What are the actual benefits of launching in SF area?
As someone who doesn't live there and sees companies brought down monthly by VC claws and stupidly high rent, I can't understand why so many flock there in this digital age where you can meet your mentors and contacts online. In fact, even if you value in person meeting, it's still cheaper to fly there once a month and meet for coffee than live and work there. Why not save up a little, leave the country until launch and profit (many European countries are dirt cheap but have better infrastructure and e-organization than USA) and retain 100% of your company in the process? What are the actual advantages?
When you get to finding and hiring talent, you'll find it is exceedingly difficult. It's really much easier in the Bay Area.
Is it though? Embracing a remote culture lets you hire talent that's just as talented from abroad at oftentimes half the price but that's still a fortune elsewhere by any non-SV standard. I know, I am one such talent.
Yes, it is. What big startups have you seen comprised of all remote engineering? Startups early on just move to quickly to deal with the overhead of remote workers, specifically the cheap ones in time zones shifted by 8 hours.
josephwalla.com/the-benefits-of-building-a-company-in-the-bay-area I recommend to google more, and decide if you need to be in the Bay Area.
Try raising money in many towns outside SF or other big players. After you are done explaining that the iPhone can do more than make calls, you will understand the challenge of explaining a vision for your breakthrough technology. Being surrounded by industry members has several benefits.
That's just it. The "raising money" part makes no sense. You give away what, 20% of your company for some charlatans from ycombinator to give you 20k which floats you a MacBook and two weeks of sleep on someone's licey corner mattress but yay, it's SF? You get outside of SF and suddenly you don't NEED to raise money or deal with vapid nonsense like valuations and selling yourself to tech bros - you can get down to brass tacks and just work on your product. Now granted, if we're talking a physical product (iPhone) then I can understand having to raise money. But when your idea is an app of any kind and the technology to develop it is so widespread, it makes absolutely no sense to stick around there when you can go to Europe, live like a king and still have cash left over, and develop without you or your team being anyone's slave.
So if you don't raise money, how are you going to live like a king or actually hire any employees? If your 'startup' is just an app you're building by yourself, then sure, bootstrap away.
I share the OPs view. In Central Europe you can hire very talented SWE's at the MS level for $2500-$3000/mo. And very much agree with dynamic travel being less expensive that static leasing, cost of living, etc. if your service/product is offered online, who cares how/where the sausage is made. Keep your burn low and equity position high.
Right, this is why all of the major software engineering companies are based out of Central Europe.
Not sure if you're being sarcastic or not but some of the largest (and fastest growing) engineering offices in tech companies are in Central Europe.
Or maybe just have a titular office in the valley?
I've started three startups. The first was in Scotland; the second was in Texas; the third was in San Francisco. The first one did the best - but it was bootstrapped. We didn't need any external funding to do what we wanted to do. Which is just as well. At the second, there was investment, but the investors didn't know anything about tech startups. They were approaching it as you might with a retail business. Returns were expected almost immediately and the risk profile was wrong. At the third, we raised investment immediately, from ethical investors who completely had our backs. Even if you don't want to raise investment - which is a great idea if you can pull it off! - you won't find a more concentrated set of people with deep experience in building a tech business. It's not about the engineering as much as the whole ecosystem: having advisors, lawyers, etc, who know about tech startups makes a huge difference. At that first startup, we came to SF regularly for that reason, and it made a difference. I live here now, and I know plenty of startups who fly in for regular trips for the same reason. That way you get the best of both worlds.
No, you can find funding and talent in numerous cities. LA, Seattle, Boston.
You can, but that concentration is exponentially smaller in all of them. Doesn't mean it's not possible, though.
Engineers are less distracted by women so they focus on the company more