How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub • Hacker News Board

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#61

Post by cylinder » Tue, Apr 12, 2016, 9:57 PM UTC

seibelj wrote: post #16

Somewhat unrelated, but a lot of people complain about Boston being too expensive, like SF or NYC, but honestly you can live downtown inexpensively if you live in Chinatown, or within subway distance if you live in Jamaica Plain, Dorchester, or Roxbury, which become cheaper (and less safe) in that order. You don't need to live in Cambridge / Somerville / Back Bay / Seaport. If you are seriously considering moving to…

My brother a student is paying $1600 for a bedroom in Chinatown. It's a high-rise but not luxurious.

I don't get the appeal of Boston as a transplant at all. Not compelling unless you are there for a very cool job or education.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#62

Post by benbreen » Tue, Apr 12, 2016, 9:57 PM UTC

ProAm wrote: post #46

ausjke wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While not a perfect fit, Austin seems like a good enough match for this.

Too crowded and pricey currently. It was but I think it's losing luster because of those reasons.

Moving from Austin (where I went to grad school) to NYC was eye opening on that score. The average rents had skyrocketed in Austin since I first moved there in 2008, but when I was living there I didn't fully realize how cheap it remains relative to NYC or SF. My friend is currently living in a 2 bedroom apartment in a nice part of town that costs around $900 per month (granted, not the greatest complex, but it has a pool and is 2 blocks from the new metrorail line). The city has changed a lot but the core things I liked about it are still there (natural springs to swim in, good camping and walking trails, Tex-Mex and BBQ, relatively friendly and interesting populace, active music scene). I'm surprised by how much I miss the quality of life in Austin relative to NYC.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#63

Post by swalsh » Tue, Apr 12, 2016, 9:58 PM UTC

I think VR has so much potential to make people in remote places work together in close productive ways, that I wouldn't be surprised if the next silicon valley isn't even a real place.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#64

Post by beachstartup » Tue, Apr 12, 2016, 10:02 PM UTC

cfallin wrote: post #55

Pittsburgh has a lot going for it, and it's been really cool seeing the growth since I moved to Pgh in 2009. I think the one thing it might have against it is a growing anti-gentrification/tech movement. It's nothing like throw-rocks-at-busses San Francisco, but you do see things like this graffiti: http://imgur.com/5T0iJQ6 And it's not just the fringe with these views, but (in my experience) reasonable people who ar…

> I took for granted having parking and laundry and post-1950s wiring when I was on the west coast

having lived in both sf and la, you really can't expect many rental places to have all 3 of these things (or even 2, really), except the newest developments. most buildings in both cities are cheap-ish mass housing built in the 40s-70s. the new stuff gets a lot of attention but is a tiny fraction of the city.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#65

Post by shas3 » Tue, Apr 12, 2016, 10:02 PM UTC

Strange comment about Pittsburgh's diversity and strangeness! In my experience, outside Oakland, Shadyside, Squirrel Hill, perhaps Monroeville, and some working class neighborhoods, Pittsburgh is a fairly conservative South-US-ish city.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#66

Post by hyperion2010 » Tue, Apr 12, 2016, 10:03 PM UTC

This sounds very similar to the actual process that Durham has gone through over the past 15+ years, and the first visible signs were in the restaurant business too (concerted efforts by the city and local businesses were less visible, but preceded the visible signs). Pittsburgh seems like it has an incredibly similar social and historical setting, so hopefully they can pull it off as well.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#67

Post by hirsin » Tue, Apr 12, 2016, 10:03 PM UTC

minimaxir wrote: post #49

ghaff wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Not as long as the weather remains the way it is, anyways. Really? I like a lot about the California climate (and terrain) but this seems a level of geographical determinism that wasn't true until pretty recently. And arguably, even today, is influenced mostly by a fairly specific class of mobile/social/web companies. For example, there's a huge amount of pharma/genomics and other forms of tech in the Boston area (a…

I was referring to Pittsburgh's coin-flip weather. Edited OP for clarity. Yes, it really is that bad .

Pittsburgher who moved to Seattle here - would agree. As bad as Seattle weather is, Pittsburgh hits both extremes (ice and heat) and isn't predictable.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#68

Post by AndrewKemendo » Tue, Apr 12, 2016, 10:04 PM UTC

How to make any place a startup hub: Have connected investors/money that is willing to take risks (drives job growth) and founders who have exited to encourage and promote new startups (creates the ecosystem).

There are almost no cities in the US outside of SF that meet those two criteria. Even NYC which has VC money (nowhere near that of SF) doesn't have more than two major exits (Etsy, Tumblr).

All those other things are nice to haves. Job opportunity and money are everything.

Pittsburgh has none of those. Nowhere on the East coast does, and I can verify it as we are HQ in D.C.

Also Pitt is cold.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#69

Post by raldi » Tue, Apr 12, 2016, 10:06 PM UTC

tacos wrote: post #5

It's as if he's never spoken to a Carnegie Mellon grad as to why they get the hell out of Pittsburgh after graduation...

I haven't either. What would I learn if I did?

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#70

Post by nether » Tue, Apr 12, 2016, 10:07 PM UTC

spelunker wrote: post #50

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #12

Im convinced that the next valley will happen in the place that can attract the most unmarried people ages 18 through 30. What do these people care about? - night life - high density urban living - progressive local governments and freedom (drug and marriage decriminalization). - good public transportation - access to high speed internet - good universities As they grow older and get married, affordable and high spee…

Denver/Boulder fits most of that bill and already has a startup culture, sorta. Kansas City is nice too, and Google fiber being available is a huge plus. Obviously I'm biased since I've lived in both places.

Every urban area fits the bill. Once you have a dense enough city, night life and progressive politics are automatically included. Good transit, universities, high speed internet are all common enough.

I personally think there will be a decline in interest in traditional night life due to some neo-Luddism taking hold. We'll see more appreciation among young people for "long-form," delayed gratification pleasures like hiking and nature. So my bet is that CO will really start to take off in the next 30 years.