Early on in my undergrad life in Pittsburgh (circa 2001-2005) I remember seeing this Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1985/12/20 . It took a while to really understand the rather negative perception people had of Pittsburgh, but that comic strip helped. After undergrad I moved to NYC and sort of regretted that a little bit. I realized the same things PG mentions: low cost of living and constant influx of young people from the 20+ universities in the area creates the right ecosystem for a startup culture.
How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub
331–340 of 367 posts
Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub
#332Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even if you do need to raise money, why is it a necessity to run your company out of the same city that your investors are in? I've never had to personally raise money for a startup, but I see a lot of the face-to-face meetings starting off as warm email/phone intros. Even if you have to constantly travel to NY/CA/* to meet prospective investors isn't it still a better value to run a business somewhere with a low cos…
You don't. But investors tend to invest a big chunk of their money locally (they don't like to travel for board meetings...)
I can see that. Imagine you're someone like Sequoia with "1,156 Investments in 664 Companies" according to crunchbase. It would do your head in flying all over the country to see them all.
Maybe the answer is to come to where the money is for raising and then set an office back home.
Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub
#333Regarding the “startup” thread. When i first came to Pittsburgh, 2003, there was very little jobs in IT. When I came back in 2010 and every year since, its been noticeably better. The cost of living, and housing is significantly lower than UK. I worked in Belfast for a London based company. Lots of London based companies outsourced IT jobs to regional cities, because they could pay lower wages, as the employees didn’t have the expense of living in London. I always thought Pittsburgh could follow Belfast. In Dublin, they attract the American companies because of the low corporation tax. It also helps that they are a english speaking country in the eurozone. I think if US fixed the broken immigration (it takes a year for work authorization, compare to 2-3 weeks in UK), and Pittsburgh had some international flights, that would help investment in the city. I love Pittsburgh, and amazed at the speed of the changes since i first came here. Keep er lit!
Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub
#334Earlier quoted context omitted.
> people in the US still perceived Pittsburgh as a bad place They still do. I'm originally from the area and when I mention this everyone thinks I come from either a Deliverance-like backwoods or a bombed-out Detroit-style factory town. No one takes me seriously when I call it The Paris of Appalachia.
Oh my, never considered Pittsburgh as part of "Appalachia" - I thought that was West Virginia! I guess the US looks at Pittsburgh like Pittsburgh looks at WV...
Appalachia is actually a huge region that comprises probably 1/3 of the eastern seaboard, stretching from New York to Alabama: http://www.arc.gov/assets/maps/Subregions_2009_Map.gif
Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub
#335As a native Clevelander, I love the idea of the a rust-belt city becoming the next big startup hub. Unfortunately, I can't help but disagree with several points in this article: Low cost of living: Sure, it's low compared to SF, but it is increasing at an alarming rate. Just look at how quickly housing prices have been rising the past few years. Maybe this isn't something to worry about - maybe it's just a sign that…
Those are Hills dude, not mountains :) I am from the Pittsburgh area and the geography is tough for a cycling culture, but mostly because of extremely steep terrain. See Canton Ave. Pittsburgh has a fantastic cultural scene. Performing arts, visual arts, it's all great and cheap. I think the Elephant in the room is the weather. The partly cloudy weather pattern is tough for me. I prefer for more consistent sun (which…
The Andy Warhol Museum is fantastic. I go every time I happen to be in Pittsburg. Besides Wahrols and history of Andy Warhol they usually have a pretty good visiting exhibit.
Sadly, I don't travel to Pittsburg as much as I did post collage (used to go every year or so).
Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub
#336Hmmm. Does he even reference the fact that the SF Bay Area was the recipient of massive amounts of government and government contractor money? And what about the free-wheeling, non-traditional culture (embodied in the Homebrew Computing Club)? These two factors created Silicon Valley. Federal money subsidized the semiconductor boom, which brought a lot of technical expertise to the area. Then the open-minded culture…
To be fair, Pittsburgh gets a lot of external government money through DARPA grants to General Dynamics and CMU. I had a friend (working on DARPA contracts at General Dynamics) who told me "wearable computing is going to be huge". This was in 2007. 2007 , before the iPhone even came out. In general, the military seems to know about things 10 years before Silicon Valley gets ahold of them, who knows about them 5-10 ye…
> the military seems to know about things 10 years before Silicon Valley gets ahold of them
I think it's more accurate to say that the military (and academia) are working on technology X for at least a decade before it's mature enough to commercialize.
Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub
#337> What does that have to do with startups? Because startups are made of people, and the average age of the people in a typical startup is right in that 25 to 29 bracket. So Paul Graham is now helping to perpetuate the current Silicon Valley ageism. How useful is that data point? That bracket could be the current average of SV's founders, due to forces in action at that region. Another region could have an entirely di…
There are good reasons for startup employees to be young. Front loading risk when you don't have dependents (a spouse and kids, or parents of advanced age) to worry about is a big one. Also when you're young the pay differential between working at a startup and Google is smaller. If you're experienced enough to make Staff Engineer or something the economics of a startup look a lot worse.
> Also when you're young the pay differential between working at a startup and Google is smaller. If you're experienced enough to make Staff Engineer or something the economics of a startup look a lot worse.
Here's the thing, though. IMO successful entrepreneurs (startup or otherwise) have to want to be working for themselves. Money as a concern is of the form "Do I have enough money to make this work?" rather than "Can I make more money at MicroAmaGoogBook?". Personally, as someone who ultimately wants my own company and doesn't really want to sell portions of it to get there, I see the high-paying BigCo jobs as stepping stones to get to where I ultimately want to be. I don't see them as drawing me doen an alternate path.
Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub
#338Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think Birmingham fits well in that list. We have a very low cost of living and our downtown is undergoing a huge revival these past few years. Great access to nature too.
Any tech scene, though?
We have 'Code for Birmingham' non-profit organization that works to build software for the city, a strong computer science department at the local major University (UAB), and a few tech incubators. We're lacking in the 'meetup.com' department of the tech scene, but the point is we're primed for an influx of entrepreneurs and startups.
Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub
#339Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any tech scene, though?
We have 'Code for Birmingham' non-profit organization that works to build software for the city, a strong computer science department at the local major University (UAB), and a few tech incubators. We're lacking in the 'meetup.com' department of the tech scene, but the point is we're primed for an influx of entrepreneurs and startups.
How is the computer science program at University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa? Does it have a growing emphasis? Historically C.S. hasn't been big at SEC schools but I've no idea if that's still the case.
(I grew up an hour west of Knoxville. And have family in B'ham/Tuscaloosa.)
Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub
#340Earlier quoted context omitted.
> people in the US still perceived Pittsburgh as a bad place They still do. I'm originally from the area and when I mention this everyone thinks I come from either a Deliverance-like backwoods or a bombed-out Detroit-style factory town. No one takes me seriously when I call it The Paris of Appalachia.
"I'm originally from the area and when I mention this everyone thinks I come from either a Deliverance-like backwoods or a bombed-out Detroit-style factory town." This has been my perception of the city until recently. I grew up in Florida, and my perception of the city had been formed mostly/entirely by the Pittsburgh Steelers. The team (and city by association) has a very hard-nosed, blue collar kind of vibe... sim…
> This has been my perception of the city until recently. I grew up in Florida, and my perception of the city had been formed mostly/entirely by the Pittsburgh Steelers. The team (and city by association) has a very hard-nosed, blue collar kind of vibe... similar to how I would think of the Baltimore Ravens.
It is sacrilege to compare or equate the Steelers with the Ravens. You'd be thrown out of this town so fast.