It's relatively easy to set up a brand new start-up anywhere in the world. It's also possible to grow it from 2-3 founders to perhaps 100 employees.
Growing the company after that is somewhat problematic, as one needs engineers, marketers, business developers and recruiters in rather large quantities. A company that's growing from 100 to 1,000 employees will have to resort to importing such people from Silicon Valley, but what would motivate those people to move?
Some can be attracted by the premise of cheaper housing, better schools, easier commute or, as the article suggests, faster Internet. But they also have to consider the risks of
* lost opportunity cost (a rapidly-growing rocketship startup shows up in 2 or 3 years, eyeing this exact engineer, and is most likely to be located in SV, not in Topeka)
* spousal unemployment
* lack of fallback scenarios for layoffs, team/manager mismatch or just plain burn-out, where you happen to work for the only major tech employer in town
With that said, Snap managed to grow from 0 to 1,500 employees in LA, and I'm sure there are some NY companies in the same league, so things are possible.
Growing the company after that is somewhat problematic, as one needs engineers, marketers, business developers and recruiters in rather large quantities. A company that's growing from 100 to 1,000 employees will have to resort to importing such people from Silicon Valley, but what would motivate those people to move?
Some can be attracted by the premise of cheaper housing, better schools, easier commute or, as the article suggests, faster Internet. But they also have to consider the risks of
* lost opportunity cost (a rapidly-growing rocketship startup shows up in 2 or 3 years, eyeing this exact engineer, and is most likely to be located in SV, not in Topeka)
* spousal unemployment
* lack of fallback scenarios for layoffs, team/manager mismatch or just plain burn-out, where you happen to work for the only major tech employer in town
With that said, Snap managed to grow from 0 to 1,500 employees in LA, and I'm sure there are some NY companies in the same league, so things are possible.