Silicon Valley Moves to New York
If you’re living in San Francisco and working in a hot Valley startup or tech company, you probably have a bit of a commute. If you’re living in NYC and working in a hot startup in the area, not so much. Unlike those in the Valley, most tech companies in New York are in the city itself.
For the entertainment and edification of my northeastern readers, I’ve created a map that superimposes Valley companies on New York and Connecticut, assuming identical driving times (from midtown Manhattan and downtown San Francisco, respectively) and distance from commuter rail (Caltrain and Metro North’s New Haven line, respectively).
To make this more explicit, here are exactly where our Silicon Valley darlings would find themselves:
Adobe: Noroton Heights, Connecticut
Sun Microsystems: north side of Stamford, Connecticut
Apple: North Mianus, Connecticut
Google: North Greenwich, Connecticut
YCombinator: Greenwich, Connecticut
Facebook: Greenwich, Connecticut
Electronic Arts: between Mamaroneck and Eastchester, New York
Oracle: between Mamaroneck and Eastchester, New York
Wikia: Pelham Manor, New York
YouTube: Soundview, Bronx, New York
Zynga: Harlem, Manhattan, New York
On the flip side, most people who 'live in New york' don't live in Manhattan, they live in New Jersey, Long Island, Connecticut etc, so their commutes are just like Silicon Valley commutes
I cater to the young. Or the happy, at least.
Great post. I've made this point several times now in the NYC vs SV for startups debate.
Having recently moved from SV to NYC, I love how much more quickly I can get to startup offices and events. Even better, when I do travel, I do it by train. This means I don't need to pay for a car or car insurance, and it means that I can read my book while on the subway. In Silicon Valley, I couldn't afford a car and had to bike everywhere or be at the mercy of the Caltrain… a _very_ bad thing at 2:30am in San Francisco, I can tell you.
Also, Manhattan can be expensive (although the LES is not much worse than Palo Alto btw), but living in Harlem, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, or even NJ and Connecticut is much cheaper and, as the map above shows, adds only minutes to your commute time.
Are there any companies near hunt's point? I am there frequently
Since when is downtown SF the heart of SV?
Try distances from University Ave. in Palo Alto for a more realistic map.
Oh, and are you adjusting for the extra time spent dealing with snow?
Yes!! Or perhaps from Intel in Santa Clara. San Francisco is *not* in Silicon Valley. It is peripheral to it. If you want to fly to Silicon Valley, fly to SJC, not SFO.
This is a common misconception.
Sure, and people going to New York fly into EWR and JFK. That doesn't mean that Newark and Jamaica Queens have any relevance to where NYC's startup scene resides.
I care where innovative young people (22-35) who work in Valley companies live. And they overwhelming live in San Francisco.
Most young people who work at startups in NY live in Brooklyn or Manhattan. In the NY area, very few people young people without families live in the suburbs.
Yeah, DFJ Mott Haven just funded a check cashing and muffler repair shop down that way.
A Harlem-based Zynga would some pretty awesome games.
A Harlem-based Zynga would some pretty awesome games.