There's a difference between being defensive about where you are not located, and actively promoting your favored location. I was born, raised and still live in the Silicon Valley, but even a remote simpleton like me knows how cool tech can be in Austin TX...
ok, you won, Wellington is clearly less remote than Arrowtown. iWantMyName is based in NZ and we love it. I see the valley not as a requirement to be a successful startup "in the US".
It depends on what you like. I spent my entire life until I was 27 in the frigidity of Northern Minnesota. After that, I rather enjoy the fact that nearly every day in Austin is a t-shirt day.
If you're coding, you're in the air conditioning when it's 95°F and out in the mornings/evenings. I spent 9 months in Austin starting in February and it's not that bad. I grew up in Atlanta (85-95°F and 80% humidity) and summertime was about the same but the winter was nicer.
I still miss the food. I can get the quality here in NYC in a restaurant near the barrio but not the prices.
Citing air conditioning doesn't mesh very well with describing the weather as awesome. Lows of >70 with humidity mean you're going to need some AC help sleeping, too.
Compared to, say, Santa Cruz (just over the hill from the Silicon Valley) with yearly average ranges from 39-60 (Jan), to 52-76 (Aug), with most of the days from the spring thru fall in the high 60s, low 70s, which I personally think is ideal.
That means 3 months of "a bit too hot" (although 90ies isn't too bad), and 9 months of "pretty good". Someplace like Oregon, where I grew up, has 2/3 months of beautiful summer weather, and 9 months of mostly crappy weather.
No one ever claims it's impossible to be successful outside of The Valley. All anyone ever says, at most, is that all things considered it's an advantage.
It's a completely false controversy, and always has been.
The NYC technorati feel that with enough investments it will one day usurp the Valley as the technology hub of the world.
I'm pretty certain that will NOT happen and it will be more widespread. In fact, places like Austin with it's climate, the young people it attracts, atmosphere and relatively reasonable prices have a greater chance of becoming a global tech hub than NYC does. NYC has way too many other things going on to be heavily focused on tech.
I moved from Austin to the Valley three years ago.
When I came here, I missed Austin a lot. Now, although I know I'll move back there some day, I'm going to miss the Tech Culture of the valley.
Austin's missing populated hackerspaces like the Hacker Dojo and Noisebridge, and generally lacks technology meetups and hacker parties. The tech-based people are there, but there's not much of a cohesive culture yet. (This is a solvable problem!)
Of course, Silicon Valley is missing out on the Alamo Drafthouse... which is one of the best reasons to live in Austin.
Do you have office space in Austin, or are you really in Pflugerville? Your contact page only mentions College Station and Pflugerville.
Anyway, this was news to me - are there any other YC companies here in Austin? I thought I (and I'm just an employee of one) was alone. We should have beers. :)
Okay Okay, Austin area. The plan is to move downtown once we've figured out how big of a place we need--right now we're growing at 200% every three months so we need that to level out first as everyone wants a five year lease.
Feel free to hit me up (lloyd@seeinginteractive.com) or stop by our office in Pflugerville.
Why Austin (and not New York or Boston)? What was it like doing YC and then not staying in SV? Was there any disagreement among the founders or investors about moving away from the valley?
Not really. The investors like it because we save a bunch of money. And the founders are both from the Midwest so we like it. Actually, we're a Texas-based company (maybe the only YC company that's not a DE corporation) and have always planned to have this be our base of operations.
If you're a business owner or remote freelancer, it may net you more money to be headquartered in a no-income-tax state (e.g. Texas, Florida, Nevada, Washington). This is assuming you're charging similar prices as your competitors based in SF/SV or NYC.
If you're a single employee, your best bet is to live somewhere with high salaries (California or New York) and be frugal with your expenses.
If you're an employee that's married and/or have kids, I don't know. I don't have that experience yet. Best to ask someone who does.
--> BUT income tax is just one of many state taxes. For an aggregate tax %, see The Tax Foundation's report on State "Tax Burdens." Scroll down in the doc to 2008. http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/336.html
Not really. I've lived in both and the salaries are maybe 20-25% lower in Austin, but everything else is much cheaper for more value. Especially when you're paying for grown up stuff like 3-4 bedroom homes in safe neighborhoods, day care/nannies, etc. That stuff is off the charts expensive in the Valley. And your tax bracket is higher along with your salary.
I can't imagine being an entrepreneur in the Valley with kids without at LEAST a few million in cash. In Austin you only need 1. :)
I'm in austin, but I keep wishing that I lived in Silicon Valley or PNW - namely due to:
* greater ability to commute by bicycle/train/public transit. Austin's bicycle scene is growing, but it's still fairly impractical due to the lack of public transit infrastructure.
* potential for more outdoor trips - hiking around austin is fun when there's water around, but we easily have drought years too which aren't as fun. Plus, I'd think planning a ski or surfing trip is much easier out west than here. Many of my valley friends afford to share a house in tahoe during the winter.
On the downside, I think you'll be disappointed with the bicycling situation in SF. Yes there are bike lanes, but it seems like automobile drivers are hellbent on murdering all bicyclists.
On the upside, if you like the outdoors, there are very few places in the U.S. that are more beautiful than northern California. (I think that Austin is the best place to run my company, but everywhere had tradeoffs.)
Property taxes in Oregon are a little funny. It depends a lot on where your house is located and when it was built. I pay about 0.6% of current market value annually. I have friends that pay 2%.
CA's sales tax is county/city dependent, starting from a 8.25% base. It's 9.25% in San Jose, 9.5% somewhere nearby, closer to 9.75% in SF, and less than 9% some places.
Besides federal income tax (as noted by another commenter), there's local sales tax, state property tax, and who knows what-all else. Income tax is sometimes one piece of a state's tax system, but it's never the only piece.
The model of SV has proven to be one to emulate. It's only a matter of time before other locals with that crucial mix of money and good schools get some version of it.
This is the second link from seeinginteractive.com in as many days that didn't say much of anything other than 'work for us'. I wonder how much fake controversy they are going to keep throwing at HN in order to recruit.
That's awesome, I was going to go with UserVoice for my feedback widget, but I'm gonna have to support a fellow Texas startup and go with you guys now. I'm based in Dallas myself.
http://geekaustin.org/
http://sdf.lonestar.org/
As for startup stuff going on in Austin, from JUST today's reading I noticed the following being in Austin:
http://blog.asmartbear.com
http://wpengine.com/
http://www.capitalthought.com/
I'll still prefer my home over yours, but your home is also pretty sweet (and worth bragging about).