

Why Even Ron Conway Couldn’t Persuade Me To Move To Silicon Valley - thankuz
http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/07/silicon-valley-atlanta/

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blantonl
_my own startup, Vitrue, turns 5 this week._

It was a startup... but now it is an established business.

It seems to me that more and more posts are focusing on how to manage
established businesses as they grow versus nuturing a startup. And That's
great!

But, could we please stop calling established businesses startups? More
importantly, could established businesses please stop calling themselves
startups?

~~~
ewoodh2o
That was probably editorialized by TC. I work at Vitrue, and Reggie regularly
corrects people around the office who refer to the company as a "startup".

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fourspace
This article made my day. While living in the SF Bay Area I definitely fell
victim to the "you can only really succeed here" mentality. It's easy to do
when so many people seem to be succeeding, not realizing that's a function of
so many more people simply trying.

When we decided to leave and go back east, it only took about 200 miles of
driving to see that mental bubble burst. Of COURSE you can be successful
elsewhere. It all depends on your attitude, persistence and motivation.

I've made it my personal mission to foster the tech startup community here in
Charlotte, meeting as many talented people as I can and bringing them
together. I started our local chapter of Hackers and Founders, and frankly
I've been shocked at the level of energy and talent I've discovered. There are
plenty of folks participating in startups here and there are also plenty of
folks with money to bankroll the ideas. Even if you need money from outside of
Charlotte, getting on an airplane is easy.

At the end of the day, I choose to live here because it's fun, friendly and
has access to the beach, mountains and great weather. The fact that it's also
affordable means I can focus on building my business, not finding a huge
salary just to pay the rent.

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raheemm
_I can visit regularly via modern innovations in transport. Like the
airplane._

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jeffchuber
I'd like to hear more thoughts on starting a consumer internet company outside
of the valley. Specific pros & cons.

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endtime
Can't speak for Atlanta, but the situation in NYC these days is pretty solid.
Great startup community, lots of tech meetups, organizations like HackNY,
places like General Assembly, etc. The list of cool NY startups is long, and
includes Foursquare, bit.ly, Etsy, Hunch, Aviary, OkCupid, Tumblr,
SecondMarket, Hunch, and more.

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pchristensen
Don't forget Hunch :)

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endtime
Heh, whoops. Well, Hunch is double cool. (It's on my shortlist of places to
think about applying if/when the time comes.)

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ImprovedSilence
I live in DC, something of a community is getting off the ground here, but by
and large it's still a city full of people too concentrated on the good paying
day job to really push them over the edge. Or at least from what I've seen.
Impossible to find developers willing to work for equity, everyones a
"consultant". Can't use hired guns when I'm bootstrappin, now can I? But like
I said, it's getting better.

~~~
bobbyfive
I get asked regularly to do web dev work for equity, and that will never
happen. It's essentially asking me to do work for free and share risk (yes,
payment in the form of equity is like being paid in lotto scratch tickets).

Hired guns may be your only option.

That said, I truly wish you success (and that DC has a supportive community
for you).

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alxp
Happy to see a mention of New Brunswick, Canada in there. UNB has a very
underrated Computer Science faculty that graduates a lot of great programmers,
but they don't have a recognizable name outside of Canada. Companies that get
well-known that remain in Atlantic Canada will help change this.

