

Paul Graham on Why Boston Should Worry About Its Future as a Tech Hub - bobbud
http://www.xconomy.com/boston/2009/03/10/paul-graham-on-why-boston-should-worry-about-its-future-as-a-tech-hub-says-region-focuses-on-ideas-not-startups-while-investors-lack-confidence/

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pxlpshr
This is a great interview that really underlines a lot of the issues we face
in Austin too — not Boston. Coupled with an regional investment community that
doesn't quite get it, makes the web movement here that much more difficult to
ignite. And, I think a lot of people don't realize how important community is
in this regard:

 _Another difference is that because the Valley cares so much about startups,
people here are always half a step ahead. All the lawyers know what the latest
standard terms are for various types of deals. The investors are less
frightened by new ideas, because the ideas are less new to them. The founders
feel less lonely, because there are three other groups of guys in the same
building starting startups._

Last week a group of us re-launched Startup District to help foster a
community online and bring the guys out of the woodwork in Austin.

<http://startupdistrict.com>

Also, Capital Factory was recently announced. A ycom-like accelerator in
Austin ran by Josh Baer, who's also at the founder of OtherInbox - a really
smart web startup that I've been a fanboy of the past 6 months.

<http://capitalfactory.com>

If you're going to be at SXSW, would love to meet up and catch a drink. Follow
us: @startupdistrict, @capitalfactory, @pxlpshr, @johnerik

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0xdefec8
I can't say firsthand whether this is true or not since I was in diapers
during it's heyday, but I'm told that when DEC died, it's unwieldy, monolithic
culture leaked all over the northeast. With 150,000 employees, it was
basically the anti-startup. And it's pretty shocking the percentage of older
programmers that were at DEC at one time or another here in Mass.

~~~
pg
I don't think it could have made a critical difference. Oracle and Intel have
been leaking their bureaucratic corporate culture all over Silicon Valley for
decades.

~~~
russell
I think it does. It's the culture the leakees take with them. DEC tried to
stamp out entrepreneurialism, but most of the SV companies tolerated it or
encouraged it. My first customer at my first startup was a former employer.
When I moved to SV from Boston decades ago, I remember how impressed I was
with the informality, no suits, ties, deference, that kind of stuff. Equally
impressive was the infrastructure, from Wilson, Sonsini to Frys to an
entrepreneurs club to all the little companies that had just what you needed.

~~~
edgefield
If you look around Silicon Valley, you see a lot of companies that have a
culture similar to HP in its heydays, when the "HP Way" was still going
strong. HP was one of the early companies to succeed in the Valley. I suspect
other early companies in the Valley also had strong cultural influences on
startups in the Valley. We know, for instance, that many startups emerge from
individuals that worked for established companies, and what better way to
transmit a culture than through individuals leaving one company and starting
another.

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yef
We should be realistic about two things:

1\. Saying that Boston is the center of ideas is lacking. Ideas aren't an
industry, the way movies, finance, or tech is. Also, ideas are cheap. It's the
vetting and execution of ideas that is valuable.

2\. The quality of life issues need to be addressed. It's embarrassing that
MIT students leave for Google, Facebook, etc., but I can also understand why.
Aside from Kendall, the Boston area feels old, expensive, somewhat
dilapidated, miserable in the winter. That's going to turn off a lot of
people.

~~~
pg
Ideas are an industry. Universities employ tens if not hundreds of thousands
of people in Boston.

And while the quality of life in Boston could definitely be improved, the
oldness of the city is one of the things that attracts me about it. Old things
are rich and comforting. New ones can be somewhat bleak. Not just because old
things have a patina. Old things are more human, because they tend to be
smaller and handmade, instead of just extruded from a factory somewhere.

~~~
ivankirigin
There is also a very good architectural argument that old cities make for
better quality of life. If you're Houston or LA, you're built for cars. That
makes for a worse experience than subways and walkways. The public parks in
Boston are excellent. The Minute Man bike trail is unrivaled, as far as I'm
concerned.

There is a great feedback loop here too. People that like things like the
Public Garden are more likely to demand changes keep the feeling.

Even the Big Dig, while a bullshit waste of public resources, turns out to
make the city much more pedestrian friendly. It largely emerged because the
city was too old to retrofit a freeway system that could handle the capacity
above ground.

~~~
brlewis
The Big Dig made for a huge improvement. People who lived here in past years
should see <http://ourdoings.com/brlewis/2008-05-14>

~~~
ivankirigin
That's quite striking. I agree that is has been pretty awesome, from what I
can tell. I only moved to Boston right as it finished.

There was inexcusable corruption and incompetence in the construction though.
That puts of a taint on large municipal projects generally.

~~~
pg
The elevated highway it replaced was such a complete disaster that it's a net
win to have it gone even with all the corruption.

From what I've heard, though, the old highway was designed the way it was
because of corruption too. The palpable aura of corruption in Boston probably
doesn't help it as a tech hub. Corruption tends to yield low quality of life,
because so much of the money that goes into the government goes to political
supporters rather than into beneficial projects.

I've noticed practically all very corrupt cities (Syracuse was a striking
example) are economically backward, though it's hard to say which is cause and
which is effect.

~~~
bokonist
I doubt corruption is the cause. Most American cities were very corrupt during
the late 1800's, yet had amazing economic growth. Detroit, Cleveland,
Syracuse, etc were all startup hubs back then.

All governments funnel money to their employees and supporters. For us
subjects, what matters is that the rulers are competent and think for the long
term. If they are smart and optimize for the long term, they realize that the
best way to enrich themselves is to grow the pie, not to gobble it all up. The
guys who ran Tammany Hall understood this, more recent corrupt rulers like
Detroit's Coleman Young did not.

~~~
ivankirigin
Don't you think the industrial revolution is a unique period? And who is to
say corruption didn't have a big impact, just lessened by the booming period?

~~~
bokonist
I don't get what you are trying to say. Yes, it was a booming period, that is
the point. The question is why it was a booming period.

I don't think rule by corrupt political machines is ideal, I'd prefer if it if
cities were run as joint stock corporations. But despite its many
shortcomings, Tammany Hall and its ilk were much better at ruling than most of
our modern city governments. Compare how the recovery of Chicago after the
great fire to that of New Orleans after the flood. Or compare it to the (non-
existent) rebuilding of the World Trade Towers. They were building
infrastructure at amazing rate, we are letting it decay. If I could trade the
current Boston government for Tammany Hall, I'd do so in a second.

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brianchesky
PG's last line in the article is amazing.

~~~
flipper
"not that he should cultivate his unique potential as a pedestrian"

Ha, yes, that made me chuckle too.

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cia_plant
Does anyone have advice for what to do if you are in Boston? Is it realistic
to look for early-stage / seed funding, a la YCombinator, or do I need to get
further on my own before seeking funding? Not that I'm opposed to moving to
California, but I'll be in Boston for a while either way, and I might as well
see what can be done here.

~~~
pg
It's never too early to apply to YC. That's the point of YC: it's first gear.

~~~
ced
_Really_? So, if I'm doing wildly uncertain research in AI which I hope shall
eventually (in 5 years) lead to a Unix killer... Applying before having actual
technology to show for it wouldn't be too early?

~~~
pg
If you're working on something that can't be launched immediately, then what
you build during YC is a proof of concept. You just have to be able to make
something good enough to convince the next round of investors to back you.
That's the threshold.

The details of your plan worry me though. How much money do companies make
from Unixes now?

~~~
ced
_You just have to be able to make something good enough to convince the next
round of investors to back you._

That's the problem. I've been working on it for a while already, and it's
unlikely that 3 more months would yield a convincing prototype. I'd still have
to sell the idea and myself.

 _How much money do companies make from Unixes now?_

I'm not sure I get what you mean. If someone came up with an OS that was much
more powerful than Unix, I'm sure there'd be _some_ people interested, and
it'd be possible to snowball from there.

------
dedalus
I moved to Boston from the Valley and back for similar reasons last year and I
can tell you its a very good move.

Finally, here is a link from arcana that discussed the
same:<http://whyorg.com/comp/startups.html>

