Ask HN: Where are the opportunities outside of Silicon Valley? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Where are the opportunities outside of Silicon Valley?

20 pointsApocryphon24 comments

Within the U.S., what other destinations could software engineers and those who are seeking to create tech startups go to? I've heard of many other cities already, but I'd like to narrow it down to two starting criteria (feel free to add your own):

* Opportunity- for those who would just like to go work, the level of demand for software developers. For those who would like to launch a startup outside of SV, the abundance of VC firms and other sources of funding in the area.

* Quality of life- the Bay Area has unrivaled weather, and unrivaled high rent prices. How do other cities compare?

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Not making these lists is LA, which I like. Specifically West Side. Santa Monica is great, and easily best weather of any of these listed. Good nightlife in Hollywood. Better startup scene than Seattle (at least relative to 2 years ago, haven't checked out Seattle startups in a while). Also, don't underestimate the value of a well-connected airport. If you're not in the bay or NYC, you'll have to travel a lot if you're connected. LAX is remarkably accessible from the West Side, and has flights to everywhere leaving in 2 hours. Seattle has one of the least accessible and least connected airports. Portland would be worse. I hear good things about Austin.

Here's my "Short List" beyond the obvious ones (NY, Chicago, Boston):

Pittsburgh - Steady growth of banking and insurance has created a nice raft of demand for developers. (+) Great museums/culture, (+) food and (+) social scenes. (-) Stiff winters (although not as bad as some other places). (-) Requires a car, really. (+) Super-cheap rent.

D.C. - This is where I live now. Overall, I'm happy with it and don't plan on leaving anytime soon. Government, Non-Profit Associations, Defense and Politics provide an enormous raft of demand. Even mediocre developers can switch jobs at a whim and most smart employers know that and act accordingly. (+) Tons of free culture and activities. (+) Great infrastructure (car not necessary if you live by a metro). (-) Not much of a "startup scene", per se, but (+) insane opportunities for consulting. (You're not going to start a billion-dollar startup in DC, but you have a much better chance of starting a multi-million-dollar business than probably anywhere else in the country.) (-) Summers are nasty and humid. (Probably only Florida, Louisiana are worse). (+) Spring, Autumn are awesome and winters are (usually) mild. (-) Rent is expensive (but not like NY/SF/LA.)

Quality of life- the Bay Area has unrivaled weather: It sounds like you've never lived a whole year in SF weather! Although its nicer certain times of year in palo alto or berkeley, etc. =] To answer your question, though: consider specialty niche.

SV - For pure tech or big-blue-sky-idea-ish. Also, anything HW (viz apple, chips, tesla etc) or hands-on engineering.

NY -Doesn't have the "tinker in the garage" culture traditionally, due to high-rent and lack of garages ;). But for Finance/BigCo, Avertising/ad-tech, Data Analytics, Specialty Retail/fashion/etc, or Old Media (copyright/music/publishing), and EMAE facing international markets it's very competitive.

[ex-us]

London - Similar to NY for specialty. Lacks the VC and start-up bench-depth of talent to some extent. Similar to SF weather, better nightlife and public tranist. More $$$.

New York ($$$), Portland ($), Austin ($), Boston ($$), Seattle ($).

Your only negative on the bay area seems to be high rent.

I'd suggest you turn that around. High rents are an excellent indicator of opportunity and quality of life. Location is a market and the good things cost more.

For someone just starting out, there's nothing like the bay area. Of course, I've been around the block a few times and I've moved to Seattle to get away from valley groupthink.

Nothing beats visiting in person. Spend time in each place you'd consider and you'll just know what feels right.

I'm not sure OP meant high rent as a negative. While "high rent" would seem to mean "ugh I have to pay more for rent" it has other implications regarding the type of people you will be surrounded by.

I won't include commentary on how I feel about that or say for sure that is what OP meant, but I wouldn't assume they meant it as a negative considering they included it in the positive attributes.

Actually, I did intend it as a negative. I wanted to contrast the great weather with it. I just couldn't think of any negatives at the time, but some more include the aforementioned "SV bubble" and the relatively lamer social opportunities compared to other metropolitan areas.

New York has a much better night life, and comparable but slightly cheaper rent than SF. The culture is much more interesting (IMO), and the companies here are very diverse and full of talent.

Bigger companies have made also investments here, most notably Google (3k people, a whole city block, and whole products reside here). Others include Facebook, Twitter, and eBay.

You might find that in the Bay Area tech is all around you – that's not quite true in New York. It's growing and fairly large at this point, but only for the people that are in the scene. There are tons of other scenes in the city (e.g. Fashion, Finance, Food). Overall, I prefer the diversity of industry and culture in New York – it makes it a more interesting place to be. The weather is decidedly worse in new york when compared to that of the bay area, but fall and spring can be beautiful here.

Source: Have worked at tech companies in SF and New York

Las Vegas * Opportunity- Young community that you can take part in shaping. Zappos is moving downtown and transforming the entire landscape. Money being invested in revitalizing downtown Las Vegas including strong startup activity, growth and investment. It is an exciting time. http://downtownproject.com/

* Quality of life- It gets hot in the summer, but is sunny year round and never gets much cooler than the Bay area. The housing market has collapsed in Las Vegas leaving affordable options in any part of the city. The city has excellent Entertainment and Restaurants. No State Income tax. Beer is served 24 hours a day. Cheap 1 hour flights to SFO.

New Orleans:

- Emerging startup scene and growing ecosystem for nurturing startups

- Established companies bringing big offices here: -- GameLoft, 8 jobs open, more to come (http://www.jobsinnola.com/New/index.htm) -- GE Capital, 35 jobs open, hiring 300 by 2015 (http://jobs.gecareers.com/go/GE-Capital-Jobs/236076/?filter=...)

- Excellent cost of living, excellent culture, excellent food, laid back atmosphere

New York is going to be the second choice here, I think. The culture is certainly a little different in terms of VCs and the sorts of companies that take up residence there, but it's a great place to be.

After that, having spent a good length of time in Boston, I can say that there is a small but very healthy startup community there.

Yeah my purely speculative, non scientific list goes like this:

1) The Bay Area (Silicon Valley + SF etc.) - Pretty much perpetually

2) NYC

3) Austin,Tx and Boston are tied

3.5) Chicago

4) Seattle, Boulder,Co ; and Los Angeles are tied

5) Any other major city with a good engineering school in the vicinity or other major money industry with that needs a few Computer Science and/or IT guys around (i.e. Oil)

A few cities like this include: Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Washington D.C., Miami, Kansas City (especially since Google Fiber is rolling out there), and Las Vegas

Just for info, I currently live in Austin. Almost moved to SF but just finished school and prefer the nightlife in Austin

Good list, though I'd think that D.C. would rank higher considering it's supposed to be a huge (growing?) tech center. Or maybe those jobs are just for government.

Funny you mention Chicago. I'm there right now for a business trip, and decided I'd love to move here. I was wondering about the startup scene though...

I currently live in Long Beach, CA which is 30 mins south of LA, and it blows. There is a distinct lack of techies and nobody is working on solving interesting problems. Maybe it's different in LA proper though.

Santa Monica is where most of the tech scene is at in LA

What makes you say you'd love to move to Chicago?

I like the vibe of the city. There's a ton of interesting things to do, people pay attention to their appearance, and the architecture is awesome. Plus, it's not ultra-crowded like NYC, which makes real-estate affordable.

Chicago resident here. It's a great city indeed and the startup scene is growing rapidly. Happy to chat/answer any questions you have about it all.

tim at matchist dot com

I don't think Chicago is a great place to move to in anticipation of finding a job at a startup. It is, on the other hand, a fantastic place to move to to start one.

Boston and the surrounding area including southern New Hampshire. There is a mini tech boom happening there and the tax situation in NH is extremely good for startups. You also have access to a huge pool of talent from all of the surrounding schools in New England.

After that, having spent a good length of time in Boston, I can say that there is a small but very healthy startup community there.

Boston's tech community isn't small, it's just spread out around the entire ring-highway encircling metro Boston.

Is there much going on in Portland, OR?

People don't talk about Portland nearly enough. Let's keep it that way, eh?

Well there's this, recently on HN:

http://blog.appfog.com/could-portland-be-the-best-city-in-th...

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