Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

30 Austin tech CEOs headed to California in search of workers

statesman.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–59 of 59 posts

Re: 30 Austin tech CEOs headed to California in search of workers

#51

Post by rdouble »

joe-mccann wrote: post #40
rdouble wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which I take to mean no, but you pay less in rent or mortgage.

So if you make $140k in NYC, but only take home say $95k. Or you make $120k, but take home $95k. Then it's about the same. Now factor in cost of living. The $$ in your pocket is higher. If you more concerned with the nominal/gross dollar amount as opposed to net income, I feel you are looking at the wrong metric.

Thanks. I was just asking because I have a program I use to calculate the actual net pay. Most of the time when people propose these sorts of moves to me, they either did not do the math, or their math is factoring in other CoL adjustments I don't care about, or they are actually lying. It's almost never been a decision between $120K in the Midwest vs. $140K in NYC. More like $75K in the Midwest.

FWIW it looks like $120K in Austin is indeed almost exactly the same take-home as $140K in NYC. Austin you would make about 20 more dollars per week.

Re: 30 Austin tech CEOs headed to California in search of workers

#52

Post by clavalle »

pagekalisedown wrote: post #3

How do they plan on convincing the average liberal democrat Californian to move to a conservative stronghold like Texas?

Austin is just about as liberal as it gets. There is a reason that local politicians will try to move the seat of government back to Houston or Dallas every so often ;)

Texas, though still a 'stronghold' for the Right at the moment, is getting whittled down. For example: in the Fort Worth area, one of the reddest in a red state, 12 years ago was voting 96% Republican. 4 years later it was 88%. These days it is around 65%. Strongly red to be sure but the trend is unmistakable.

Also, a lot of 'Rockstar, Ninja SuperHumans' in SF are eventually going to want to raise a family. I love SF (aside from the slight claustrophobic feeling it gives me) but it is terribly hard to raise kids there. Aside from the tiny living spaces and lack of places to play, child care is astronomical. Austin is a great place for raising a family.

Everybody's mentioned the cost of living.

Some differences with the Austin 'scene' as opposed to CA. Ideas are greeted with a bit more skepticism...the second or third question that will always be asked is 'Sounds great! How is it going to make money?' That can be a bit of a wet blanket but it could also serve to keep you focused. Not to say that there is a lack of enthusiasm. There is plenty of that, but it is a bit more sober. Also, entrepreneurs seem to be a slightly older set of people. Not much but it is noticeable. One problem is that traditional banks around here (Austin) seem to be next to clueless or just extremely cautious when it comes to technology (if someone has a favorite tech savvy bank(er) in the Central Texas area, please let me know).

Anyway, I have convinced people to move from SF kicking and screaming. They have had a lot of the same reactions of people here ("I never want to be a Texan!", "Where will I get good beer?", "Is there any good food there?", "The jobs are not as exciting." etc, etc.) and they have ended up being very happy here.

Austin is awesome! Just my 2 cents.

Re: 30 Austin tech CEOs headed to California in search of workers

#53

Post by hga »

What about non-competes? If you take the offer of one of these companies, if their employee contract is of the standard type outside of California, you'd better save away enough money to move back to where they are non-enforceable as a matter of long standing public policy.

Re: 30 Austin tech CEOs headed to California in search of workers

#54

Post by BenSS »

rdl wrote: post #46
BenSS wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly what I was going to say! Calif is a terrible place to go and scout out talent, unless they're also trying to raise visibility in the same shot. I'd suggest they go to the east coast instead.

SFBA is a better place if you're willing to offer above market (or find someone who wants to leave the Bay Area), specifically to hire a couple of experienced people who can be the core of a company, or who have specific technical expertise. Basically this is the same pool as startup founders. My startup is in SFBA. I'd love to be in Seattle or Austin instead (I like guns; taxes are secondary consideration; and I'd l…

This explains what they're looking for, but not why it's location dependent. Sfba is a startup hub, but that dosnt mean that talent doesn't exist elsewhere! What's the successful metric? Part of a startup? Founder? Product principal?

Admittedly, I may be slightly biased here because I wonder why much of the east coast tends to get marginalized when talking about startup activity. (I'm in Philly)

Re: 30 Austin tech CEOs headed to California in search of workers

#55

Post by georgieporgie »

jbail wrote: post #26
georgieporgie wrote: post #24

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…

I think you're right...except for the part about Python and RoR. I think those are here to stay, though I doubt many people know why to would pick one over the other, perhaps other than the buzzword value.

Oh, I'm definitely not knocking RoR or Python. But they certainly seem to be in significantly less use than PHP and ASP.Net (using Indeed's jobtrends as my ubiquitous measure of reality, RoR + Python jobs count approximate PHP or ASP.Net jobs count).

Since I assume that the total number of jobs in a given field are proportional to the number of open listings, and since I assume that the number of skilled developers is tied to the historical job number, I am led to imagine that there is a much bigger pool of skilled ASP.Net and PHP candidates out there.

Basically, it sounds like these guys are just manufacturing their own dearth of job applicants. They're using hot, newer technology and flying to the most high-demand location to seek talent. If they made their products in ASP.Net or PHP and hired from other areas of the country, I'll bet they would have no trouble getting their product done quickly. But that's less buzz-wordy and they couldn't live their rockstar-wannabe fantasies.

(Note that I'm not making any claim as to the superiority of any language, or potential speed of development)

Re: 30 Austin tech CEOs headed to California in search of workers

#56

Post by rdl »

BenSS wrote: post #54
rdl wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SFBA is a better place if you're willing to offer above market (or find someone who wants to leave the Bay Area), specifically to hire a couple of experienced people who can be the core of a company, or who have specific technical expertise. Basically this is the same pool as startup founders. My startup is in SFBA. I'd love to be in Seattle or Austin instead (I like guns; taxes are secondary consideration; and I'd l…

This explains what they're looking for, but not why it's location dependent. Sfba is a startup hub, but that dosnt mean that talent doesn't exist elsewhere! What's the successful metric? Part of a startup? Founder? Product principal? Admittedly, I may be slightly biased here because I wonder why much of the east coast tends to get marginalized when talking about startup activity. (I'm in Philly)

Looking for: * deeply knowledgeable and passionate about computer security * adequate developer (ideally in Python, C/C++, but specific languages don't matter) -- would take better developer and less experienced (but still interested in) security; ideally everyone is great at both the security/audit/ops side and the dev side, but a team with everyone having a different mix is most realistic * compatible long-term goals which are explicit; if someone wants to use this to become a great startup founder in 1-2y, i'd be fine with that and then introducing to investors, or someone who wants a 10y+ job, but being explicit about desires seems essential, in exchange for the company being honest about status, long-term potential, etc. * cultural fit: able to get along with the team, and also compatible with "how startups work" -- easier if someone's been part of a successful product launch at a startup in a similar role

There are way more of those people in the bay area (although, many more jobs, too) than in Philly (I am from suburban philadelphia myself). Recruiting from enterprises might be ok for employees 20+, but not as good on the cultural fit issues for #1-10.

NYC is basically out (they are a net importer); Boston is a major source; philadelphia, atlanta, north carolina, etc. might be minor sources, and DC is probably a net importer.

I'd relo candidates from places like that (we can't really do remote yet), but wouldn't personally want to set up an office anywhere but SFBA, Seattle, Austin, a few non-US places, or unfortunately DC-Metro (I hate DC Metro myself, but in the long run, it's necessary; not sure if MD, VA, DC makes the most sense).

Re: 30 Austin tech CEOs headed to California in search of workers

#57

Post by BenSS »

rdl wrote: post #56
BenSS wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This explains what they're looking for, but not why it's location dependent. Sfba is a startup hub, but that dosnt mean that talent doesn't exist elsewhere! What's the successful metric? Part of a startup? Founder? Product principal? Admittedly, I may be slightly biased here because I wonder why much of the east coast tends to get marginalized when talking about startup activity. (I'm in Philly)

Looking for: * deeply knowledgeable and passionate about computer security * adequate developer (ideally in Python, C/C++, but specific languages don't matter) -- would take better developer and less experienced (but still interested in) security; ideally everyone is great at both the security/audit/ops side and the dev side, but a team with everyone having a different mix is most realistic * compatible long-term goa…

Appreciate the insight! Makes the organizations like Dreamit Ventures and the university business incubators even more important in my eyes. We've got the developer talent, but more lacking in the xp of 'how startups work'.

Re: 30 Austin tech CEOs headed to California in search of workers

#58

Post by rdl »

BenSS wrote: post #57
rdl wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking for: * deeply knowledgeable and passionate about computer security * adequate developer (ideally in Python, C/C++, but specific languages don't matter) -- would take better developer and less experienced (but still interested in) security; ideally everyone is great at both the security/audit/ops side and the dev side, but a team with everyone having a different mix is most realistic * compatible long-term goa…

Appreciate the insight! Makes the organizations like Dreamit Ventures and the university business incubators even more important in my eyes. We've got the developer talent, but more lacking in the xp of 'how startups work'.

I think internships/coop are more important; if you were e.g. a Waterloo student who spent 2y of 5y working for Facebook, Amazon, Google, or small great startups, you'd be in a good position to start a startup (or work for an early stage one) locally.

Re: 30 Austin tech CEOs headed to California in search of workers

#59

Post by pavel_lishin »

a5seo wrote: post #28
bdr wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind naming the startups?

HomeAway, indeed, Retailmenot, vast, Gowalla, myedu, uship, regretsy/passiveaggresivenotes, wpengine, otherinbox, Dell.

Regretsy is a startup? I thought it was just a blog that linked to stupid Etsy art.
Post reply on HN