Bringing Silicon Valley to the Midwest
blog.expensify.com
Bringing Silicon Valley to the Midwest
1–10 of 84 posts
Re: Bringing Silicon Valley to the Midwest
#2As a Midwesterner, I am slightly put off by the use of the term "outsourcing" in the title. Considering the term wasn't used in the article I feel it carries negative connotation. Maybe I am reading too deeply into this...
Re: Bringing Silicon Valley to the Midwest
#3I'm really impressed by Expensify's approach to solving problems and working with people.
Re: Bringing Silicon Valley to the Midwest
#4As a Midwesterner, I am slightly put off by the use of the term "outsourcing" in the title. Considering the term wasn't used in the article I feel it carries negative connotation. Maybe I am reading too deeply into this...
If it had not been enclosed in quotation marks, maybe. But the presence of those signals that they don't mean strict outsourcing, but are using it with a touch of irony.
Re: Bringing Silicon Valley to the Midwest
#5This is sort of my dream. When, while on vacation, I saw that the state had run fiber up to the local state park (a gorgeous, national park sized state park), I asked whether private interests were also attached.
I have since heard that there were plans to upgrade backbone service to the local town 13 miles away. Supposedly, an insurance company was going to host a call center there -- although that part of the story and the party involved sounded suspicious.
If you all want to explore whether this location might be one you want to add to your list, shoot me an email. (Regardless of whether it does anything for me, personally. I'd like to see the town do well.)
Re: Bringing Silicon Valley to the Midwest
#6I wish more companies had this mentality, it's amazing how much talent pool they are leaving out there by not allowing remote work for some positions. Especially for those of us that live in the Midwest but cannot leave for any number of reasons.
Re: Bringing Silicon Valley to the Midwest
#7This is potentially a great way to go and solve the "engineering shortage" in the U.S. There are tons of qualified engineers in places all over the U.S., but S.V. never bothers to look for them. The great side benefit is that the cost of living in most of the U.S. is much lower than on the coasts meaning you can almost get 2 people in nowhere Alabama or Nashville, Someplace for the price of 1 San Franciscan or 1 New Yorker.
They'll speak English, share a common-ish culture, and have gone through the American educational system so interfacing with them isn't nearly as hard as real offshored employees or contracted firms. They'll also be within continental U.S. time-zones. You want to solve work visa problems? This is how you do it.
I've met a few entrepreneurs who were self-funding and thus really cared about their burn rate while building their product who opted for teams of devs in overlooked places in the U.S.
If you want a starting point, checkout towns near DOE National Labs. They're usually out in the middle of nowheresville (because of nukes) and are full of incredibly educated, qualified people, who may have moved there for lab work and ended up not like the stifling academic environment of National Labs. There resumes may not be a string of startups, but they're used to working on bleeding edge stuff and the cost of living in these areas is generally pretty low.
Re: Bringing Silicon Valley to the Midwest
#8As a Midwesterner, I am slightly put off by the use of the term "outsourcing" in the title. Considering the term wasn't used in the article I feel it carries negative connotation. Maybe I am reading too deeply into this...
I have to admit, as a fly-over stater (Colorado) I found the tone be pretty condescending. There's an air of "we're moving the stuff people in the valley are to smart to do" to it. I'm not sure if it's intended, but it seems like they think the midwest is only good for the entry level. That really amazing developers don't exist outside of the valley.
If that's true, I for one hope they don't change their position. We're building one hell of an engineering team and much of it is from the midwest. If other folks figure this out, I'd have to actually compete for the best developers!
Re: Bringing Silicon Valley to the Midwest
#9As a Midwesterner, I am slightly put off by the use of the term "outsourcing" in the title. Considering the term wasn't used in the article I feel it carries negative connotation. Maybe I am reading too deeply into this...
It's being used in a tounge-in-cheek manner here.
Re: Bringing Silicon Valley to the Midwest
#10I wish more companies had this mentality, it's amazing how much talent pool they are leaving out there by not allowing remote work for some positions. Especially for those of us that live in the Midwest but cannot leave for any number of reasons.
Honestly, the "right" way for companies to do it is to simple lease an office near a concentration of a few workers. Even if it's just 4 or 5 employees, a nice office with internet and a kitchen isn't very expensive. That way it's not "remote" work, it's just another corporate office location.
Checking online in Kansas City, MO. 13,000 SF of office space runs < $10k/mo. That's a bargain. Spot checking other places (Colorado Springs, Nashville) doesn't run too much different.