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Tech Jobs, Cheaper Housing: The New Silicon Cities

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Re: Tech Jobs, Cheaper Housing: The New Silicon Cities

#42
post #19
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My fiancee is currently going through the same process. She's going to, but not taking seriously, the interviews she has in Manhattan. OTOH, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and a few other cities look promising. Some of the programs in Manhattan and Brooklyn are paying ~55000. She's in (we're in) >400000 in debt from the med school loans. There's no chance we can go there. (Maybe if they paid ~100000.)

Stay away from Atlanta if you value quality of living. Look to places like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Columbus, etc.... big healthcare areas without being the biggest sprawl on the planet or having insane cost of living.

It probably depends where you live. The key is to be either walking distance from work or a train station. I only drive about 2-3 times a month.

Prices have risen in the last few years, but anywhere from Midtown to Buckhead to the East Atlanta neighborhoods are great.

Re: Tech Jobs, Cheaper Housing: The New Silicon Cities

#43
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in Richmond too. It is a great city. Very affordable, youngish, a fun mid sized city. We probably have more microbreweries per capita than anywhere else in the US. But I do feel like we are flyover country as far as tech is concerned. Compared to northern VA we might as well not exist. However I do think it is a good place for startups if only because there is an outsized amount of talented engineers stuck in cor…

You can't hire the people working for megacorps if your company is in Virginia because they are more likely than not bound by noncompete clauses. Only California throws them out as a matter of public policy, which is one of the main reasons why Silicon Valley is where it's at.

Is GE competing with Twitter though? How broad do non-competes get?

Re: Tech Jobs, Cheaper Housing: The New Silicon Cities

#44
There are many reasons YC requires you to be in Mountain View during the program. When you finish YC, every partner will tell you to stay in the Bay Area.

As CEO of a post-seed company, I had to start building relationships with Series-A investors. They are all here, so I could meet them in person without much travel, or they could come visit our office. That matters.

When our investors hold events, they are here. I meet other founders/executives who have started/run large tech companies, in person. I can ask them about what they are thinking about, walk through problems we're going through, and build a human-to-human relationship, off the record. That last part is important when, as a founder, talking candidly about the shit going wrong isn't usually what you get to do. Most won't do it over email, unless they know you well already.

When we recruit people, many of the best are already here, working on similar problems. There is a Catch 22 in building another Silicon Valley: to hire talented people you need successful companies; to build successful companies, you need talented people.

I'm not saying it can't be done, but the hard parts of building a tech company are easier here. They aren't easy, but easier. When you're a small team with 300 things that have to get done, having the most important ones made easier is a nice thing to have. For every minute another startup spends convincing an investor or potential hire that they can be the first massively successful company founded in Richmond, we can think about something else.

Do I wish it were the case? No. But I only have so many battles that I can fight at once, and our number one priority is building software to run cities. If being here helps us do that, we'll adapt.

Re: Tech Jobs, Cheaper Housing: The New Silicon Cities

#46
post #44

There are many reasons YC requires you to be in Mountain View during the program. When you finish YC, every partner will tell you to stay in the Bay Area. As CEO of a post-seed company, I had to start building relationships with Series-A investors. They are all here, so I could meet them in person without much travel, or they could come visit our office. That matters. When our investors hold events, they are here. I…

Right, I was just about to reply with a similar response to another post. I went to Virginia Tech, lived in Northern VA for a while, and now I'm here in SF and it's like night and day. I did not believe that being here would be such a huge and significant difference, and yet it is. Influential and successful people in tech are so incredibly accessible here. After only a couple months I got to meet VCs, startup founders, CEOs of successful companies, other highly intelligent people in tech doing amazing things and so on. Most importantly, at least for me, there's a constant external motivation to push yourself, learn, collaborate, get involved, to do more, and I love it :D

Re: Tech Jobs, Cheaper Housing: The New Silicon Cities

#48
post #19
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My fiancee is currently going through the same process. She's going to, but not taking seriously, the interviews she has in Manhattan. OTOH, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and a few other cities look promising. Some of the programs in Manhattan and Brooklyn are paying ~55000. She's in (we're in) >400000 in debt from the med school loans. There's no chance we can go there. (Maybe if they paid ~100000.)

Stay away from Atlanta if you value quality of living. Look to places like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Columbus, etc.... big healthcare areas without being the biggest sprawl on the planet or having insane cost of living.

I moved from SF to Minneapolis ~5 years ago. If you can survive the cold winters here, the area truly offers a great quality of life and way more amenities than you might expect for a very reasonable cost of living.

Re: Tech Jobs, Cheaper Housing: The New Silicon Cities

#49
post #7

I've lived near Richmond my whole life, and moved to SF within the last 2 years. I have friends who live and work in Tech (in Richmond). Getting a new job can be hard. Your options for big companies that hire tech people in the area is GE, Altria (Phillip Morris if you're okay working for a tobacco co ), CapTech, UPS, VCU... But it isn't like Google, Apple, etc. Your options for smaller companies are bad. Some startu…

You still are living near to Richmond (the other Richmond, though).
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