Why you should start a company in.... Seattle | Hacker News Reader

Why you should start a company in.... Seattle

fastcompany.com

27 pointsanderzole13 comments

...[among investors] I think more and more people in the Bay Area are going, "Wow! It's super competitive down here..." So I'm seeing more Valley firms actually coming up here because they're seeing really good companies forming.

Read that, "Seattle looks more capital starved and has lots of good startups looking for funding which would have already been funded in the Valley". Heaven for investors, sure. I really wish it weren't true, but the Valley is better for entrepreneurs.

As Jeff Bezos likes to say: Frugality breeds innovation.

The availability of money changes how you go about doing business, but not your chances of success. In my experience Seattle entrepreneurs are much more focussed on building a serious business, while Valley entrepreneurs are focussed on building the most awesome toys in the world (we'll make money eventually, right?). Consequently, valley companies have fanboys, while Seattle companies have fancorps. Both can make a lot of money. On the short run I would put my money in San Francisco since the boys can be very excited. On the long run I would put my money in Seattle since the corps won't lose interest over time.

He forgot to mention that all the rain means you'll stay indoors and do more work.

Heh, not during the summer. Seattle is BEAUTIFUL in the summer, far nicer than anywhere else I've spent a summer - a list which includes New York (where, as a great man once said, "if you are keen to breathe [during the summer] the best plan is to open a window and stick your head in a building."), Haifa, DC, and Massachusetts.

Even more specifically, Softies seem to spend an awful lot of the summer going on hikes and picnics.

Yes, the weather is terrible, stay away. (that's the story we like to tell people in order to keep it from growing too much).

Seattle gets less rain than NY.

True. According to the USGS, New York gets 45.4" of precipitation yearly, while Seattle gets 37.2".

That said, I'd like to find out how to compare the number of days with rain in both places. Seattle gets drizzle. The year I moved here we had 86 days of continuous drizzle and no sun sightings. New York most likely gets its precipitation in the occasional downpour -- not to mention snow -- and probably has more overall sunny days during the winter. (Just a guess, though.)

http://countrystudies.us/united-states/weather/new-york/new-...

http://countrystudies.us/united-states/weather/washington/se...

We don't do the drizzle sh*t in New York; we go big. When it rains, it pours. It also doesn't stop us from going outside. We don't care - we've got things to do, places to be.

In Seattle last summer it rained only a few times between May and October, going for stretches of 6 weeks or more with zero precipitation -- dead grass everywhere.

Way more overcast though. The winters were just too hard for me to bear. I moved to LA and am not looking back.

Yeah, but the other three seasons are longer and absolutely beaaauuuutttiifuull.

Here goes... Seattle is a fantastic town, water everywhere, gorgeous vistas and when the weather cooperates (August) there's no better place (I've found) in the entie-ree world.

That said, I just moved my teensy company from Seattle to Austin (after nearly, gulp, three decades in the SEA). Ms. Rich's article reads like the 'impressions' of one who's never, umm, started a company in Seattle.

5 reasons I left (and won't be headed back):

- traffic is abysmal. Not NYC/LA abysmal, but for a town of its size, truly awful.

- weather is grey/overcast and misty (most years) for 10 months.

- it's hard to attract/keep talent with families -- home prices near good schools, within short commute of downtown (or eastside) core are high. Wages are somewhat high, but get eaten up fast if you buy a home.

- business taxes, fees. State/county government is bloated and seems very willing to sacrifice job creation for revenue (read: more taxes on the way).

- did I mention the weather? Went back for thanksgiving - culture shock. Weather was overcast and I was struck by how dark it is. Light at 9am-ish and starts to get dark at 3:30.

There's a reason Seattle runs on caffeine.

(edit: thought I had this bulleted list thing down - alas, no)

Those are terrible reasons. I have a better one:

The state employment security department is having a hell of a time keeping up with the unemployment rate. There's a disproportionately high number of people who need work.

I should know. I'm one such programmer.

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