bostonbubble.com

[balor123]

You are wrong about VC. The total amount of VC in MA is comparable to TX, according to figures I see in Mass High Tech. I would provide a reference but I don't have time to dig it up right now. That doesn't mean that Boston lacks VC (in fact, it is tied for #2 with TX as I recall) just that it isn't substantially better than TX. As I recall, Silicon Valley was about 5x larger than MA and TX, which is why Facebook moved out there. Boston companies are also narrowly focused - there is little hardware development here anymore. Most of it has moved to either TX or CA and as a EE those places are better for me at least. I spent a summer in CalTech and they certainly do have their startups but there isn't much of a community there because the school is extremely small. The big reason that there's so much VC in Austin is because UT Austin is very large and just as good if not better than UCLA and Berkeley (depending on dept - engineering and business are top10). I'm not positive but I believe it is also cheaper. Doctors know that TX medical schools are among the cheapest and best in the country as well if that's your path. If your preference is proximity to Latin America then TX is definitely better. For Europe Boston is better and that's a reasonable preference (I share it though I have family in Latin America so that's not bad too). I think Dallas and Houston have ok high end job prospects but really the best place is Austin for the kinds of jobs you'd find around here. I think you are in finance and there are plenty of VC and investment banks there. I don't think NY VC is anything to write home about though there is some there as well. High tech has been leaving the NY/NJ area for decades. I will agree with you that the weather sucks and that's the main reason I left.

People on the coasts seem to have a strong bias against Texas. I think it is because as a whole the state is conservative, though Austin is liberal. Other good places that don't receive attention often are: NC, Portland, and Seattle, though Seattle is very lopsided like Boston. I just spoke to a recruiter the other day who said for high tech there's basically there places to be: Silicon Valley, Austin, and Boston.

[CL]

balor123 - you have a lot of good points. Never know TX has so many VCs. And true, UT Austin is also comparable (at least in Engineering and Business) comparable to UCLA/Berkeley, though probably not MIT/Harvard. Still very good though. And Houston got a world class medical presence. A lot better tax situation in TX as well (high property tax but no income tax, which works increasing well as time progress).

In retrospect, maybe I do have a negative bias/preference towards TX. Not sure why though.

[balor123]

Thanks for the honest reflection. Yes UT Austin is not MIT or Stanford. Rice has a good name but it is also not in the same category. Harvard actually doesn't do well in engineering but in other areas is very strong and certainly those schools have better names in part given that their populations are much more selective. Your point about education is also a good one and with the exception of Austin. However, part of the reason that those cities is so cheap is because there's a large number of uneducated immigrants who are willing to work for cheap (and IMO are harder workers than the comparable ones here).

Don't forget sales tax is higher there but Texans in the end pay less than MA or CA and isn't running a black hole deficit like those stats so you expect that it will stay that way over the long term. For you and I weather is a big problem there but for most people it isn't. The biggest complaint I actually hear from people in Texas is that it lacks culture. Though I think Austin is good in that respect, the other big cities don't have the energy and activities that you find in MA and (Northern) CA.

[balor123]

Here's an article on Austin startups: Austin Leads a Resurgent Texas in Q3 2009 with Solid Venture Capital Activity. Overtakes NY State., which places it in 3rd behind MA and CA as of Q3'09. More recently it placed a little lower Q1-10 report, which shows MA at 6% and TX at 2%. Looking at other reports it looks like CA dominates by a long shot followed by MA and then a few states fight for the next few spots (TX, OR, NY, NJ). I'd agree that CA is a nice place to be, especially as the housing market has become much more affordable since the crash and their housing stock is much nicer than MA. Sadly, not close to my family or my wife's.

[Kaidran]

I have to say I do like OR as my backup state. Its good to know it has investment but I thought there was a big unemployment problem there. Do you know how that factors in?

[GenXer]

CA will probably be the first 'failed state' in history. Their pension obligations are out of this world. Printing money won't save them.

[balor123]

With greater success seems to come even greater problems. At this point I think CA is too big too fail. I expect that at some point the US government will step in and bail them out. From what I hear on CNBC, there's almost nothing the state can do, even with bankruptcy, to avoid those crippling obligations.

As for OR, I didn't know they had high unemployment but I would look at who is unemployed - tech workers, construction workers, etc