

What We Learned Driving 2,000 Miles Through the South's Startup Landscape - joebadmo
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/11/what-we-learned-driving-2-000-miles-through-the-souths-startup-landscape/247671/

======
tkiley
Our 20-person team is split between Nashville, TN and Vancouver Island, BC.
Staying out of the major startup hubs has definitely helped us to avoid the
assumption that funding is a critical component or yardstick of success. For
us, I think this was a lucky break; we still haven't encountered a day in
which lack of funding is a significant impediment to our growth.

------
ghc
The big four cities are SF, NYC, DC and LA? I know Boston is slipping a bit,
but in what context is it not "bigger" than LA or DC for startups?

------
impendia
I noticed a third of the photos are from Durham, NC.

I grew up there, and used to work for a startup there. In many ways I didn't
like Durham so much -- way too suburban and sprawling for me, most of my
friends lived in cookie-cutter apartments, the sense of local character was
kind of faint. But it definitely does have a lot of things going for it, in
particular a critical mass of talented, energetic people.

It's the kind of place where if you want to try out X, you will find a
surprisingly large and dedicated group of people doing X -- for just about any
value of X.

And, to add to that, I've noticed that the center city has been rejuvenated a
lot since 2004 when I left.

------
treefrog
The south is a wonderful place for start-ups. In my smaller-ish city of
Lexington, KY we have a close-knit, vibrant community of aspiring
entrepreneurs. The cost of living is low and the University of Kentucky brings
great talent to the area (and they actually want to stay).

Also, most of the area businesses are bootstrapped.

------
rebel19
Ok, so it is cheaper to do business in the south...but businesses that start
in the south will get a 250k round of funding while the same one would get 2
million in the valley...which one is going more likely to give a company to
get the traction it needs?

~~~
timjahn
Because there's definitely no examples of bootstrapped companies which have
gained more traction than funded companies, and (gasp) maybe even been more
successful...

Come on. Let's end this celebration of funding once and for all, and start
celebrating the hard working entrepreneurs who bootstrap.

------
willpower101
They missed the 15 or so startups from jumpstart foundry, incubated at the
Nashville Entrepreneur Center.

------
gojomo
What I learned from the slideshow: nscrtbl nspllbl names have spread far
beyond the valley! (Ibuzzn? Sqord? Wefiends? Scholr.ly?)

~~~
shadowfiend
Really? Scholr.ly is lumped with those? Scholr.ly is probably the result of
scholar.ly and scholarly.com both being taken, and likely a domain name
acquisition issue. Other than that, it's quite clear in its connotations, and
hardly inscrutable. It's only mildly unspellable (an omission that's easy to
remember, if problematic). Unlike Sqord, or really the others you listed. Not
sure it belongs in that list…

