Tech Startup Culture is Spreading and Contagious, but Not on Long Island

A break in the east coast rain

I think we’re just about done imitating Portland with respect to a rainy season (omg 3 days of rain). The reason I bring up a small city in the upper north west is that they have a fantastic tech and startup community. If a city Portland’s size (100k ish) can foster many hacker and tech conferences, why can’t other areas follow their lead?

There’s over 3 million people on Long Island although the people density ramps up as you get closer to Manhattan. We’ve got a handful of good universities (I can vouch for Stony Brook), and a number of tech companies, although not nearly enough dedicated to web development. So why is there absolutely no startup culture within 50 miles of my house?

I’m talking nothing, none, nada, zilch. There is it least one incubator that charges lower rent and provides some business guidance, but high value web tech companies aren’t exactly like eggs in need of a heat lamp. I can’t deny Paul Graham (YC) and Brad Feld (TS) have fostered some fantastic programs and given solid advice to would be businesses. But their secret sauce isn’t them. It’s the density and commingling of tech startups that attracts investors. The problem on Long Island is that most folks don’t even consider the remote possibility of building a tech startup.

The first problem is Manhattan. It sucks up anyone with a startup bone in their body. Don’t get me wrong I love the Big Apple, all my favorite tech/business meetups are there. But I’m a big fan of natural surroundings, peace and quiet. Silence in Manhattan is a rarity and grass is something you see only in park visits.

The second issue is no big super tech companies. We have Computer Associates instead of companies like Google, Apple, and Facebook. The churn of talented engineers that are fed up with management hierarchies organically feeds new startups which have a flat organization. If you can’t challenge your CEO to a ping pong match your org chart sucks.

A lack of successful tech entrepreneurs also is a hit against the area. Successful founder exits translates into tech savvy angel investors and advisors which fuels follow on startup generations.

We do have at least one solid university (Stony Brook!), but I’m pretty sure most grads from Stony Brook aren’t considering startups and business building as a way of life. It wasn’t something that came up too often. I do remember one group of friends that started a dial up Internet service company.

Be Sociable, Share!

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , ,
  • http://arnoldwaldstein.com awaldstein

    Very true…

    If you are looking for a rural entrepreneurial environment…are at least one where the center is not so urban, you may not find it here. Or in the Bay. And certainly not in Seattle or LA.

    Boulder is cool. Nature surrounds it and real estate prices drop in a very commutable distance outside of the city center. And of course…there is snow and skiing!

  • http://www.victusspiritus.com/ Mark Essel

    Bay area is surrounded by redwood forests, those will do!
    Yeah, I think Boulder has something special going on + a bunch of molecular
    bio labs for Michelle to work at. She’s worried about the rough winters out
    that way. I’m more worried about landing a starting gig there (or anywhere)
    to help make the transition smooth. For now… back to garage dollar. Tyler
    jumps through tech hoops fast so I’ve got to dash to add value. Hopefully
    once we nail a user flow we can settle on a tech stack.

  • http://www.missi.com/ Peter Beddows

    It is perhaps ironic then that my first experience of the US, back in 1976, was in coming via Long Island for an upstate NY meeting with the founders, board and VC’s of the LI based parent company of the UK company at which I was then the British version of Operations Manager.

    It was subsequent to a suggestion that I made at that NY meeting (in the Catskills ~ they all fell about laughing as I explained the idea and I got teased in good fun as “the Brit’ with the crazy ideas”) that I subsequently was offered the opportunity to come to the States in ’79 to “start-up” that business idea.

    The parent company was located in Melville so I chose to live initially in Northport where I could indulge my other passion (apart from building business) for sailing and the new plant was to be built in Robbinsville, NJ. I not only remember Stony Brook but gained some friends who had been there.

    It was an extremely interesting time, however, even then I do not recall any significant entrepreneurial activity happening in any concerted fashion in that part of the country: There was no visible or even apparent collective resource from which to draw any guidance; quite unlike the tech start-up environment available to us today.

    So much of the early work put into creating this new business was thus a very empirical exercise requiring considerable foraging to discover and contract resources as well as find places to go to obtain requisite permits, certificates and even discover how to get power lines installed. Ah yes, I remember it well!