

Forget Silicon: How to Be Steel Valley - rguzman
http://sonyalabs.com/2008/07/can-web-startups-be-a-burgh-thing/

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SwellJoe
I was surprised by how many Pittsburgh hackers were at YAPC::NA this year. The
PPW (Pittsburgh Perl Workshop) made a pretty impressive showing with lots of
T-shirts around and people talking about it quite a bit, and Pittsburgh.pm won
the bidding to be the location of YAPC 2009. The city was completely off the
map for me until I realized how many hackers are working there. I'm looking
forward to visiting next year for YAPC, anyway. I dunno that I'd want to start
a company there, but maybe it's an ideal escape from the high cost of living
here in the valley. But the same could be said of Austin, and I'm not wishing
I'd stayed in Austin to build my business.

~~~
jrockway
Well, Pittsburgh has CMU which is arguably one of the best computer science
schools. It follows that there are going to be hackers around.

Also, the original YAPC was at CMU, that's why it's being brought back for the
10th anniversary.

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jsb
For what it's worth, I am from Pittsburgh and intend on starting a startup in
the Burgh. I have a lot of pride in the Pittsburgh region and consider it a
goal of mine to help do a my small part to re-energize the city.

~~~
rguzman
Awesome. Drop me a line if I can help in any way or just to be in touch.

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jimbokun
Anyone here in the 'Burgh and interested in machine learning and/or anything
related to natural language/comp ling? I'm a research programmer at CMU,
taking classes in the above areas with my tuition benefit to get back up to
speed (I had previously been out of this field for several years).

I'm interested in talking to and/or meeting anyone with similar interests and
an entrepreneurial bent (or any hackers doing something entrepreneurial in
Pittsburgh at all, for that matter).

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rguzman
Maybe I should just come up with an acronym for drop me a line. We should sit
down and chat sometime. The address is in the profile.

~~~
edw519
Me too.

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gaius
I reckon you should call it "steelicon valley". Pretty catchy, huh?

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lbrandy
I am employed at a Pittsburgh tech startup (www.pittpatt.com). There seems to
be alot of benefits from our perspective to Pittsburgh. The primary difficulty
is the prebuilt assumption in the CS/EE programs that you need to leave
Pittsburgh to get a good job.

~~~
pchristensen
Take a lesson from Spolsky and market directly to the CS/EE school - either on
your own or as part of a startup group. Don't wait for students and grads to
figure out you're there.

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zach
AlphaLabs seems to be offering six-month tourist visas to foreigners. The
foreigners happen to be startups, but they do get a house to live in and a
little walking-around money.

If they find further rounds of funding in Pittsburgh, there might be a danger
of them overstaying. But when it comes to companies that have already
demonstrated that they're pretty eager to move where the opportunity is, I
wouldn't worry about it.

~~~
rguzman
I'm not sure I understand what you mean. The immigration talked about is only
tangentially international immigration. It is more about people who already
have the right to work in the US immigrating to Pittsburgh. The other
immigration problem is more of a national one and has been the subject of much
longer and better articles and posts.

I don't think AlphaLab is offering six-month tourist visas. Doing something
like AlphaLab or YC on a tourist visa is likely to be illegal, and I think
they would fund a company with people who are abroad only if the circumstances
are right. It is still up to the USCIS to grant the visas, anyways.

~~~
zach
I was not being literal. Pittsburgh has so much talent that they don't need an
incubator that attracts it from elsewhere. They need more appeal to the talent
that's already there, like the founders of Buxfer.

By the way, to all who want to understand the deep roots and historical
foundations of how the Bay Area got where it is in this ecosystem, let me be
the millionth YC reader to recommend The Secret History of Silicon Valley:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=101527>

~~~
ssnider
Except, Alphalab primarily appeals to the talent in Pittsburgh. Of all the
companies selected for funding, ours (Sonyalabs) is the only one which was
founded by non-residents.

~~~
zach
Cool. I'm being too gruff. If they shake loose one more startup in the area,
even if they have to decamp to warmer climes when their lease is up, that's a
great thing for Pittsburgh.

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semigeek
I was happy to see Alpha Labs - we're about 1.5 hours north of Pittsburgh, and
plan on applying for the next cycle.

~~~
rguzman
Best of luck with that! Drop me a line if I can help in any way.

~~~
semigeek
Thanks - would love to talk to you about the experience - shoot me your
contact info: ak @ my-yc-username dot com

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rms
Wow, this post has brought out a bunch of Pittsburghers...

You guys want to get dinner/drinks some time?

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edw519
I do! How about Friday night 7/18 or Saturday night 7/19?

~~~
rms
Either night works for me..

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rms
Pittsburgh is already the Carbide Valley, for what that's worth.

