A Casino Town Rolls the Dice on High-Tech

The general consensus having lived in Reno and seen all of the pushes over the last 30 years for it to become the next hub of various industries is it is close to everywhere else. The other main draw is the lack of taxes.

The potential for the new Tesla battery facility being located here is a good marketing bullet point. If it materializes it will change the local economy at least in the short term during construction and possibly beyond. If it doesn't happen here it will be another failed attempt to lure huge business to the area. Other notable pushes have been for shipping/industrial manufacturing which resulted in a new Wal-Mart mega-warehouse and some upgrades to other facilities and another push for pharmaceutical companies such as Genentech to open facilities in the area that fizzled out.

There have been a lot of marketing pushes over the last couple of years trying to make Reno seem like the great new destination city. I think this article is in that same vein.

There is a decent push locally with events like One Million Cups* going on to promote local companies. Included in that group are things like the Reno Collective and GirlMade among a myriad of other businesses ranging from art retreats to internet of things hardware. Also in that group is Abbi Agency which is the firm behind a lot of the marketing pushes about the area in general.

Personally I see the push for Reno to become the next Silicon Valley, Boulder CO, etc. as a good idea in theory, just one that is not using a clear message. I don't see the messaging as delivering a clear idea about "Why Reno?", instead it is more of a "Reno can be like..." message.

I would say the area has potential as far as people capable of both making and pushing really hard for something to happen to make Reno great, I'm just not sure if the culture is ready for that to come to fruition. Reno is overall a very conservative, old-boy type of place and hasn't been the most accepting of change, at least in my opinion.

*Full disclosure, my industrial automation company, Precise Integration, has been involved in the One Million Cups group locally in Reno.

Reno's OK. Vegas is a very viable alternative, just ask Tony Hsieh (founder of Zappos). Operating an online-only company in California when it could just as easily be run a few hour drive away in either Vegas or Reno is a crime against shareholders and employees. Apple, Facebook, Google and their ilk, along with their employees, are paying billions of dollars in state taxes that they wouldn't have to pay in Nevada. That money should be going straight to the bottom line, not to the California legislature, who will waste much of it on nonsense.

Aside from the ocean, almost any kind of outdoor adventure is a short drive away from Reno. The Sierras and Lake Tahoe are just to the west, and the high desert is just to the east. The Truckee River flows through a whitewater park in town.

Aside from what others mentioned, cost of living and quality of life are great. The weather is great (4 distinct seasons and very predictable). Reno has just about everything you could want, but very little sprawl and almost no traffic.

(Of course, I am hoping as things expand and grow this all remains true.)