Austin is a great city to write software in, and the salaries are fine. I lived in the best possible location in the city and still saved money. If you're looking for startups, there are plenty. If you have broad interests, you'll be able to find a startup you can passionately work for. That's basically what I did until I caught the blockchain bug. If you're interested in a particular niche (marketplaces, virtual reality, blockchains, etc), the most promising startups in that niche are probably elsewhere, which is why I now work remotely.

One thing I've noticed living in Austin is that the technical talent pool is still not as deep as the bay area, which isn't surprising but is also true. Austin is catching up and in many of the local tech meetups, I've seen people fly down from the valley and give a talk about their tool/company/technology, which is a promising trend.

As others have mentioned, the cost of living is significantly lower, and I would wager that Austin is a pretty nice place to live as a young person, with its great coffeeshops and bars and live music scene.

As someone who lives outside of the valley, what this article says to me is that I should be tougher in vetting the potential sources of revenue that the startup has and not just a startup that I think should exist in the market!

^ this. Austin is still a great place for startups, as a talented professional you just have to be careful about which startup you're jumping in to.