

Ask HN: Would any startups consider setting up shop in Imperial County, CA? - orware

A question I&#x27;ve been wanting to ask for a while has been, are there any folks about to create a startup out there willing to locate there business down in Imperial County, California?<p>I know a lot of you enjoy the coastal climate of the Bay Area and other places, but you could think of our climate more like Phoenix (dry heat, lots of sunshine).<p>Now I know this type of whether is not amenable to everyone (particularly in the summertime when you have to deal with 100+ degree heat), but hopefully I can convince you to read on a little more and at least consider it and get some feedback of what others think.I&#x27;ve been wanting to ask this question because I feel like we have a lot of good things going for us, (except for the heat part and not being close to a beach, but some of you may actually enjoy that), for example:<p>- The cost of living here is much lower (rent is around the $700-$900 range for good-sized places)<p>- Good sized homes are available in the $150k - $250k range (http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.realtor.com&#x2F;realestateandhomes-search&#x2F;El-Centro_CA)<p>- We have decent Internet connectivity within each of the major cities (it&#x27;s not Google Fiber, but it should be good enough for most)<p>- Office space is similarly much less expensive than you might be used to in the Bay Area<p>- We have good elementary schools<p>- We have a low crime rate<p>- Great place to raise a family :-)<p>- Fairly close to San Diego (2 hour drive to the West)<p>- Fairly close to Palm Springs (about a 90 minute drive to the North...Coachella is about 15-20 minutes before that on the road)<p>- Driving to Los Angeles is usually about a 3-4 hour drive<p>- A fairly short drive to Las Vegas (about 5 hours)<p>- Yuma, Arizona to the East (40 Minute Drive)
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orware
\- Plenty of Sand Dunes after driving out for 30 minutes to the East or West
(if you are into riding dirt bikes, quads, ATVs and that sort of thing...or
just like to pretend you're on Tatooine :-)

\- Mexicali, Mexico is about 10 minutes away across the border (it's the
capital of Baja California, so there's plenty to do down there, restaurants,
shopping, etc.)

\- San Felipe, Mexico is about a 3 hour drive away on the new highway they
have (great fishing, or just a fun trip renting a beach house and soaking up
some sun and enjoying good food)

\- Plenty of great Mexican restaurants :-)

\- Our winters are beautiful (hardly dips lower than 40F and today is about
80F with a clear blue sky)

\- Minimal commute time

I just want to plant the seed and see if anyone might be interested in being
in that sort of environment.

Since we don't have our own startup community, we can either do it ourselves
with our local resources (which could take a long time) or I'm hoping with
this post I might be able to jumpstart it and see if I can get a few of you
interested in heading South (we already have plenty of Canadians that come
down here during the winter time and temporarily balloon our population).A few
additional links to look at:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_County,_California](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_County,_California)

[http://www.ivedc.com/](http://www.ivedc.com/) \- Imperial Valley Economic
Development Corporation

[http://www.siliconborder.com/](http://www.siliconborder.com/) \- Future
Silicon Border project that's been proposedIf you're interested at all, I'd
love to hear from you!

------
SkyMarshal
Sounds like a great place to live, but you haven't listed anything
particularly advantageous to startups vs any other kind of business.

The reasons why SV, NYC, and a handful of other places attract startups en
masse:

1\. First and foremost, high concentration of local investors with the right
risk culture - they're both financially and emotionally able to invest in,
say, 100 startups, knowing 90 will fail and lose all their money, 9 will just
break even, and maybe 1 will be Google or Facebook and make back all their
losses and then some. Very few places in the world have internalized that
understanding of risk throughout their entire culture, but it is absolutely
required for a flourishing startup scene.

2\. High concentration of good bets, aka smart/skilled/highly educated/etc
people capable of building new businesses with a potential 10x, 100x, or more
payoff, and willing to forgo a comfortable corporate salary to sacrifice
everything for a few years to do that. Typically young kids without families
and mortgages, but not exclusively so. Again, very few places in the world
have a high concentration of such highly skilled people willing and able to
accept that opportunity cost.

3\. Enough skilled and experienced talent who may not be willing/able to do a
startup, but are willing and able to join one and build it up once it gets
some funding or revenue and is over that initial risk barrier.

4\. Helps to have some world-class something or other, be it a city like NYC
or a university like Stanford, or even just a freewheeling creative culture
with enough local money Austin (I suspect from both Dell and the TX oil
industry).

In fact, without knowing much about Imperial Valley, your best model might be
Austin, TX. Both NYC and SV benefited local and history (NYC), and war
research funding (Stanford/SV), both of which played out over a very long
time. They weren't made overnight. Austin might be a better model of how to
grow a startup scene from scratch, but not sure. I also know Charleston, SC is
working on incubating a startup hub, and NC's Research Triangle Park has been
a hub of sorts for a while, but with more emphasis on medical/biology. Maybe
some of those can give you some ideas.

[1]:[http://www.fastcompany.com/1839445/introducing-silicon-
harbo...](http://www.fastcompany.com/1839445/introducing-silicon-harbor-
charleston-sc-home-twitpic-and-amazons-createspace)

~~~
orware
Hi SkyMarshal, thanks for the reply!

While I'd like to be that person that brings the startup culture down here, I
don't know if I'm the right guy for that job.

Mainly, my post was probably a poor attempt at simply letting people know that
there's a pretty cool place down in Southern California that might be worth
investing in (or in other words, encouraging one of those VCs and startup
oriented folks to take a small risk in basing their business down here instead
of in the Bay).

Essentially, importing the talent from Silicon Valley to the Imperial Valley
:-).

Ideally, that would be the best thing, because I think that would build the
culture more quickly (assuming people liked our weather).

However, while I was crossing my fingers, I wasn't expecting a whole bunch of
responses to my post, so I'll probably take some of your advice and see what I
can learn about the Austin startup scene in particular and see how they may
have grown it organically over time.

~~~
SkyMarshal
Yeah, never say never. One thing Charleston, SC has done/is doing is trying to
become the tech startup hub of the entire Southeast (vs the med/bio hub), so
you might potentially be able to do something similar - startup hub of
Southern California. Then get the government to go all out into providing the
incentives, infrastructure, and social life necessary to attract such a
culture.

Oh, also check out Coalition for Queens, they're trying to turn Queens borough
of NYC into a startup hub too:
[http://www.coalitionforqueens.org/](http://www.coalitionforqueens.org/) Maybe
some more ideas there.

