I totally agree. Your post is spot on. NYC needs that win, for future startups to continue to be birthed. NYC is slowly starting to emerge, and the Ron Conway's of the investment community are really observing this movement and taking action. Let's hope this continues, and see Silicon Alley re-emerge....

I've been in California for the past 6 years (mainly Santa Monica but have worked with a lot of SF companies). I moved to Philadelphia several months ago to help a major company get into social media. Once I had them up and running, I didn't think it would be as hard to find another east coast job (something high level, in similar industries, with the same pay) but it is.

I have been offered a lot of jobs back in CA but I really don't want to go back for a variety of reasons (I really believe innovation needs to come from OUTSIDE there) but finding great companies that get tech, that get communities, that get innovation is really, really hard.

And I would venture to say that finding a company that values someone in terms of skills + pay the way they would on the west coast is even harder. I find East Coast wants more traditional people/skills that aren't always conducive to start ups (where you have to be a jack of all trades, role your sleeves up but still have a lot under your belt already).

I'm holding hope that something amazing can come out of NY and/or the East Coast. If only for my own selfish wants :)

I am optimistic about NYC. There's a new momentum that wasn't there just a few years ago. A friend of mine who moved out west, was a VC now turned entrepreneur (Ohai), basically said, it's so much better doing a startup out in SV. But I actually think I have some competitive advantages this time around being in New York. This stuff is never easy, wherever you are. Onward and upward.

If Matt's argument is that "you can't beat the valley" it's hard to disagree.

I don't think you need to oppose Wall Street and VC but rather look at leveraging your local strengths (Madison Ave and Wall Street to feed your startup ecosystem).

BTW Some of the bigger startups were started by former bankers such as e.g. Betfair (ex JP Morgan) or Ocado (ex Goldman) in the UK or (smaller scale but still $250M exit) CapitalIQ in NY --> no rules in startup land as to where talent comes from, let's not think formulaic.

Hi Caterina,

Wow, I feel a bit honored to be on your radar.

Funny you mention this mixture of east and west coast angels. That's exactly how our angel round is playing out. (And yes, despite what some have assumed, our angel round is filling out.)

Obviously, you're a bit biased, but yeah, your Founder Collective homies are top-notch. I've been talking w Zach and it's been awesome. Feels great to talk w/ a guy who really knows his shit. And Chris, well, duh, he's the shiznit.

In terms of finding engineers, I think the problem is signal-to-noise. Finding startup-oriented folks is hard when you're not a somebody. I imagine that this is something that I think veteran badass peeps like you easily forget. Maybe I'm assuming too much, but you've got killer access to startup-minded talent. Proto-founders with shitty networks? Ehh, not so much. Finding techies who WANT to do startups in this town is a bit harder than you might think.

I totally agree on the idea of being outside of the bubble as being advantageous in terms of thinking more broadly.

Honestly, here's what's been influencing a lot of my thinking: The guys who run the Startup Digest are crashing at my place right now. And we've been talking a bit. At the same time, I'm raising an angel round, and finding a much higher percentage of people in SV who "get it" and who ask the right questions. Too often East Coasters seem focused on the smaller, tactical deals and sure bets rather than the big picture potential.

As my father always told me, my problem is that I don't suffer fools. And so it is in raising money. I always ask myself: Would I want this guy on my board? When the shit hits the fan, will this guy have my back? And if the answer is no, then fuck 'em. I spent the larger part of 10 years working as a paramedic or EMT in Harlem, the South Bronx, and South Central LA (it's how I paid for Columbia). I'm totally OK with making snap judgements of people. I've seen lots of people die��I've looked into their eyes and seen their souls, so to speak��and even more than that, I've seen people operate under stress. I trust my gut. I've been in a lot of hairy shit over the years, and sticking to my gut has served me well. And my gut tells me that a higher percentage of these west coast folk get it.

That said, we'll see how things play out.

My only warning to you is not to get detached from the world as it exists for those of us who don't have an exit under our belts. I imagine it's easy to forget the barriers and frustrations of life closer to the bottom. In particular, I think of where I was ~6months ago, the cluelessness of which makes me blush.

Anywho, I hope we meet up sometime and grab a beer. Will you be at SXSW?

Cheers!
-Matt

This is an enlightening post with regards to combating the misconception that virtually all venture capital acquired in NYC comes from wary Wall Street. In fact where an entrepreneurial venture is conceived vs. where it's Angels reside vs. where the business entity is ultimately formed is can be three entirely different geo-locations in today's interconnected world.

[Miles Maker is a story author, motion picture auteur and independent distributor whose dynamic media ventures encompass mobile, social and real-time megatrends @milesmaker on Twitter]

I left the Valley and a job at Google to help build Hunch.com in NYC. The reasons for the shift are multifaceted, but first and foremost I want to be a part of something fresh and help construct the startup community here on the east coast.

Founding your startup in NYC doesn't mean you have to ignore west-coast funding. Startups in DC, Boston, and NYC still pitch west-coast firms and angels for seed money. We are fortunate enough to live in a time where good ideas can thrive regardless of location. Everybody talks, and the barrier between east- and west-coast VCs is constantly shrinking.

The talent question can be a problem, but luckily Google NYC and other big-name, non-wall street companies are luring talent east of the Mississippi. As the east-coast startup world continues to gain traction it will be easier to convince brilliant kids and top talent that creating your own company brings sense of pride and ownership that you won't find at Sachs.

I choose to reject the formulaic nature of the Valley and ride the east-coast innovation wave. Is it a risk? Certainly. Am I up for the challenge? You bet.

Interestingly, everything being discussed and debated on here and in all the other related/referenced blog posts (which I've been very interested to read) plays into the heart of what New York is all about.

New York has always been about entrepreneurialism - in fact, New York City itself is the product of a very small group of people who back in 1624 settled here with a dream and a 'build it and they will come' mentality, and bootstrapped the place into a thriving metropolis :)

Yes, there are tremendous barriers and obstacles to launching a startup you passionately believe will make a difference (and trust me, I've encountered all of them), but that's why the saying goes, 'If you can make it here you can make it anywhere'.

Talent-wise, I demand extraordinary, and I only hire extraordinary. That's tough to find anywhere. It took some finding here, but it does exist, and I'm lucky enough to have found an extraordinary team. And where the right talent turned out to be on the West coast, tried relocating and didn't like it, we make it work via remote working and regular trips over.

Finding funding was particularly tough. That's why NYC really is the home of bootstrapping. It forces you to be crystal clear about what constitutes minimum viable funding and what you can make happen creatively by other means yourself. Yes, that is a different situation and mindset from much of what I've encountered within the tech world on both West and East coasts, but the one thing starting up a venture here has taught me is that the only person who can really help you is yourself, and the only person who can really make things happen for you is you.

That's a New York truth - and it's what's spurred the growth of New York over the past five centuries via millions of 'entrepreneurs'. It's also why I meet the most amazing fellow entrepreneurs here on a daily basis - who are equally determined to make their ventures happen in an extremely tough environment. (Many of them, interestingly, women, who have to struggle with even more obstacles than men given the tech world's tendency to favor the 'young, male' model of entrepreneur.) Adversity brings out opportunity in very interesting places.

"And Matt is absolutely right that what New York really needs right now is a Billion Dollar Company -- an eBay or a Google or a PayPal or a Facebook -- and an exit that releases all the people working there from their obligations and frees them to go forth and start new companies. PayPal's progeny are spectacular -- LinkedIn, Yelp, Slide, YouTube -- there needs to be something similar in New York"

I would love to see something like this happen, but only founders who are gunning to shrink huge markets, or have a user base that is exponentially growing could make this a reality. Investors have to be willing to take bigger risks to see a startup like this happen.

If and when this situation happens, founders feel gravity towards Silicon Valley to maximize their success chances.

Really enjoyed @Matt's comment here
"As my father always told me, my problem is that I don't suffer fools. And so it is in raising money. I always ask myself: Would I want this guy on my board? When the shit hits the fan, will this guy have my back? And if the answer is no, then fuck 'em. I spent the larger part of 10 years working as a paramedic or EMT in Harlem, the South Bronx, and South Central LA (it's how I paid for Columbia). I'm totally OK with making snap judgements of people. I've seen lots of people die. I've looked into their eyes and seen their souls, so to speak and even more than that, I've seen people operate under stress. I trust my gut."

Matt's speaking from a perspective of founders who are pushing to make things work and understand the priority chain customers->team members-> everyone else. We don't have time to chase after many different funding routes while we're focusing on finding traction. I've tuned into a few investors that I respect and that's it, if they aren't interested I'll lets users determine my fate.

I'm not trying to sell a business idea to investors, I'm working to build the best damn information tool I can with a shoestring budget (sweat equity of 2 founders). When I get it right, they'll come to me.

I'm a founder of a startup in NYC - while I agree that there is a new-found-respect among finance/consultant folks for startups - infact, several of my friends from BoA, Goldman and McKinsey are doing their own startups.

However, the STARTUP CULTURE is still not there yet. The concept of late-night-hackathons is non-existent - people still have a MEGA SOCIAL LIFE here and that is a problem for an early stage startup where you want people to be 238% dedicated to the company. I'm not against having a social life but people here need to have social dinners/parties 3 days of the week.

Also the area is so-full-choked of lawyers, finance ppl that meeting good hard-core technology folks is very rare. The programmer inside you dies everyday here.

Sorry for the long rant - I'm just expressing my 2 cents.

Let's stop stereotyping. For example:

- I'm sure there are many people who have left Wall Street who would thrive in a startup, even though startups lack cushy perks;

- Not everyone in NY needs to have social dinners/parties three days of the week;

- And I'm certain that there's no combination of talent and desire to work hard that is not abundant in New York, as long as the startup is open to considering people from all backgrounds.

Talent is here in NY. No one knows how to recognize it in biz dev/sales and too many people are believing their own press. NY is the perfect culture for start-up talent - you have to love living on the edge, high risk/high reward...I am a serial start-up junkie and serious talent but alas, hiring skills and talent recognition are lacking in management/VC. I find all too often I am vetting (and discarding) the opportunity more so than vice-versa.
Maybe I'm too picky. But I do not take jobs, I take risks and seek to change dynamics, move mountains. Leave a lasting mark.