

San Diego? - Prrometheus

What do you all think of San Diego as a location for a startup? I just got into grad school there (I'm waiting on Stanford, but that's a long shot). I know it's far from Silicon Valley.<p>Are there any VCs there? Any cofounders? Other startups? Would it be too much of a PITA to fly to the Valley all the time for living in San Diego to be worth it?
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johnnyice213
Resources and lots of like minded people. That is what you'd be missing if you
skipped SV and headed to San Diego. I'm an entrepreneur myself and moved to
San Diego (from NY) almost 2 years ago.

I was working on a startup coming out here and the beach and weather did not
help me focus (but other distractions including living with my college friends
directly ON the beach).

That aside you can find like minded people, but it is much MUCH MUCH harder.
I've joined a couple startup groups on meetup.com and actually that is how my
current partner and I met. But I haven't been to any meetups since.

Personally, the weather is beautiful and does give me inspiration, but I
wouldn't sacrifice all the resources that you would get in SV.

... one pro to San Diego aside from the weather might be if you do have a
somewhat successful startup here you may get more attention since there are so
few. Take Goowy
([http://news.yahoo.com/s/sddt/20080208/lo_sddt/aolacquiressan...](http://news.yahoo.com/s/sddt/20080208/lo_sddt/aolacquiressandiegostartup))
for example.

Hope that helps!

John

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noelchurchill
Who else is located here in San Diego?? I love it here, but I don't feel like
I'm surrounded by many other people who have the same interest in web
startups. So in that sense it's not very motivating for me. But the weather is
great, the beaches are nice, and the ladies tend to be more attractive ;-)

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food79
There are startups, just not as many web ones. If you want biotech or wireless
then you are in business though.

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henning
san diego really sucks if you don't have a car.

most of the startup stuff is biotech.

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pfedor
_san_ _diego_ _really_ _sucks_ _if_ _you_ _don't_ _have_ _a_ _car._

As opposed to the Silicon Valley??

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jey
I'm a San Diego expat who now lives in San Francisco without a car. I love it.
I just wish we had SD weather here...

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benmathes
San Francisco proper and the middle of the Valley (Palo Alto, Menlo Park,
etc.) are very different -- from San Mateo down to San Jose you pretty much
need a car since everything is very flat and spread out compared to, say,
Manhattan or Boston.

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paulsb
There is a very large biotech scene in San Diego, so I imagine there will
plenty of VC's. Not sure about the computer tech scene, though.

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caudicus
Biotech/computer startups! We can't all be doing social networks and
aggregators ;)

Just think about coding looking unto the beach with a cup of tea. Living the
dream.

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falsestprophet
Are you working on a computational biotech startup? Do you know of any
examples. I have only found a few that I am interested in, but they are out of
Montreal and Budapest.

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paulsb
I am, or at least I would be if I could find some programmers. Being out of
the UK probably isn't much help to you either. As for examples, most tend to
be in the drug discovery/modelling area because industry will pay for that. I
think there is huge potential for targeting other areas as well as industry.
Some of the really good stuff is academically based, which means it just
whimpers along as the funding comes in from grants; eventually, most of these
projects just die because they aren't promoted and/or developed with a
business mindset.

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edw519
I'd be more concerned about the beautiful weather than the start-up
environment.

Will it energize you or distract you? 95% of your time will be heads down
hacking no matter where you live.

When I lived in Southern California, it energized me. Wrote some of my best
code with the windows open and the ocean breeze blowing through. Will it be
the same for you?

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Frocer
I have heard there's a fair VC/Entrepreneurial presence in San Diego, for
instance, Slacker.com is based there.

But as someone pointed out, I would be more concern about the beautiful
beaches and weather. Lots of distraction certainly :)

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Prrometheus
Oh no! Not beautiful weather and beaches! Next you’ll be telling me there’s
gorgeous women and a short drive to Mexico!

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kyro
Prrometheus, what's your email address?

I used to live in SD, but transferred to Orange County. I'd really like to
chat and get together with news.yc'ers in southern California, the few that
seem to be out there.

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delackner
Do not pick San Diego. I have lived in the valley and in San Diego, and it is
a cultural wasteland that will drive all your best potential hires away to
other parts of the world. It sure drove me away, to Tokyo.

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st3fan
"I know it's far from Silicon Valley." - As if all good things happen in SV.

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Prrometheus
What I want to know is would I be shooting myself in the foot by trying a
startup in San Diego?

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edw519
No! What goes on inside your head is infinitely more important than what goes
on inside your neighborhood.

