Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
The “San Francisco versus New York” debate among startups and entrepreneurs has been raging for a good while now.
While Silicon Valley in San Francisco has long been considered the startup capital of the world, the landscape is changing:
- Israel is increasingly growing in prominence as a startup hub.
- There’s London making a splash as well, especially on the financial services technology side of things.
- And then, there’s New York City, a place experts and observers believe will “see a technology revolution” that will rival Silicon Valley.
There are a number of reasons why the startup scenes in San Francisco and New York City are the subject of much talk and debate.
Let’s explore a few of them.
San Francisco
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
-
San Francisco is all about tech.
“The history of Silicon Valley is the history of digital technology,” says the opening line of a Wired article featuring 10 Silicon Valley companies. Among those in the list were Box, Evernote, oDesk (now Upwork), and SurveyMonkey.
Silicon Valley is also home to technology giants Google, Intel, Apple, Facebook, Oracle, and HP.
One Quora user, in response to a question about cultural differences between Silicon Valley and New York startups, has this to say:
Silicon Valley “is all tech, all the time. That is the industry, and that means that it’s home to the most venture capital, the best engineering talent, and so on.”
Chris Haroun, a partner for Artis Ventures, which is based in San Francisco, revealed in an interview:
“In terms of technology startups, San Francisco is the quintessential location, given the access to high-quality engineers, venture capitalists, superb universities, and a risk-taking culture that has taken over 50 years to cultivate.”
-
San Francisco is focused on the next big thing.
“Emerging technology just doesn’t have a place on the East Cost but is the best thing in the world for the West Coast,” goes a Quora answer to the question:
How do you decide between New York and San Francisco as a base for a startup?
Bryan Goldberg, Bustle.com’s founder and CEO, says about the lessons he learned as a young entrepreneur in San Francisco:
“In San Francisco, I could not only do meaningful work in my early 20s. I could change the world at that age.”
While belief and an actual, tangible product that revolutionizes the way people see the world are two different things, the fact remains that in San Francisco, entrepreneurs are wired to focus “more on the what if,” says Keep.com’s Charles Myslinsky.
In this recent article enumerating 25 of the hottest startups in San Francisco, a few just might be on their way to becoming revolutionary:
- Casetext offers to make legal documents accessible and easy to understand, and free.
- Guardant Health aims to simplify the process of diagnosing cancer. Instead of a biopsy, various cancer types such as prostate, skin, breast, colorectal, or lung cancer can be tested through Guardant360, a simple blood test.
New York
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
-
New York City equals speed, versatility, and density.
New York is called “the city that never sleeps” for a reason. Zach Cutler, a marketing executive, brands New York as the city with a unique energy, where activities abound no matter what time of day it is.
Bryan Goldberg observes that “having dinner meetings or job interviews that start at 8 p.m. is completely normal in New York,” with people coming to them straight from their day jobs.
On the versatility front, an article by user carriemelissa on startup community site Techendo explains that New York feels better-rounded in that “it’s home to fashion, art, film, literature, theater, banking, and more.” While all these fields touch on tech, tech isn’t necessarily the focal point.
According to Digital NYC, New York City is the world’s fastest growing tech center and, next to Silicon Valley, the second biggest tech hub.
“New York is booming – here to stay as a big tech center,” says Eric Hippeau, a partner at Lerer Ventures, a New York-based venture capital firm, with New York doing what it has always been good at – media, publishing, commerce, enterprise, and marketplaces.
On the density side of things, with a 2014 population of approximately 8.5 million, New York is the most densely populated city in the U.S. This means more chances of connecting with partners, investors, and customers.
-
NYC startups are more focused on revenue.
According to this infographic from Biz Brain, aside from New Year City startups being 50% more likely to create marketplaces than their Silicon Valley and London counterparts, they’re 27% more likely to scale.
This is primarily because NYC startups excel in niche markets and want to be profitable more quickly.
About enterprise technology startups headquartered elsewhere and opening satellite offices in New York, Jonathan Lehr, managing director at Work-Bench, an enterprise technology growth accelerator in NYC, says:
“This faction of startups is reacting to the critical fact that, if your company would like to sell into large corporations, the benefits of a New York presence make opening an office in the city increasingly essential.”
What New York benefits are we talking about, exactly?
Mr. Lehr, in another TechCrunch article, starts off with an observation not unknown to many:
“NYC is home to major industries, including financial services, media, advertising, healthcare, and manufacturing.”
He also cited a 2013 Crain’s New York article that says 52 Fortune 500 companies are based in NYC, making New York the city with the most Fortune 500 among all major cities in the U.S.
Final word
San Francisco, when it comes to tech startups, is a big favorite – good schools, the abundance of talented engineers, the number of venture capitalists in the area, the mindset that it’s okay to fail, young people wanting to change the world, and so on. But New York City has its distinct advantages, too.
All that said, San Francisco and New York City are two of the best places in the world to launch your startup, but a lot depends on a lot of things: the nature of your startup, the level of community support, the types of customers you intend to serve, the people in your team, your connections and personal networks, including your lifestyle.
San Francisco and New York as startup springboards have proven themselves capable of launching businesses from obscurity to stardom. At the end of the day, it’s all about the business, your personal preferences, and the community you’ll most likely thrive in.
If you have anything to add or object – the comments are all yours!
The post Which Is the Better Startup Hub – San Francisco or New York? appeared first on Cloudswave Blog.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.