Hacker News Reader

Comment by colinbartlett | Hacker News Reader

> 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.

View on HN

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.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com