Starting a Company Outside Silicon Valley Just Saved Me $1.1M • Hacker News Board

Re: Starting a Company Outside Silicon Valley Just Saved Me $1.1M

#91

Post by scottlocklin » Wed, Jan 23, 2019, 11:13 PM UTC

jlarocco wrote: post #81

lotsofpulp wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The multitude of world changing organizations, especially by market cap, that have come out of SV is some evidence. Not that that means “best of the best”, but if I were to bet on where something transformative will come from, SV would still be on my short list. It’s all about playing the odds, not necessarily being absolute about statements like best of the best.

There aren't many "world changing" organizations coming out of SV lately, and I'm not sure that claim holds in any case: http://fortune.com/fortune500/visualizations/ Even narrowing down to "tech" companies, there are enough outliers that I don't buy it. Change it to "SV has the best developers searching for VC funding," and I believe it, but I'd still question the cause and effect of the situation...

Hard agree. IMO the best tech talent in the US is in finance, telecom and oil, none of which are Valley based. Most of what comes out of the Valley these days is mountebanks with software written by overambitious undereducated kids.

Older companies like Google, Oracle and so on still contain pockets of tech excellence, but you can't buy those guys with your startup idea.

Re: Starting a Company Outside Silicon Valley Just Saved Me $1.1M

#92

Post by filoleg » Wed, Jan 23, 2019, 11:21 PM UTC

driverdan wrote: post #73

true_tuna wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A community of experienced technologists. Veterans of successful ventures can skip many mistakes due to experience.

Those exist everywhere. The Bay Area doesn't have a monopoly on experienced software developers.

It doesn't have a monopoly on experienced software devs, but it has a monopoly on the highest density of job opportunities in the industry, as well as the number of software devs. Which, in turn, brings more devs and creates even more opportunities. It's like a positive feedback loop that is extremely difficult to escape.

Re: Starting a Company Outside Silicon Valley Just Saved Me $1.1M

#93

Post by JohnFen » Thu, Jan 24, 2019, 12:46 AM UTC

jawnv6 wrote: post #89

JohnFen wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that only matters if you're chasing VC money. That's the norm in silicon valley, but (depending on your goals) it's not necessary in order to start a profitable business. I've started and sold a handful of successful tech companies, but have never taken a dollar of VC money.

Right, the article is chasing VC money. They have a calculator to see how far a VC dollar will take you called "VC Arbitrage". The author takes flights to SF specifically for VC meetings. You're talking about a situation wholly removed from the article, why?

Because I was engaging in a broader discussion. I'm sorry for offending you.

Re: Starting a Company Outside Silicon Valley Just Saved Me $1.1M

#94

Post by angersock » Thu, Jan 24, 2019, 1:15 AM UTC

true_tuna wrote: post #46

JohnFen wrote: post #8

Personally, I wouldn't start a company in silicon valley. On the whole, it looks to me like the downside of doing that far outweighs the upside.

Where would you go? Asking as a Silicon Valley person looking for a place that’s a step less Silicon Valley, but not quite middle America.

> not quite middle America.

What's wrong with middle America?

Re: Starting a Company Outside Silicon Valley Just Saved Me $1.1M

#95

Post by erikpukinskis » Thu, Jan 24, 2019, 1:58 AM UTC

maxk42 wrote: post #15

JohnFen wrote: post #8

Personally, I wouldn't start a company in silicon valley. On the whole, it looks to me like the downside of doing that far outweighs the upside.

Elitists from silicon valley will downvote this simply because they don't like having their life choices called into question but you're right: The costs (cost to lease space, cost of labor, business costs, commute, quality of life you can afford for your dollar, crime rate, etc.) far outweigh the benefits (access to talent and VC). If you can bootstrap it yourself or find VC outside of SV, it's typically better to d…

People might also downvote it because they didn’t say anything at all.

Re: Starting a Company Outside Silicon Valley Just Saved Me $1.1M

#96

Post by anoncoward111 » Thu, Jan 24, 2019, 4:50 AM UTC

zrobotics wrote: post #39

stcredzero wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

convinced themselves that stuff only happens in the valley and if they hadn't seen it they wouldn't have believed it was possible outside (and some did not, oh the excuses).... Isn't this bigotry? I remember watching all of these shows on PBS as a kid, where one of the major themes was how people would judge other people by class or other surface signals, and how this could obscure the truth or leave good people unap…

Oh, it certainly is bigotry, and it isn't even isolated to the bay area. When I moved to Wyoming, there were a lot of people in Colorado that thought I was literally dropping off the face of the planet, and that I would be unemployable the rest of my life. Sure, the density of tech jobs here is ludicrously low, and I can't job hop like I could in the bay area, but quality of life is important as well, and I don't lik…

How does one reasonably have a need for 40 acres of property? I could see a few acres as being the max needed for reasonable privacy. Are you doing something commercial with the acreage?

I think I did a calculation a few years ago that there is only an acre or two of land on Earth for every single person. When you factor in the acreage that is currently liveable and is actually purchasable, you get a number close to 1/16th acre I imagine.

Re: Starting a Company Outside Silicon Valley Just Saved Me $1.1M

#97

Post by Kalium » Thu, Jan 24, 2019, 6:28 AM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #65

true_tuna wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where did you move? I’d guess 50% of the people in this thread are open to leaving the Bay Area if we find a location with comparable opportunity.

The thing is that "comparable opportunities" equates to (perceived) Bay Area salaries which are more or less equated to higher-end FAANG salaries and the (perceived) ability for a random engineer to drop a few emails and be starting in a new well-compensated position the following Monday. You're not going to get those most places. I'm not sure it's the norm in the Bay Area either though.

> The thing is that "comparable opportunities" equates to (perceived) Bay Area salaries which are more or less equated to higher-end FAANG salaries

In my experience, people mostly look to preserve their financial position rather than take a jump up. Just because rent's cheaper somewhere else doesn't mean I want to take a proportionate pay cut. I've watched people turn jobs down flat when offered 50% of their pay in NYC because rent is half of NYC's.

Salary history matters a lot of negotiating power in the future. Salary matters for building up a financial cushion in case this job elsewhere doesn't work out and now I'm somewhere that has a lot fewer options on offer.

Re: Starting a Company Outside Silicon Valley Just Saved Me $1.1M

#98

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jan 24, 2019, 6:30 AM UTC

bluGill wrote: post #36

jawnv6 wrote: post #13

50% of VC funding lands in CA. 50% of that is on Sand Hill. So ~25% of all VC funding happens in offices in Palo Alto, the sheer efficiency of chasing a funding round can't be beat. For an established serial entrepreneur with a proven track record, it can absolutely make sense to stay in an area you know. But I think that math really changes if you're going to be cold calling VC's, trying to wrangle meetings from 3 t…

You only need the VC who funds you though. Chasing after one elsewhere might be better odds because everyone else is looking to CA.

[deleted]

Re: Starting a Company Outside Silicon Valley Just Saved Me $1.1M

#99

Post by toast0 » Thu, Jan 24, 2019, 6:51 AM UTC

anoncoward111 wrote: post #96

zrobotics wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, it certainly is bigotry, and it isn't even isolated to the bay area. When I moved to Wyoming, there were a lot of people in Colorado that thought I was literally dropping off the face of the planet, and that I would be unemployable the rest of my life. Sure, the density of tech jobs here is ludicrously low, and I can't job hop like I could in the bay area, but quality of life is important as well, and I don't lik…

How does one reasonably have a need for 40 acres of property? I could see a few acres as being the max needed for reasonable privacy. Are you doing something commercial with the acreage? I think I did a calculation a few years ago that there is only an acre or two of land on Earth for every single person. When you factor in the acreage that is currently liveable and is actually purchasable, you get a number close to…

I've got a house on about 8 acres. I can still hear my neighbors ocassionally (power tools and vacuum cleaners mostly), and their headlights shine into my house when they're coming down their driveway. If I had 5x the area, I'd have a lot more buffer. Bigger would be a lot more grounds work though, so I doubt I'd move somewhere bigger.

I don't think universalism necessarily applies to lot sizes. Different people are willing/able to take different trade-offs. In exchange for a large lot, in a tranquil environment, I get few job opportunities without a long commute, poor telecoms coverage, a 30-45 minute drive to big box stores, limited diversity, people complaing about all the new residents moving from where I moved, etc. I don't think most people would make these choices, which is fine -- if more people chose to live here, maybe I'd want to live somewhere else.

Re: Starting a Company Outside Silicon Valley Just Saved Me $1.1M

#100

Post by bluejellybean » Thu, Jan 24, 2019, 6:56 AM UTC

anoncoward111 wrote: post #96

zrobotics wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, it certainly is bigotry, and it isn't even isolated to the bay area. When I moved to Wyoming, there were a lot of people in Colorado that thought I was literally dropping off the face of the planet, and that I would be unemployable the rest of my life. Sure, the density of tech jobs here is ludicrously low, and I can't job hop like I could in the bay area, but quality of life is important as well, and I don't lik…

How does one reasonably have a need for 40 acres of property? I could see a few acres as being the max needed for reasonable privacy. Are you doing something commercial with the acreage? I think I did a calculation a few years ago that there is only an acre or two of land on Earth for every single person. When you factor in the acreage that is currently liveable and is actually purchasable, you get a number close to…

I have a friend who was in tech for many years and purchased a 25 acre property. Half of it is a small homestead with animals and crops, the other half is to be used as a protected woodlands. It's not tight but I could reasonably see wanting something more like 40 or 50 acres.

Having that amount of land allows one to have a ton of different hobbies and activities available that are really not possible in an urban environment. Want to go shoot guns or fireworks? No problem. Want a huge dirt trail with jumps for an ATV or dirt bike? Go ahead! Having that amount of land can also be great if you have a large family with many children as it acts as a safe-place for outdoor play. Although I didn't grow up on that much land, I grew up in a remote area with a ton of forests and being able to freely play tag or go hiking in the woods with my friends were some of greatest times in my entire life. Bow living in the city for work, I dream of the day that I can retire onto a property with a large acreage, I get the rationality.