[jsjenkins168]

Even if this was as the title implied, I am doubtful it would be anything worth while without the right people. By right people I mean young, highly amititious, smart hackers.

And I am skeptical that you would find these types of hackers here in Austin. I'd love to be proved wrong though.

[pxlpshr]

Austin has a high volume of both young and smarter hackers but many of those are absorbed out of the city by big business thanks to a school curriculum heavily influenced by the aforementioned. And this has always been Austin's problem since UT became a major player...

However, that does not detract from the able and educated talent pool that spends 4-6 years in Austin before moving on and fresh talent cycles in. The school, city government, and local funds are somewhat involved but it's not enough and that's what we're trying to change -- slowly but surely.

We're getting premature news coverage of the idea(s) as much of this is still in planning, but is being shared at social events to sample interest and demand. However, the co-working space is very close to being secured. There was early discussion that the space itself would operate as non-profit, but later felt that it would slow us down reaching our goal of an affordable and accessible co-working space.

The idea of a Startup District is still very much just that, an idea. Let's not get hung up misinterpreting preliminary planning, or insulting local Austin-ites trying to make a difference for the city and it's people.

We encourage any Austinites to reach out if they're interested in helping/sponsoring.

[larrykubin]

I met the guy in the article at SXSW, and he is starting a co-working company, which is essentially a group of people who split the cost of a working space. This is nothing like YCombinator. They aren't giving seed money, etc.

This is more like what IndyHall does in Philly:

http://www.indyhall.org/

His second goal is to network together the various startups around Austin. Austin is always mentioned as a "startup hub", but living here it doesn't really feel that way. Maybe that can change. We tend to take more pride in our live music scene, which is great :).

I think Austin is awesome and there are very smart and creative folks here, but there aren't gigantic conferences every other weekend or a huge concentration of VC's. I do see plenty of folks in coffee shops with TextMate, vi, or Photoshop open. They are usually working on something cool, it's just not hyped up on TechCrunch and such.

[SwellJoe]

I moved from Austin to Silicon Valley. I now know that Austin is not a startup hub (and nowhere else is either). I used to think it was just a matter of degree, but Silicon Valley is really a dramatically different environment for starting a technology company than anywhere else in the world.

I think it's worth noting that even though Boston is considered the "second place" finisher in the startup hub races, not a single Y Combinator company has been funded in Boston, and about 90% of those from the Boston YC programs who keep working on their businesses move to the valley. I don't believe either of these things are accidents of history.

I'll move back to Austin when I "retire", or maybe even sooner, since a large percentage of our customer base is in Texas, but while we're in a position to need to raise money and to stay on top of the technology world, there's just no other place to be.

[johnerik]

exactly. almost nothing is a worthwhile venture without the "right people."

your statement suggests that you believe YOU are that type of person. ... instead of dis'ing your own city, i challenge you to do something about it.