

Financial crisis = startup opportunity.  NYC developers, join a startup - pcushing
http://enterventure.com/blog/2008/10/02/financial-crisis-startup-opportunity-nyc-developers-join-a-startup/

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Prrometheus
People that still have a job in New York aren't going to quit them to join
startups in large numbers. It costs a lot of money to live in New York. Most
developers on Wall St. could afford to move there only after they got the job
offer. To join a startup, they'd have to completely downgrade their standard
of living, which is a hard thing to do - take it from someone that left
banking to go back to grad school for a CS degree.

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dwhittemore
In my experience, NY startups pay developers 80% of wall street salaries. 80%
of 100k is easily enough to live on in NYC.

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Zev
That depends on which section of NYC you want to live in.

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furiouslol
Look on the bright side. This is actually good news for startups overall as it
usually means less competition and survival of the leanest.

If you are bootstrapping, you should be particularly happy because you'll be
seeing less competitors who are better-connected than you and have more
funding. This very much levels the playing field between the davids and the
goliaths.

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iuguy
This is horrible advice.

If you're in NYC joining a startup is a bad move, unless you've just been laid
off from Lehmans or something similar.

Any startup that gets series A funding right now is going to have problems if
they don't make it last or make a profit in at least 2-3 years, maybe more,
bailout or none.

The lack of liquidity in the markets might get a temporary reprieve from the
bailout, but they'll dry up again unless the root of the problems are
addressed.

I'm not saying startups can't succeed in the US right now, it's just that it's
a lot harder and will get harder still.

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pcushing
I'm not sure what's impressive about burning through cash 2-3 years after
launch. That's not a business, that's a hobby.

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jawngee
Good luck.

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kingkongrevenge
The whole argument is predicated on the assumption that capital will continue
to flow to "start-ups." This is a questionable assumption. The stream of
financing for start-ups will probably be shrinking.

The opportunity lies in having a lot of savings or having special access to
capital through relatives to finance yourself. The shortage of capital and
credit means a much less competitive landscape. The financing hurdle will
knock many of your competitors out of the field. You'll be up shit creek if
you're broke, though.

