The idea was to try to lure some of the talented software engineers who had been laid off on Wall Street
It turns out that the learning curve was too steep for many financial engineers
How talented can they be?
- the tech stack on wall street is totally different than most startups. On Wall Street it's Windows, Solaris, C++ and EXCEL. At most startups, its uh... not those things.
- most startups don't actually need statistical heavyweights. the whole "analytics" thing he is talking about is a small part of MOST startups. that kind of thing is bigger at google and paypal and after the startup is already successful and has millions of users per hour.
- the actually programmers on wall street are the last ones to get fired
- the financial risk situation is wildly different. on wall street it's $150K base + bonus. at a startup it's $60-$80K + worthless equity. To most wall streeters it's worth waiting around an extra 9 months to see if they can get another $150K job.
- the startups in NYC largely suck, anyway. it's not like actual startup programmers are flocking to them, either.
That doesn't automatically mean they develop superior sofftware development skills, but I think your comment misrepresents the reality.
The context makes it clear that he's talking about the same people.