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Comment by Bostwick | Hacker News Reader

I think this article shows how removed a lot of journalists and media are from the technology scene.

They completely ignore the growing startup scene in New York - Silicon Alley, Digital Dumbo[1] - and latch on instead to a story about a huge, already established company that's buying a building they already have 2000+ employees in.

Tech meccas are born from hundreds of small technology companies constantly pushing the limits of a platform, not from the presence of a single, large employer.

[1] http://www.digitaldumbo.com/about/

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"Tech meccas are born from hundreds of small technology companies constantly pushing the limits of a platform, not from the presence of a single, large employer."

I would think having a few large tech companies in an area would aid in the creation of smaller ones.

I think you have it backwards.

How is that backward? People from large companies do quit to create start-ups, and it usually happen in the same city/circles.

Agreed. more than that, though, what you need is a series of very successful exits to create entrepreneurs/early funders with the cash to fund the next generation. We're getting there, in NYC, but the numbers are still tiny compared to the west coast.

There are many places where there are large tech companies but few startups. That's because the people who quit to do startups go to the Bay Area, which has a lot more to offer little companies.

For instance, there are a lot of ex-Amazon employees doing startups in SF now. There's a reason they left Seattle, and it's not entirely due to the crappy weather.

The large tech companies are a big part of the Bay Area startup ecosystem, though. Both as training grounds for future entrepreneurs, and as potential acquirers with lots of cash, and as research shops that create the fundamental technologies that entrepreneurs exploit.

Necessary but not sufficient conditions. A bunch of big companies by themselves do not make a viable startup ecosystem. A startup ecosystem without the big companies won't get off the ground, though.

So true. The interview was typical of mass media. They interviewed a real estate guy about the technology industry and the startup scene. They got the kind of insightful commentary on entrepreneurship that you would expect ;-p.

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