NYC. But, they also pay half as much as NYC, no relo package available. Whenever I do the math I still come out ahead in NYC. The other downside I have found is that there are usually only one or two interesting companies and the rest is enterprise software.
I moved from SF to Austin last year and have found this to be true.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I moved from reasonably liberal parts of Illinois/Wisconsin to Dallas/Fort Worth about three years ago... I wouldn't recommend this. When I decided to move from DFW to start a company I looked at Portland, Boston, San Francisco, and Austin. Austin made sense, financially. Texas has no state income tax (unfortunately the social services reflect this), jobs, and the cost of living is a fraction of what it is in other c…
As someone who went SF->Austin (and is originally from DFW) I'm curious why in the hell you'd pick DFW after you looked at Portland and Austin?
They moved down after I went away for school. After being away from them for about 6 years during/after school, I went down the summer before my brother got married and ended up staying for a bit after meeting a girl.
This was well before I considered Austin or the others. I didn't intend to settle in Texas when I first got here.
I read this and thought, "hm, although the markets for RoR and Python are not massive, they have been growing at a good clip, perhaps that's a good area to focus on." (I'm from a background of C++ and PHP, and I'm thoroughly burnt out on them)
Then I realized that these guys are idiots. They're follow-the-crowd types who are ignoring masses of untapped talent elsewhere in the nation and flying around to recruit in the same "rockstar" seeking circle jerk as everyone else. It's no wonder they're short on talent, they probably don't have the slightest clue what it looks like.
So now I wonder, "hm, maybe those are actually just buzzword technologies and they won't hold up in the long run..."
The group is targeting engineers with experience in Java, Ruby on Rails and Python programming I read this and thought, "hm, although the markets for RoR and Python are not massive, they have been growing at a good clip, perhaps that's a good area to focus on." (I'm from a background of C++ and PHP, and I'm thoroughly burnt out on them) Then I realized that these guys are idiots. They're follow-the-crowd types who ar…
First, Austin is NOTHING like Texas. It is a beacon of progressive hope in an otherwise bass-ackwards state. I moved to Austin from New York City by way of Portland, Oregon so believe me, when I say that there is no way I would live in TEXAS; Austin is anything but that. Also, other reasons Austin may be attractive to potential candidates: 1.) No state income tax. This is huge. If you make $140k a year in SF, you tak…
Do you get paid the same as in NYC? I get recruited by companies in the midwest who tout that the cost of living is half of NYC. But, they also pay half as much as NYC, no relo package available. Whenever I do the math I still come out ahead in NYC. The other downside I have found is that there are usually only one or two interesting companies and the rest is enterprise software.
I've founded a couple of startups in Austin. The thing to know about Austin is that, at least right now, there are only about 6 consumer Internet startups of note who can afford real talent. Unless you move here for a specific position, or are a developer, finding a decent job will be tricky. If you like enterprise software, though, you'll be happier than a pig in mud.
Would you mind naming the startups?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you get paid the same as in NYC? I get recruited by companies in the midwest who tout that the cost of living is half of NYC. But, they also pay half as much as NYC, no relo package available. Whenever I do the math I still come out ahead in NYC. The other downside I have found is that there are usually only one or two interesting companies and the rest is enterprise software.
My net income was significantly higher after leaving NYC. Let's put it that way =)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
money and affordable housing - the usual - oh and no travel for SXSW.
Most of the people I respect in Austin leave the city during SXSW. It's really the worst time to be here. But if you live in a good location you can rent your place for $$$. :)
About $600 for a nice one bedroom. Right by Epoch, Dragon's Lair, Great Hall Games, Austin Books and Comics, etc...