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Comment by prohobo | Hacker News Reader

Honest question: why would any new tech entrepreneur want to move to SF?

The prices suck, and if you need to improve your network you can meet the vast majority of tech people online (IRC, Discord, email, online conferences).

Weather?

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It is a major tech center. Probably easier to get VC money, make serendipitous connections, maybe hire talent. (Though, arguably, the advantages are less than they used to be and the disadvantages greater.)

And not weather directly but there are a fair number of tech people who, to the hiring point, have trouble imaging living other places because of some combination of weather and culture (and choice of jobs without having to maybe move to a different city in another state).

> maybe hire talent

Are most of the bay area developers bay area natives? I was under the impression they were mostly immigrants under H1B contracts that could live anywhere in the US.

I doubt if they are mostly H1B immigrants but, yes, they could mostly work anywhere in the US. But many went to school in CA and decided to stay there or, to my other point, they like living in CA for whatever reason.

I don't and never have lived in CA but I've spent a lot of time there and I do see the attraction other than CoL and some other downsides. And there are certainly areas of the US that for me would heavily weigh against any employment opportunity offered there. (Though I'm full remote at this point anyway.)

A non trivial amount of strong immigrant engineers are in SV. Ask me how hard it is to hire hundreds of engineers without faang funding in a tier 2 city.

Strong immigrant engineers that came in the 1990s now have adult children that in the workforce. A personal anecdote, it was indeed a bit surprising to hear my coworker at a startup mention that his mother joined a startup.

I’ve worked at startups where a third of the workforce share the same Bay Area high school alma matter. The scale of the ecosystem is without compare.

You may not be in one job forever, and you can move between about 10,000 tech companies through a long career if you are in the Bay.

Decades of self-sorting have occurred

You can hire developers/engineers anywhere but it's hard(er) to find leadership and/or VC connections elsewhere.

I moved from the Bay to Raleigh, NC. If I wanted to start a B2B AI SaaS company here, I could (probably) find dozens of good engineers locally to help me do that. If I want to hire a VPE who's "been there done that" and scaled a B2B SaaS engineering org to 200+ engineers, or 1,000+ customers, or $30M+ revenue... my options are going to be significantly more limited here than SF/SV.

At least 11 of the 20 largest companies by market cap have a major office if not headquarters in the region. It's a business and money center... And that's besides great weather, history, and things to do in CA.

I couldn't imagine an entrepreneur being successful without meeting people in person.

On the last part, I agree - but I think the initial meeting can still happen online. You can always coordinate to meet in-person later.

I recently founded an early stage startup. The only reason I can proffer is imposter syndrome.

There’s a certain nagging feeling that we’ll never be a “real startup” until we have offices in the Bay Area. And sometimes that views externalized by others. You run into a scenario where you’re talking to someone who’s excited about your tech and vision. Then you mention you’re located in suburban Florida and their enthusiasm just drops out of the floor.

Rest comfortably knowing that those people who require you to be in a major city don't know what they're talking about.

Florida, though, jesus...

I was in Miami early this year. Every one of the local coworking spaces were booked full with people working on tech and there were no COVID restrictions. The things I loved about SF seemed to be happening in Miami, lots of diverse cultures, food, bars, and people socializing. I visited SF a few weeks ago and it felt like the energy was gone. The Financial District was dead, as if it was still March 2020.

> The things I loved about SF seemed to be happening in Miami

Almost like smart people can smart anywhere there's a beach.

Yet somehow they didn't before a year ago

Horses tied to a plastic chair don't run sometimes, either.

but what about these tech Atlases...

Because VCs have nice villas there and they expect you to be driving distance from them.

Are those things new? IRC has been around 25+ years at least

Might as well ask why would any tech entrepreneur ever have moved to SF?

Therein would lie the answer

How many enormous technology companies have been founded by people affiliated with a certain school in Palo Alto which has no plans of going remote?

That seems like an extension of the class system of universities rather than a real reason to be there though.

One person’s “extension of the class system” is another person’s “real reason.”

May they absorb nerd-god powers from the soil.

Network effect, online isn't the same.

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