Comment by dcolkitt | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dcolkitt | Hacker News Reader

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As a Floridian, it's difficult for me to understand why we've done so bad at attracting any sort of tech industry. Five, ten years ago, you could simply say that it's Silicon Valley (or Seattle) or bust.

But since then, Austin, Denver, NC, Nova, Portland, Nashville and others have all done a really good job of actually competing with California for tech industry growth. On paper, Florida seems like it should be really competitive in this space. Good weather, low taxes, business friendly climate, immigrant centric culture, decently low cost of living, good schools, and population ties to the high-skilled NYC area.

So, I'm genuinely curious, because I know there are people on this board who are in a position to make these decisions. If your company considered a satellite campus in Miami or Tampa or the Space Coast and decided to pass, what was the reason? The sticky summers? Lack of topography? Florida Man stereotypes?

I think it’s culture, or at least perceptions of. For the demo that tech companies are trying to attract, I think the perception of Florida is as an older, conservative “place where dreams go to die”. It’s also in the South which I think is seen as a broadly unappealing place to live by a lot of people in the current political climate. Florida especially has garnered negative sentiment from the left since the Bush era, which is most of the lives of the new hires these companies are trying to attract. Add on humidity and poor climate change prospects and I think it’s not as appealing to people.

Lack of intellectual density.

> Austin, Denver, NC, Nova, Portland, Nashville

All have great universities in the immediate vicinity which are a nexus for commercial intellect. These metros are roughly 1/3 of the size with probably double on avg. the available tech talent pool.

Honestly, the only places that have grown were already somewhat of a tech hub. I don't think Denver, Portland, Nashville have grown in meaningful terms. Yeah, you see some growth just because the tech companies are worth trillions now, and there will be more crumbs everywhere. But tech hubs that have employees and campuses at scale are places like Seattle, Austin, and NYC. And these already had established tech players prior to the recent boom.

Florida has some decent engineering schools, so I'm a bit confused why Florida doesn't attract more tech as well.

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