Enough with the Boston Start-up Inferiority Complex | Hacker News Reader

Enough with the Boston Start-up Inferiority Complex

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15 pointsbyosko13 comments

Boston is tied with San Jose in Q2 for total number of venture-backed IPOs.

I wish I could agree with this, but as someone who switches back and forth between the two every year, Boston is way behind.

To be fair, the author's more arguing that Boston's not behind in the more traditional start scene. For YC stuff, the Valley seems much more willing to go in big on less mature and potentially less profitable companies. No IPO's have happened in the web 2.0 space, which demonstrates that his metric is blind to the sort of thing you care about most.

From what I've read and seen in the Valley and Boston, I agree 100% with you - but that's why I thought it was interesting to put it up here for discussion.

Could this be sampling bias, i.e., the kinds of startups that tend to do well in Boston are the kinds of startups that you and your team are not so interested in funding?

The startups that I've encountered in the Boston area tend to provide "enterprise" products and services, while the YC companies that I read about seem to be more consumer-oriented. ISTM that the two kinds of companies need different kinds of social networks to sell their wares and to raise capital.

What about the size of both markets. I would assume that SV is 10x at least in size. So the fact that Boston has similar IPO numbers for that quarter says alot about the vigor of the market. The point is the two are not comparable , size and market focus. You are giving the Boston VC's a shot at your type of company and hopefully they will respond. But it is not as if they are "need to". Our best shot would be for some more Consumer web type angels to start a group like Common Angels to help support your efforts.

In many ways, both Boston and Silicon Valley have a lot in common -- cities with character that attract likely startup founders, world class universities, a well developed VC community and so on. But they differ in a couple of ways (1) Boston is unbearably cold 6 months of the year (2) Silicon Valley has a more vibrant immigrant community. While (2) may not matter much in the case of Web related startups (for reasons that I cant really figure out, I have seen fewer immigrants gravitate towards founder positions in web based startups), the effect is more pronounced in the case of Enterprise startups. Every other enterprise startup in the Bay Area seems to have an immigrant as a co-founder -- often in the role of CTO or VP of Engg.

I think I read recently that the VC money invested in Boston-area is about 1/4th that of Silicon Valley. (For "IT" tech, not biotech.)

I like how Scott Kirsner, Globe reporter, compared it to the Red Sox vs. Yankees rivarly. The Sox have a huge budget compared to most teams, except the Yankees. And while the Sox have a complex about the Yankees, the Yankees barely know their is a rivalry. Can't go wrong with Red Sox analogies ;-)

The Yankees don't know there's a rivalry? You're kidding yourself. If you've been to a Sox/Yankees game in either Boston or the Bronx, you know the hate is mutual.

I lived in NYC for 2 years and have been in Boston for 3. New Yorkers care much less about the RedSox than Bostonians care about the Yankees.

Similarly, I have to agree with the grandparent that people in the valley don't think about Boston much.

But this navel-gazing turns me off. If you're working on a startup and want to live in Boston, just forget it and get to work.

Pining for a better environment is very different than building it.

That's because bostonians care about the redsox way more than newyorkers care about the yankees. WAY more.

I can believe that.

+1 for an end to navel gazing and getting down to work.

Is San Francisco included in the San Jose metro region? If not, then probably the entire upper half of the peninsula isn't included in the comparison.

Looks like it is, though. That's weird.

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