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The incredibly high cost of living, power of FB/Google/etc, and a few cultural issues (e.g., short tenure for people at most jobs), have finally become a counterbalance to the bay area’s incredibly strong network effects.
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There are still some things—e.g great startup executive talent, particular kinds of engineering talent—that are much harder to find outside the bay area.
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I still expect a significant % of the $10B+ startups will get created here, so it makes sense for investors to still focus here. But I bet a lot of the ~$100M startups will happen elsewhere.
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And not concentrated in any one place, but just sort of diffused everywhere. I doubt there will ever be another American city that will eclipse SF for concentration of software startups.
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Another option is for startups to have a presence in the bay area and a majority of employees elsewhere.
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We’ve noticed more and more YC companies coming here for the program, raising money and building a network, and then going somewhere else. Which makes sense—the fundraising environment and network of the bay area remain unparalleled.
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And to state the obviously biased but still true belief: I still think companies should come to the bay area for YC!
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One of the rarely discussed benefits of both being in the Bay Area and/or being in YC is the ability to quickly access and onboard a network of early customers. This is hard to do in many cities without some sort of tie to a network of companies open to working with a startup.
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What are your thoughts on top 3 places for startups if not looking for seed funding? We’re going with “decentralized & nimble” as we build out.
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