A message to KevinHartz: Bring your money to Seattle

http://www.iseff.com/post/22794897064/a-message-to-kevinhartz-bring-your-money-to-seattle

by iseff • 14 years ago

43 7 14 years ago

jes5199• 14 years ago

Right! There's probably a lot of markets where there's talented people but no overheating economy. Until last year, I was living in Portland, and they've got some amazing hackers, but only a handful of funded startups.

malandrew2• 14 years ago

True, but it's a market with less of a support structure which adds risk to any investment made. The question is if the cheaper startups offset the additional risk involved.

What's the track record for Seattle startups? In any given year, 97% of VC returns come from about 15 startups. In the past 5 years, how many of the ~75 startups responsible for most of the returns have come out of Seattle?

ref: http://www.paulgraham.com/hubs.html

timfrietas• 14 years ago

I think the author would argue it's a chicken and egg problem and that there are not as many because there's not good funding here. Having lived in both the Bay Area and now in Seattle I think he's right--there's lots of talent here and much less funding.

rmason• 14 years ago

Or come to Michigan where you can find startups at 2003 era pricing and few angel investor competitors.

theatraine• 14 years ago

Bring your money to Toronto! I'm currently living in Toronto, but looking to move to Seattle once I start at Microsoft. That being said, I'll be making about 70% more in Seattle than I could hope to make in Toronto.

Toronto has favourable taxes for small businesses, and is close to some top engineering / computer science schools in Canada and the world (University of Toronto, Waterloo, Queen's University, McMaster). All of my friends currently working on startups in Toronto (myself included) are all bootstrapped, as there's not a lot of VC money around here.

vessenes• 14 years ago

This.

We just raised a seed round in both Seattle and the Valley, and the pricing difference here in Seattle is significant.

Whether SV pricing is fair, and there are steals to be had in Seattle, or Seattle pricing is sane, and the Valley is overheated I couldn't say. But, I will say that Seattle startup quality seems to be improving, and there's a very different startup-to-money ratio going on here.

Come on up Angels! The water's fine!

A message to KevinHartz: Bring your money to Seattle

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