
America’s Competitors Angle for Silicon Valley’s Business - sajid
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/02/world/trump-h1b-visa-silicon-valley-immigration.html
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ng12
Visa availability is not the magic ingredient to replicate Sillicon Valley.
High wages and high concentration of talent are. What would entice an Indian
or Eastern European developer to move to Mexico?

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mc32
Beaches and a relaxed pace of life, not unlike that of the Balearic coast
instead of aggressive dog eat dog of SV culture?

It is different but some people might like the more relaxed atmos.

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trevyn
Interestingly, beaches are inversely correlated with economic activity.

See
[http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v527/n7577/full/nature1...](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v527/n7577/full/nature15725.html)

Optimal average temperature for economic activity is 13 C, San Francisco
average is 14 C.

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tapatio
I have thought about moving to South America and opening a startup there. I
just don't know that there is sufficient talent to build up a team. We can't
even fill our open positions in Southern California. I am curious, how many
engineers from Silicon Valley would be interested in moving to South America?
Mexico? Has anyone taken a poll?

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christophilus
If you become a remote company, this problem is solved. There's a HUGE pool of
talent working remotely. Don't isolate your options to one narrow locale.

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tapatio
Good point. But I enjoy working with people in person, having stand-ups, etc.
While I could see maybe 50-75% of the team working remotely, I would still
want to have some local team members. I guess there is one way to find out:
post some jobs and see if anyone bites.

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nicholas73
What part of that is important to the business and others?

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joshu
A startup is an organization in search of a business. As such, frequently
collaboration needs to be done in person. Actual businesses have an easier
time with remote workers.

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tapatio
This. Collaboration is key for a startup and that's best done in person.

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fhood
I don't see highly skilled personnel being all that keen on moving to Mexico.
Canada, however, already has a few areas that seem primed to attract new
talent, particularly to cities like Vancouver.

Edit: I suppose Vancouver wasn't actually a great example. I just really like
that area.

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ng12
Vancouver has the high COL of the Bay Area with significantly lower wages. I
don't see it becoming a major player.

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rfdub
I live in Vancouver, can confirm. Maybe after a significant liquidity event or
two pumps some capital into the local ecosystem, but at present there are few
(if any) world class tech companies here and despite the incredibly high and
fast rising cost of living, wages are actually the lowest of any major
Canadian city. Sure its a desirable place to live, but few world class talents
are going to relocate here to work for second or third tier companies, for 50%
less than they'd make in other markets, when a 30% more of their salary will
be going to housing costs. Vancouver is a real-estate city, not a tech city
and likely always will be.

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jensv
I think there are a few like Arista Networks, Facebook and Amazon. You might
make 80k+ and spend 15k on housing and the general cost of living is still
lower than SF. Just yesterday I meant some SF based founders come visit
because of tax credit incentives, lower labour costs, COL, etc.

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frgtpsswrdlame
I'm still undecided on the startup rule but it seems to me that it's still
worth raising the minimum H1-B wage if it can increase the wage of the average
american tech worker.

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stillhere
The notion of "good" or "bad" all depends on what you value. If you value the
economy above all then this is good for companies outside the US, bad for
companies inside the US. If you value jobs for your own citizens over money
then opposite is true: better job opportunities for locals, bad news for
corporations (at least in the short term).

