

HN:  We're starting a "Move to Silicon Valley" wiki.  We could use some help. - iamelgringo
http://svstartup.com/~svstartu/index.php?title=Main_Page

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arfrank
I just started something very similar for the DC area
(<http://dcstartupwiki.com/>). It makes sense to have a centralized location
for all this startup in, but delegated by locale. That way, there only needs
to be one location to goto to get started and from there you can choose where
you are looking for relevant startup info about.

I know PG owns <http://startupwiki.com>, and has some longterm plans for it,
but it'd be nice to see a easily rememberable centralized location for all
this information. Somewhere down the line it could gain sponsorships in order
to pay for itself, and (BFAD) become a centralized location for startups to
lobby for things then benefit all of them (i.e. legislation, at least in the
US)

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rabc
My suggestion: a section about immigration and a list of startups hiring
people who wants to work in U.S.

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pclark
dear lord: please someone make a resource for immigration. it is baffling.

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soamv
I usually look up immigration questions at <http://www.murthy.com>, in
particular the H1B FAQ: <http://www.murthy.com/h1bfaqs.html>

~~~
learner4life
They are one of the best immigration lawyer teams that I have dealt with. They
are the only firm where every member of the team seems to understand all the
fine nuances of immigration law and how it can be used to your benefit. Having
a bad or just an OK lawyer is expensive in the long run when it comes to
immigration.

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hugh3
Why just Silicon Valley and not the whole SF Bay Area?

edit: Actually, now I look at your wiki it seems to be focused on the whole
Bay Area while just claiming to be about the valley. This is wrong: San
Francisco isn't part of SV and certainly the East Bay isn't either. (San Jose
is debatable.) Now, while most of the early errors made in a wiki will get
corrected eventually, giving it the wrong _name_ is an uncorrectable error, so
I'd recommend changing the name before you do anything else.

~~~
sabat
I definitely agree -- the "Silicon Valley" has expanded in meaning from the
Santa Clara Valley to the whole Bay Area anyway.

I've always wanted to write up a "so you just moved to the Bay Area;
everything you know about living here is probably wrong" post, and I may just
contribute to the wiki instead.

 _San Jose is debatable_

Huh? Isn't San Jose in the Santa Clara Valley?

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iamelgringo
By they way, incoming links from blogs, etc... are always welcome. We really
want this to be a community resource that becomes useful for years.

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hwijaya
We are working on something similar in Australia - <http://www.startup-
australia.org/thevalley>. I am moving to SV early next year. I'll try to add
to the SVstartup wiki based on few bits of information I have gathered.

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equivalence
I think this is a good idea not only for those seeking to move to the Valley
but also those just there for a visit. I was there for a week before and after
Startup School this year and I would have loved to have had a definitive
hackers reference for the area. It might also be worth asking pg is you can
use some of the content from his "Where to see in Silicon Valley" essay.

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bandrew
I gave a presentation at FOWA in London recently on this exact topic - you can
see my slides at [http://www.slideshare.net/bandrew/fowa-2010-fighting-and-
thr...](http://www.slideshare.net/bandrew/fowa-2010-fighting-and-thriving-in-
the-valley)

Hope you find the content useful.

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cmelbye
I'm not a great resource of Silicon Valley startup advice, but if you need any
help with the technical aspects (such as rewrite rules so you don't have URLs
that look like /~svstartu/index.php?title=Main_Page ;), or if you need a skin,
MediaWiki extension, etc, I'd be happy to help. I have some experience with
the internals of MediaWiki.

EDIT: Also, for others looking where to start, take a peek at this page for a
full list of pages that need to be created:
[http://svstartup.com/~svstartu/index.php?title=Special:Wante...](http://svstartup.com/~svstartu/index.php?title=Special:WantedPages)

~~~
iamelgringo
Very cool. I'll ping Tristan to start a conversation about this.

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lfnik
This could be invaluable to me. I plan on quitting my job at the startup where
I currently work to move to SF/SV (Prefer SF) and look for work. Resources for
networking, places to work on projects and cheap places to crash.

~~~
iamelgringo
Ping me when you get closer to your move date. If you're looking for work, and
you're a programmer, I'm sure I can probably hook you up with a couple of
interviews with startups. People are dying for programming talent out here.

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sero
Wow, what perfect timing, I'm planning on moving out there in 6 months and
just started my research :) I'll add my thoughts to the wiki after I go
through the whole process

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psadauskas
Same, I'll probably be moving to SF in Jan/Feb. Somebody write an article
about SOMA, please :)

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pmjordan
Thank you! I wish I could contribute. I'll certainly keep an eye on the
content that does turn up as we're getting increasingly restless in Vienna. In
addition to the immigration related stuff mentioned in another thread, I'd be
much obliged to anyone who could contribute cost-of-living related info.
Basics like rent, utilities and food and any expense I might not be expecting
coming from Europe...

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Dramatize
Thank you very much. This is very helpful.

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Nate75Sanders
This is a great idea.

Anybody know of similar resources for Seattle? I'm moving there inside of 6
weeks with a half-time telecommute job and I'm looking to get involved in the
tech scene and find people to hack with.

~~~
TristanKromer
Try <http://flax.skein.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/organize>

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pclark
I think Quora is a more appropriate destination for this content, it already
has a great critical mass of users, and a more accessible UI. (you also know
it won't just vanish tomorrow)

~~~
iamelgringo
re: quora...

I've thought about that quite extensively. The problem with Quora is that it's
not terribly easy to link to other pages. I think people need a centralized
reference point.

re: longevity of content...

I've been running the <http://www.hackersandfounders.com> meetup in Silicon
Valley for almost 3 years. I'm going to be in this town for quite some time,
and if and when I do leave, I'll be sure to hand the projects off to someone
that can keep the content up and running.

The reason that we're doing this, is Silicon Valley needs more engineers, and
more startups. Everyone talks about there being a "bubble", but what I'm
seeing is an amazing amount of really cool, hacker founded companies get money
to build companies with. And they are all working really hard to hire talent.
This situation is only going to get worse over the next couple of years, so
we're trying to make the leap to moving to Silicon Valley easier.

~~~
pclark
There is no reason why you couldn't make a meta topic like "Valuable to
startups moving to SV" and tag stuff from there. The benefit of this would be
you can harness all the content already on Quora (eg:
[http://www.quora.com/Which-is-the-best-hookah-bar-in-San-
Fra...](http://www.quora.com/Which-is-the-best-hookah-bar-in-San-
Francisco?q=san+francisco+bar))

I think its harder to link to pages on wiki style platforms than Quora. The
whole point of Quora is an accessible wiki platform :)

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TristanKromer
I find quora to be awesome for opinions, not so impressive on facts owing to
voting by popularity. They both have their advantages, but it would be nice
just to have one spot to point everyone who asks about this stuff. I get a
tremendous amount of people asking for a primer on SV.

~~~
pclark
Sure. But you want peoples opinions on where to live, where to work, where to
meet, how to join a startup. These aren't factual topics - you want the
healthy debate?

~~~
TristanKromer
I think both are critical. Quora questions such as [http://www.quora.com/I-am-
a-creative-guy-with-a-startup-idea...](http://www.quora.com/I-am-a-creative-
guy-with-a-startup-idea-Where-is-the-best-place-to-find-a-rockstar-developer-
to-bring-it-to-life) are a great example.

This question gets asked on quora repeatedly and I've answered it a dozen
times, but the 212 vote (an counting) answer that I wrote is particularly
useless in terms of taking actions, whereas the one I wrote with a practical
list of sites and events to check out usually top out at 12 votes, even if
they are the top answer.

Clearly a simple list of different places is the best answer for this sort of
thing and would probably best in ONE wiki article which can be easily found.
Not a dozens of nearly identical questions.

~~~
TristanKromer
Oh...perhaps I should also say that I think we should all put links to quora
questions in the wiki where appropriate.

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spyrosk
On the job boards page you were linking to startup.ly which is a parked
domain. I've edited it to link to startuply.com, I hope this is the one you
meant.

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kpdvx
Does anyone know of a "Move to New York" wiki? One specific to startups would
be great, but a more generic guide would be great, too.

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dsantos
also you can find some references/links in this post
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1586027>

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j2d2j2d2
Move to NYC! If you're a developer, you are needed here!

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phlux
<http://padmapper.com> is the best tool for finding a place to live.

