

NY Ousts Boston as No.2 Tech Hub - ekm
http://bostinnovation.com/2011/07/22/new-york-ousts-boston-as-no-2-tech-hub/

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imjk
I'm originally from NY and currently running my startup in Boston. I came here
for undergrad, and after graduating, I thought hard about whether to run my
company from Boston or NYC. I had been running a profitable online business by
senior year, and knew that upon finishing school, I'd be hiring and scaling
the business.

I ultimately chose Boston over NY. While I found the tech scene in New York to
be vibrant with many great entrepreneurs and engineers, I also found the scene
to have too much "noise" for my liking with what seems like a lot of bandwagon
jumpers. In Boston, I find much more genuinely passionate techies who seems
much less distracted by the hot new thing.

Granted, I love NYC and think it's great city. I also think that there's so
much business and so many industries that are so ensconced there that it'll
breed some really new transformative web-based businesses. Sectors such as
traditional retail (esp. high-end), traditional media, and finance are ripe
for great tech companies to join/transform the already established cultures
there.

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andrewvc
FWIW Los Angeles' startup scene is quite vibrant right now. If you're in the
area feel free to swing by LA Hacker News this weekend
[http://www.meetup.com/Los-Angeles-Hacker-
News/events/1894228...](http://www.meetup.com/Los-Angeles-Hacker-
News/events/18942281/)

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jamesteow
That's funny because I remember reading a HN post about how the startup scene
is rough in LA.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2775317>

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andrewvc
Well, if it was on HN, then it must be true :)

But LA is where media is, tons of opportunities are here.

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zwieback
Isn't the majority of this funding for bubbly website development vs.
traditional "tech" like HW, FW, application development? Would be interesting
to see a breakdown.

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corncobpipe
Considering how much bigger NYC is than Boston I don't see what the hubbub is
all about.

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michaelpinto
A. There really was no tech industry in NYC if you went back in time to just
20 years ago. On the other hand Boston is home to MIT and was really a hub of
the industry as late as the 80s. So in terms of tech for eons Boston was
bigger...

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suking
I wonder if some of this has to do with guys like Fred Wilson really
evangelizing the tech scene there. Most Boston VCs are just plain a-holes imo.

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michaelpinto
It has everything to do with people -- NYC has an amazing talent pool. The
problem has always been the high cost of living and the fact that in the past
most of the tech talent would be absorbed by Wall Street. It has taken over 20
years but I've slowly have watched this change through the hard work of many
folks who don't just include VCs but event organizers, academics and yes even
art school grads. But this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone, NYC was the
birthplace from quite a bit of tech in the past from Morse Code to the
television industry.

Signed a Silicon Alley Vet who got his start back in the 90s

PS The road to this was paved with quite a bit of failure, especially after
the dot.com bomb and 9/11 meltdown

