Ask HN: Do you know whats happening in Chattanooga, Tennessee?
Chattanooga has a lot of really awesome things about it, here are a few:
- Booming startup scene with dozens of startups all close together & growing quickly.
- Low cost of living. I pay about 1/4th of what the average cost of an apartment in the valley is, for a beautiful loft located right in Downtown ( I ride my longboard to work everyday)
- Chattanooga was the first city in the northern hemisphere with gigabit internet http://www.thegigcity.com/
- Amazing outdoor scene for rock climbing, kayaking, hiking and more
- The local government & the state of tennessee are investing heavily in the tech scene (see gigcity)
- Big & active angel investment scene. We raised money here & in the valley with no problems. The quality & integrity of investors here is also very high.
- A very high quality of designers. Chattanooga is a hip & art inspired place
- Just an hour and a half from Atlanta (Georgia Tech), Nashville, & other larger cities
- High quality engineers at a low cost w/ great cultural fits for us ( they like whiskey & working hard)
we were funded in Chattanooga over a year ago and have had an incredible experience. We started as a completely green 3 man startup spread across the country, recruited a cofounder from UT Knoxville CS, and have since been able to bring on 8 amazing people.
PG says, 'If you can just avoid dying, you get rich'. Now, obviously there is a lot more to it - but taking that sentiment at its face, being in Chattanooga is one of the best business decisions your startup can make.
Sure, you'll have to travel further to conferences or won't meet the latest A16Z founder at the coffee shop (well, until they invest in us), but think of the benefits...
We have 12 incredibly talented people... and what we've spent in 20 months is what most Valley startups burn through in 6. Thus, our 'avoid dying budget' metrics are pretty healthy for a 'seed' payroll.
Cost of living is incredible. I bought a house a mile from our downtown office, and my mortgage is ~ 30% of what people are scrambling to pay in rent in SOMA - with a park and an awesome tavern less than a 1 minute walk.
Which brings up the next crucial piece, Quality of Life. Simply amazing. Yes, to catch an NFL or NBA game, you'll have to make a 90 minute trip - but that is not much worse than SV, and much better than Austin. Downtown Chattanooga is incredibly accessible with a great bar/ music scene, a rapidly redeveloping former industrial area with lofts, coffee shops, etc, and is literally 20 minutes from some of the best climbing/ hiking in the world.
To wrap up, if you want an amazing quality of life, great startup culture and energized scene, great community support, and most importantly want to survive longer than your east or west coast competition, check out Chattanooga.
Your experience confirms this. I think the idea of "having" to be in Silicon Valley, or even other tech hotspots like Boston or the D.C. metro area (where I live) is just wrong.
The cost of living in those places ranges from high to insane, but there are lots of great places to live in this country. Physical proximity should be treated as less critical, because _it is_.
I hope it works out for you.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4615159