Hacker News Reader

Comment by tyre | Hacker News Reader

It’s the network effects you mentioned. The reason to be here is because people are here.

While that doesn’t seem like something that _has_ to be in California, it is already here and that’s not something you can just move.

As for why other cities have a hard time competing, it’s the same thing. If CA is perceived as “where innovation happens” then people will look for jobs here. They won’t even look at e.g. Kansas City or Charlotte or wherever, even if there are open roles there.

It doesn’t have to be this way and probably won’t be in ten or twenty years. Especially after this wave of IPOs, SF will likely be unlivable for most. If companies can continue to raise enough money to pay equivalently higher salaries, then the boom can continue a while longer. Otherwise, the numbers don’t make sense.

View on HN

Mostly weather and culture, imho. California is much more liberal and foreigner welcoming than other parts of the us. And a large part of the well educated tech force is graduating international students.

Regarding weather .. very hard to find same easy weather elsewhere in the USA. Seattle comes close .. and that’s why it’s also impacted, just to a lesser extent.

Austin is just as good 9 months out of the year, I hear.

Albuquerque NM, is every bit as good (i'm told) as the bay area, with 8 times cheaper housing. there are many more examples you can find in the US that have nearly as good weather.

It is not just 'good weather', the actual climate is way better due to proximity to the pacific ocean.

Well, you heard wrong. Both places are much hotter in the summer than the bay area.

Albuquerque has awesome weather,* no significant earthquakes, gorgeous scenery (tons of movies are shot around here), fantastic cultural diversity, a decent university, great food, plenty of housing and land to build on, and low taxes and CoL.

*Albuquerque is a mile high, so its climate is much more like Denver than like Phoenix.

What's not so great are a somewhat dysfunctional and corrupt state government, second-class health care and public schools, and a high-tech community that revolves almost entirely around defense work that requires a security clearance. Many of these would be remedied if Albuquerque somehow got a significant influx of startups.

I find Austin uncomfortable in summer because of its humidity. Albuquerque is about the same temperature as Austin but because it's dry it's not uncomfortable.

Austin is not that humid. Compared to say Chicago or NYC.

Or Houston. But it's much wetter than Albuquerque.

I don't agree. From what I've seen:

* most people will move somewhere because of a job, not because of the weather

* most people don't want even want to move to another city in the first place.

This.

It's not a choice. 99% MUST move somewhere or STAY somewhere because of a job. Without a job, most people can't live.

You can still take advantage of the network effect and not be located in California. Reno,NV to SF via southwest is under $100 one way and the actual flight is around 90 mins or less.

It’s the network effects you mentioned. The reason to be here is because people are here.

When a scene gets hot, there's always the danger of grouthink. There is far too much groupthink here. Much of it now is even the toxic kind. "Fear is the mind-killer." However, fear is only the start, only the beachhead. Groupthink is the main body, and it's the mechanism whereby the mind-killing starts to result in real world consequences.

When a scene gets hot, and there's real money and power to be had, it also attracts the sociopaths.

https://meaningness.com/geeks-mops-sociopaths

It's all about the exits.

You could never get an exit if you were based in Chicago or St. Louis or Montana, etc.

Based in Colorado. Just wondering if you could expand on this.

Seems like what you are saying is no startups in Montana ever get exits - personally I think that's because startups seeking an exit end of moving to The Bay Area because of all the factors being mentioned here.

Who cares about exits? Let's build sustainable businesses that operate profitably without insane VC money.

I know you’re asking earnestly, but the sad truth is the vast majority of startup founders care about the exit. Usually they also fail, unless it isn’t their main motivation, but the answer to your question is: most people who start companies.

Yeah in many cases it is "get something cool first and then leave it for somebody else to come up with a business model". Given the fleeting nature of success it makes sense to sell the first one and get enough to retire or be able to afford to lose.

Between this, and the great-grandparent comment, this is a perspective-changing thread.

You might have a hard time getting funding in Chicago. I don't see what Chicago would have to do with your getting an exit. Duo just sold to Cisco for $2.3B, and they're in Ann Arbor.

Speaking as a Montanian, it’s been done before.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RightNow_Technologies

Reply on news.ycombinator.com