Ask HN: What's the startup scene like in Austin? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What's the startup scene like in Austin?

15 pointsk00b19 comments

We're most likely moving to Austin this fall (from Davis, CA). Given my interest in startups, my fear is we'll move from one startup desert to another.

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I've been in Austin for a number of years.

Austin has the whole "supply chain" of startups - from accelerators to large & mid-size technology companies. The network is close-knit but easy to access and people are very friendly here. Combine all of the aforementioned with the cost of living (albeit, it's increasing) and you have a great city to live in.

Highly recommend.

If you end up coming out here, please let me know and I'll buy you a coffee and am happy to introduce you to others/local events.

There’s no email address in your profile

Thanks!

I’ll start with that I am not from Austin. Having said that...

I think you will be fine if you go in with the right expectations. It’s no Silicon Valley. so if you are expecting that kind of diversity and density startups you prolly will fall short of your expectations. Also, Having said that at the end of the day you need one company to work at a time. Also with COVID and wfh on the rise you might find a broader range of startups eventually but you shouldn’t move based on that. If you think In terms of skills development I think there are more than enough startups to cover your basis.

It's mostly skill development. I don't want at the end of my career to be a great big company programmer.

Austin is full of startups. It is no more a "startup desert" than Seattle or Boston.

The culture, size, and types of companies are different, as you'd expect when comparing completely different cities, but you certainly wouldn't feel like there's nothing going on. In fact, I think you'll be very pleasantly surprised coming from Davis.

It's definitely not like the Bay Area, but I'm not sure anywhere else (in the US) is yet.

I've lived in Austin for 6 years, my partner and I both work at startups.

IMO it's the maximum amount of "like the Bay Area" that you can get before it starts to become a negative. Unfortunately it shows no signs of slowing down in its movement toward that direction.

We'll be doing our best to not move the bad parts of California with us.

The main problem is the sudden influx of money, and all the people driven out (or homeless) by the increased cost of living. Dunno what can be done about that.

Texas has a homestead law meaning unlike almost anywhere else, you can even keep your house in bankruptcy. There wasn't a lot of previous rental capacity before either. The gentrification is in every way more humane than Seattle or Sf.

The property I bought was developed after someone died. Granted there was no inheritance because it had accrued 1.4m in backtax, but the previous resident got to live out their home despite poverty. That's the case with most new construction within the city.

The homeless travel here because it's more tolerable to be homeless here than many places.

Most of those being pushed out are not homeowners, and Texas in general is not nearly as friendly to homeless/drug addicts/other people down on their luck as California is. Austin is better in that regard than the rest of Texas, but still.

What neighborhood of previously existing rental property do you have in mind? Most of Austin's rental capacity was built in the last 15 years. I find Austin's increase in housing supply to be a much more humane alternative to SF's 'market' having lived both places for many years.

Then we’ll do our best to remain broke too ;)

Just buy a plane ticket and talk to random people in capitol factory which is host to a ton of startups. There's no replacement for visiting.

Might not get another visit in before we move this fall. It only occurred to me late in our city shopping that I should be also poking at the startup networks.

I think there's a decent number of startups here. Not sure about how much innovation you'll find though. Most of the ones I've seen are doing boring stuff like real-state or selling bs with their ML/AI products.

Also checkout https://www.builtinaustin.com

Awesome! I’ve been here for 8 years and love it. There are plenty of startups, a large public research university with tons of CS kids coming out, and lots of offices for typical tech companies.

Email or tweet me and I can point you in the right direction. I’m part of a Clojure meetup here that has some startup people that come often.

Awesome, I’m also lisping these days. Followed on Twitter. Thanks!

If you are looking to work in startups, not sure Austin is the right choice. Look at the top cities by VC dollar raised, and Austin has lagged quite a bit over the last 10 yrs. Of course, SF and SV are top 2, followed by NYC which is a distant second. Boston is 3rd, Seattle 4th, and LA area 5th. If you think about unicorns and decacorns over the last decade, I know there are 1 or 2 Austin startups, but it is a far cry from Bay Area or NYC, which has household name startups.

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