

What NYC Needs: A New Narrative - MediaSquirrel
http://www.metamorphblog.com/2010/04/what-nyc-needs-an-alternate-narrative.html

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hexis
This brings to mind something pg wrote about New York:

"New York tells you, above all: you should make more money. There are other
messages too, of course. You should be hipper. You should be better looking.
But the clearest message is that you should be richer." \-
<http://www.paulgraham.com/cities.html>

Of course, founders can make plenty of money. But New York does seem to be
unusual in how much it lionizes people who already have lots of money (or
least, people who allocate lots of it). I don't expect to see the phenomenon
discussed in this blog post change anytime soon.

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MediaSquirrel
I think that hugely ambitious companies that achieve insane exits (pref IPO)
could make a dent.

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anamax
> I think that hugely ambitious companies that achieve insane exits (pref IPO)
> could make a dent.

Why? The existence of finance people who have made tons of money and their
lionization resulted in the lionization of finance folks who haven't made tons
of money. In fact, there's probably a bit of the opposite, namely "you're in
finance and haven't made it, so there must be something wrong with you".

NYC lionizes AFTER you've made it. Even if it cares how (and it doesn't seem
to), it doesn't lionize folks who haven't made it, regardless of how they're
trying to make it.

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starkfist
This article is too meta and meandering. What is this new narrative? What is
the old narrative that needs replacing? That said, NYC has a number of
"structural" issues which make it a less than ideal place to start a silicon
valley style startup. These same issues can be an advantage for different
sorts of startups. A change in narrative is not going to change these.

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zackattack
youre missing the point. matt is pointing out that the paradigm of creating a
business for the purpose of getting on a specific investor's radar is
completely fucked. instead of pandering to avc/cdixon, people should create
for their customers.

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hugh3
But what about that advice makes it specific to New York City?

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MediaSquirrel
Really, this particular point is not that specific to NYC. It's applicable
more generally, although in SV Steve Jobs & Zuck are the biggest heroes.

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anarcticpuffin
I agree with the general push of the article, that we should get back to
admiring entrepreneurs rather than VCs, but I have to admit, NYC doesn't do a
great job of welcoming entrepreneurship. NYC is an extremely expensive place
for a company with little to no revenue, considering wages and rent are so
high. I also haven't heard of any tech incubators here either (there might be,
so please correct me if I've missed them). A startup could easily grow 3 hours
North in Albany with half the early-phase burn rate and have access to both
the NYC and Boston VC pools.

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eplanit
What an absurd ego battle. I'm sorry I took the bait to read it.

You can stop with the False Choice that opens the piece: Who's the hero of the
startup universe? Is it the entrepreneur, or is it the investor?

