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Comment by Xcelerate | Hacker News Reader

I've always wanted to live in San Francisco for at least a few years, but this data (combined with the fact that my girlfriend steadfastly refuses to move outside of the south) is slowly turning my interest towards places like Chattanooga. Is San Francisco really the only serious place for startups, or are there other options that I might be happy with ("settle for")?

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San Francisco Bay is at the top of the startup scene. There is nowhere else were you will find the number of investors or resources (meetups, groups, talent, funding circuits, etc.)

I'm from Chicago and while the startup scene there is pretty solid (cheap rent, large city, big financial center for funding) SF Bay is in a league of its own (maybe NYC also).

That doesn't mean you won't find investors, resources, etc in other cities. Is basically the same as asking whether you should go to a top 10 school or go to a top 50 school. You can have the same amount of success at both opportunities its just how much effort you put into it.

Moving to silicon valley won't make your business successful, but it will give you access to the tools and connections you need to help yourself. These same tools exist elsewhere but you might have to search a bit harder.

NYC, as an example, is becoming more and more a strong place to start a company, but it isn't on equal footing yet.

The thing with starting a company is its very rarely just you that is involved in the enterprise; you need developers, you need designers, you need bd people. People that do these things for startups tend to have a slightly different slant or skill-set than people that do them for large companies. As a result, it is a distinct advantage to be near large population centers that have a wealth of this talent.

One of the contributing factors to this is the organization that spawned the very website this is posted to; YCombinator based in SV and companies doing a class move to the bay area for it. The gravity is strong here.

Can you start a company outside the valley? Yes. Is it going to make things much more difficult for yourself doing so? Probably.

Another contributing factor to the dispersion of startups that hasn't been mentioned is remote work. It is possible to have an office in SF and keep yourself and your family elsewhere.

> Can you start a company outside the valley? Yes. Is it going to make things much more difficult for yourself doing so? Probably.

I would love to see data on this one way or another. I find it very hard to believe that it is quantifiably more difficult to start a company outside of Silicon Valley. But you are not the first person to state that.

Well just looking at Meetup.com

Django (excluding python specific): MV: 2231, NYC: 2120, Austin: 41, Chicago: 126

RoR (excluding ruby only) MV: 4119, NYC: 4390, Austin: 158, Chicago: 417

I could probably go deeper but at least from a glance it is easy to see why starting in NYC or SF would be preferable.

If you build a remote culture is very easy to find talent. The hard part is the funding. Finding quality VCs outside of SV is very very difficult.

Could you elaborate on the supply of quality VCs? What are some examples of high quality vs low quality VCs? How would you suggest ranking different VCs? Do you have any rough count of quality VCs in the top 3 cities?

The 'quality' of a vc comes through in a lot of ways. One way is a general stamp of approval (they typically pick winners) which helps your companies reputation. Another comes from a large portfolio or a large network from which you can draw talent for hiring or source deals if you're B2B. Another way is to help you syndicate a round (get other firms involved to meet your funding goal). The most important I find is if they're going to be around for future rounds; iffy firms that don't have a track record have a habit of folding once their initial fund is spent.

No, SF isn't the only serious place for start-ups.

NY, Seattle, Boston, Northern Virginia / DC, Los Angeles - are all excellent start-up destinations depending on your needs.

There are second tier start-up locations as well that can be quite nice, such as the research triangle in North Carolina or Dallas - Fort Worth. If you're in energy, perhaps Houston (it continues to boom); if you're in biotech / pharma, perhaps San Diego. Denver and Portland can be nice for lifestyle purposes. And so on.

Austin is probably the only place that's considered "the south" to the previous commenter's point.

I hear Nashville is good these days too.

Chatanooga has that sweet gigabit fiber though.

So does Austin. Not my particular bit of Austin, but most of it.

It really depends on what you are looking for. I live in Seattle and I can tell you that the quality and quantity is much greater in the Bay Area.

Been an engineer in and out of SF for the last 6 years.

SF/Bay Area is truly head and shoulders above anywhere else for startups. Like Shaquille O'neal's head and shoulders.

That said, it doesn't make it impossible elsewhere.

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