I grew up in NKY, finished my MSc in CS and Engineering and then moved back to Cincinnati to work and visit with my family for a year and a half before getting completely fed up with the IT market in Cincinnati and moving out to silicon valley. There are a few small consulting shops and the big players - citibank's new facility, kroger (I worked there), PG (I have done consulting there) and of course 5/3. The overall culture is very, very old school, there's lot of red tape and very few people doing new and interesting development. Speaking as a Cincinnati/NKY native, unless you want to land a permanent cubicle at one of the big companies, find a way to live elsewhere!!! Just because you are working at a startup does not mean you have an unstable source of income - just less stable than one of the big enterprises. I realize how negative I sound about this area... but having grown up there, went to school near there and worked there. IMHO your chances of sharpening your skills and having a rewarding and fulfilling career in software engineering while living in Cincinnati are slim to none. As a native, I strongly recommend reconsidering this now rather than 2 years down the road when it will just be that much harder to move - some imagined sense of stability is not worth your job being hellishly dull! Now, that does not mean some people are not happy in the cubicle and there are no good jobs in Cincinnati... it's just such a bad environment for development.