For the next few days, I live in Padova, Italy, but we're moving to Innsbruck, Austria where my wife found a good job doing research(*), and hopefully I will have some time to work on my own ideas.
Personally, I'm not convinced that the bay area is the be all and end all for startups. Maybe for classic style VC fueled all or nothing deals, but for those more interested in living cheaply and bootstrapping something, as long as you have a line on the good tech people in your area, perhaps you can make a go of it. Perhaps it's even easier to get a few of them on board, because there are relatively less other interesting things going on.
Europe definitely isn't conducive to startups though, even registering a company is quite expensive. I think if I were to head back to the states, I might pick someplace... not too isolated, but sort of "second tier". Portland, Oregon would be great..maybe someplace like Tucson in Arizona, Boulder Colorado, and so on.
(*) Biotech/medical - now there is a field where high capital requirements and lots of regulations mean that startups really can't happen without massive investments and thus tend to cluster very tightly in certain areas - bay area, san diego, boston.
You won't be too far from what I expect will be the startup location of the next decade: Bratislava, Slovakia.
Why?
-- Pro government business.
-- Massive investment in infrastructure from european businesses moving manufacturing there
-- highly educated and motivated workforce
-- low costs
-- relatively centrally located, and close to Austria, Lichtenstein, and Switzerland banking centers.
-- Low tax rates and regulation rates.
I'm sure some of the other eastern european countries are contenders, and might be better... but innovation is going to start concentrating in eastern europe, as they join the EU, the entrepreneurs will move to get less burdensome regulation while staying in the EU.
The US will probably retain some advantages, but we're making it harder and harder for people to come to the US to live and work.
I read some interesting comments by some of the contributors on this site, that made mention of how cool it would be if we could all meet up somewhere. I decided to see who felt like putting themselves on the map... literally.
I've driven 6 hours to meet a potential partner face to face. I've flown across the continent to "ask" for an interview with a dream employer. If anyone out there is as passionate about meeting the dreamers of today and leaders of tomorrow, please feel free to say so.
Let me begin: I'm Andrew and I'm in Toronto (yes, Canadians take risks too)
At the very least, many of you will find yourselves in the same city as others on this site and to me that's about as good an excuse to have a 2am coffee as any I can think of.
I've got a bit of a selfish motivation in that I'm looking for partner #3 and I think face-to-face is the best way to see how well the ideas flow and personalities mesh (and if we're lucky, clash!).
Canadians take risks? Who knew!? (My personal porfolio, %90 of it is companies located in Vancouver and listed in TSX or TSX-V.) Canada is the premier public fundraising country in the world, I believe. (The US stifles innovation with onerous SEC regulation... so Canada, which has smaller population, is the place to do your reverse merger, or buy shelf companies, etc.)
Hi there, this is a "me too"; I'm in Waterloo, ON just between you guys. While I think of some contribution here I can be contacted at startup.canada at gmail
I live in a small town called Golden in Colorado. I will be moving to the Bay area this summer. I don't think you have to live there to start something brilliant, but there are some great funding opportunities. I hope to go to Florence, Italy one day :)
Yes, yes, I know... Definitely a shortage of risk takers here... Currently working on a few ideas for a startup, and all the while, looking for something interesting to work on if somebody else has one...
Hey! I'm in Columbus, too; I just graduated from OSU and I'm now working on my Masters. Hit me up at bmintern on GMail if you want to talk, or meet sometime. I have a feeling that there are more of us here in Columbus than we think.
My name is Brandon and I live in Tulsa OK. While it's not on the list of top startup cities there are quite a few great tech people here thanks to the University of Tulsa. ;)
near Columbus, GA. Currently working on a tenant griping site (launching later this week; I'll probably post about it), and trying to figure out this whole "revenue" thing. :)
Why ASAP? I am thinking of relocating from Chicago to either Portland, San Francisco, or Seattle. I had been leaning towards Portland, for no particular reason. I'd love to hear your thoughts on why you want to leave Portland.
The startup community is nonexistent, its definitely no San Francisco when it comes to being around young energetic people who are doing exciting things.
Personally, I'm not convinced that the bay area is the be all and end all for startups. Maybe for classic style VC fueled all or nothing deals, but for those more interested in living cheaply and bootstrapping something, as long as you have a line on the good tech people in your area, perhaps you can make a go of it. Perhaps it's even easier to get a few of them on board, because there are relatively less other interesting things going on.
Europe definitely isn't conducive to startups though, even registering a company is quite expensive. I think if I were to head back to the states, I might pick someplace... not too isolated, but sort of "second tier". Portland, Oregon would be great..maybe someplace like Tucson in Arizona, Boulder Colorado, and so on.
(*) Biotech/medical - now there is a field where high capital requirements and lots of regulations mean that startups really can't happen without massive investments and thus tend to cluster very tightly in certain areas - bay area, san diego, boston.