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Comment by siculars | Hacker News Reader

That may be part of the reason Portland is not keeping up with other tech centers. Taking a 40% pay cut just to work in Portland is kinda... dumb.

I mean, did these startups accept a 40% cut in their valuation or funding rounds because they are based in Portland? Do they pay 40% less to host with Amazon or Rackspace? It's just ridiculous and kind of insulting. I once had someone pull that on me re. a job in Florida. The dude was like "hey, there is no income tax here!" And I was like "hey, bmws cost the same all over the country." (Not that I drive a bmw, mind you. I drive a 129$/mo honda civic. It's just the principle of it all.)

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I'm pretty sure Portland based companies take more than a 40% cut in valuation and funding rounds, vs. SF based companies. (not saying this is a good thing, just that it is observed)

There is a weird valley (which Portland is still kind of close to the "uphill" side of, which SF/NYC probably are the top of) where sufficiently remote or small places are cheaper for a lot of things (real estate, mass market locally produced goods like restaurants and cafes, probably generic developers or IT helpdesk people), but then more expensive for certain specialized skills (if you absolutely must have one of the world's top 100 experts in COBOL working for your remote office in North Dakota for 2 months, you're going to have to pay him more than to have him work from SF).

Car costs actually vary quite a bit depending on what part of the country you purchase in.

Also, with no sales tax in Oregon, a BMW is significantly cheaper in Portland in total cost.

Cost of living in Portland is indeed way lower than the valley, and thus the salaries that your competition (as a developer looking for a job) will take is less than in the valley. This is why salaries are sometimes offered for less here in Portland than other West coast cities.

It is unfair to blame Portland (as a city) or the companies (who exist to make profit and thus get the best talent for the least amount reasonable). Instead, blame your talent competition who has your same skill set but will accept $10k less than you.

Or, better yet, make yourself worth that extra $10k by proving you are worth it.

I have only anecdotal evidence of this but it sounds like valuations in Portland or Seattle are more like 70% off as compared to Bay Area deals.

I'm astounded more VC money doesn't get deployed elsewhere.

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