

Why you should start a company in… New York  - bootload
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/maccabee-montandon/upswing/why-you-should-start-company-new-york

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btilly
Let's see. If I have a job in NYC and I work on my startup on the side, then
when I try to leave my job once my startup is making progress I discover that
my employer owns everything I did for my startup and I'm out in the cold.

Do the same thing in California and state law makes the startup I've been
working on in my time with my money, mine.

To me this simple fact gives California a _huge_ advantage in maintaining a
startup culture.

~~~
warfangle
Funny, I've been sure to add / ensure that there were clauses in my employment
contracts that prevent this sort of thing from happening. In fact, I'm about
to start a flex-time contract position that will allow me to work on
toy/potentially-interesting projects on my own time, that I will own. In NYC.

YMMV...

(I guess my point is: do you have more than anecdotal evidence to back this
up? I don't, but you don't seem to either - I'm not aware of anything in NYS
law that requires all that you do while employed at a company, even when not
done on employer dime/equipment/time/space, to be owned by said employer)

~~~
btilly
I have more than anecdotal evidence, but it isn't in an online form.

Detailed discussions with a good lawyer about NY state law is that there are
three classes of employee. Those are contractors, hourly, and professional. If
you are not working by the project and don't have to track your time on a
clock, then you are a professional employee. By default any work done by a
professional employee which relates to that employee's job function belongs to
the employer. (If a programmer writes a novel, the novel is probably his. But
a program written is probably not his.) It is standard and customary for
employers to add clauses to contracts reiterating that principle. This makes
their case even stronger.

And yes, I've been personally caught on the wrong side of this. And yes, I
personally know other people in an unrelated incident whose startup folded in
exactly this manner.

OTOH if your contract has clauses protecting you then you are likely protected
from this. However the common default is otherwise.

By contrast in California state law work done on your own time with your own
equipment which does not use your employer's intellectual property is never a
work for hire. This right cannot be signed away. The result is that your
startup on the side is always legally protected.

And yes. This is among the reasons that I now live in California, and not NY.

~~~
borism
There are so many ways I see to bypass this (pseudo)problem starting with
(techno)logical and ending with legal solutions, I don't see how it matters at
all.

------
bootload
_"... So now we have the best of both worlds. We can back first-time
entrepreneurs and have mentors and role models for them and we have those role
models in their second, third, and fourth startups and that's the magic--that
creates a sustainable startup economy that Silicon Valley has had for four
decades now. We're three or four years into our second decade and I think it's
going to be a great period for New York. ..."_

I read the article half way, looked at some of the phrases and guessed
<http://www.avc.com> / Fred Wilson who's been pushing NY as a Startup
alternative for a number of years now. Will this idea crumble when finance
recovers?

~~~
ardit33
I for one plan to open a startup in NYC.

Why? B/c there are no girls in silicon valley. If you are in your 20s, or
early 30s, you are probably wasting your best dating years away.

I like to work hard/play hard and NYC seems the perfect place to do it. In SV,
you work hard/get more bored. You are surrounded by boring suburbs. SF is fun
for a while, but good luck finding dateable girls. (If you are into hipster
chicks, it is perfect). Eventually work hard without corresponding fun becomes
tedious, and people burn off, and move on.

NYC seems to have a better balance. When people leave NYC, (or Manhattan),
they seem to settle for the cheaper boroughs, or New Jersey / RI. When people
leave SF/SV, they just move away.

Fred Wilson should start emphasizing this more in his posts. He doesn't
realize how bad the 'dating' situation is here, and just be in a city where
you meet lots of well educated girls, is a huge perk for many single
20s-30something engineers.

Ps. I have been talking with some friends also, that are in the same boat. Our
plan is to actually have at least an office there. Seriously. I guess it is
just like rock bands, where people join them "to get the chicks", so will be
my next startup. "To get the chicks". Life is too short. :D

~~~
vaksel
I feel like the quality of women in California is better than in NYC. Granted
I'm in NJ, so our quality is even lower.

Who knows, maybe it's just a case of the grass being greener on the other
side...but I feel like an 8 here, is only a 4-5 in California.

~~~
cellis
Maybe in So Cal, but in my short experience the Bay Area fell far short of my
expectations. Especially compared to NYC, which imo has the most varied
beautiful women in the country. I've been all over, but when I visited nyc for
the first time I saw a hot chic of a different flavor, every ten steps. Not
sure about Jersey, only been to EWR.

Contrast this with SF. I was there a couple days staying at the CLIFT a few
months ago.I was sitting in my room and I decided to go out and see what the
SF women were like. I went down to the bar and was presently suprised to see
that it was packed... _with men_. I mean there might have been 2 girls for 50
guys.

~~~
wooster
I wouldn't judge any city by what I find in a hotel bar.

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yardie
Definitely don't have a startup in Miami. All the sun, beach, and girls will
rob you of your motivation to work. Who wants to spend 18 hours at office when
you've got 12 hours of blazing sunlight. You'll blow all your money on liquor
and clubs while staying in a decent sized apartment. You'll stroll into work
around noonish after doing a yoga session... on the beach. And you'll meet all
types of beautiful women who don't speak english. Definitely DO NOT GO TO
MIAMI.

/s

