[maxawaytoolong]

If you already are running a startup from your dorm, the main reason to stay in college is to meet women. Honestly, there is no easier venue, and the chance to have a captive audience of thousands of women looking for a boyfriend will never happen again in your life. You should be one of the most ballin' dudes at Bentley.

NYC is the second easiest place in the USA to meet women. It's not as easy as when you're in college. But it's about 100x better than Silicon Valley.

Relationships might seem unimportant when compared to your potential bazillion dollar website, but even the most autistic geeky weirdos want companions - see all of livejournal as evidence. I did startups in SV/SF for 10 years and could count the number of women I worked with on 2 hands. If you're working 12 hours a day, when are you going to meet the other women who aren't working at startups? At the bar, after work. But, you could go to any bar and there would be no women there, either. You end up condemning yourself to a life of near chastity hoping your startup sells so you can maybe attract a mate based on your bank account. That probably won't even work, there are loads of rich dudes in SF/SV who can't get a date.

The NYC startup scene is OK but kind of stupid. There is a lot of dumb money. For example, GroupMe got $10M for a product that took 24 hours to build and has already been built by a dozen other companies over the years. The guys working on it are basically drunks and stoners and guys who follow jam bands around. (Check their twitter history, I'm not just being snide.) I actually think they are cool dudes but I'm just using them as an example that the bar for funding in NYC is way lower compared to SV. The nouveau startup wunderkinds in SF/SV are now all straight-laced type-a achievers who went to Philips Andover, Yale, Stanford, MIT, etc.

(This is actually really weird, cuz it's the opposite of the previous bubble where SV/SF was a bunch of bipolar freaks and dropouts with purple dreadlocks, and you needed to go to Choate and Princeton and wear a suit to get a job in NYC)

I spent about 2 years in NYC hanging out with startups and came to the conclusion that most of them are just "playing startup." The startups that make the most sense there are startups that target the NYC market first, like Gilt and Foursquare and media/blog empire things like Gawker, Tumblr, and DailyBeast. GroupMe works well in NYC, too, as the main activity is to go out at night and you can use it to sync up. So if your plan is to service the NYC market first and then see how it spreads from there, it's not a bad place to be and it should be trivial for you to get funding $$$.

[mahmud]

If you already are running a startup from your dorm, the main reason to stay in college is to meet women.

I will freeze that comment in time, it might end up going on HN's tombstone.

[charlesju]

I actually found it significantly easier to meet women outside of college. I was a Computer Science major and all I did was go to my classroom with all males and work on my hw/projects with all males. Further, as you get older, you have more and more women you can date.

[mahmud]

I have been upvoted for some unknown reason. My point was that such a crass, anti-intellectual comment is what is killing HN.

I have no further interest in discussing what aches the hearts of hormonal youth.

[fooandbarify]

I agree that one of the cool things about HN is the level of discourse, but the idea that geeks must be social luddites should die. There is nothing crass about wanting to meet women in college, nor is it anti-intellectual.

[mahmud]

Nothing wrong with it; but saying 4 years of your youth + $100k + all the opportunity to learn and grow is somehow worth wasting just for the sake of meeting "girls" is stupid.

There are women HNers too, but you don't hear them say boys are the highlight of the university experience.

[todayiamme]

>>> There are women HNers too, but you don't hear them say boys are the highlight of the university experience. <<<

Thank you. It's just shocking to me that no one called him out. The very idea that the central purpose of college is sex, sex and more sex is just disgusting. I'm not a prude by any means, but seriously what is this guy advocating?

I know that this comment really doesn't add much to the conversation, but I just can't help it. This conversation is the last thing I expected on HN, and I haven't been around for that long!

[fooandbarify]

Fair enough. I agree with you that "the main reason to stay in college" should not be to meet women, but I do think it's a valuable benefit of the college experience. Especially in such a male-dominated industry, having females in my social circle is an important consideration.

[billclerico]

Jared and Steve (founders of GroupMe) are some of the best entrepreneurs I've ever met. Your characterization is ill informed and just plain wrong. The fact that they were able to take a simple idea and implement it so successfully speaks to their ability as operators.

I also don't think quality entrepreneurs base decisions about where to start a company on where it's easiest to get laid. Most quality entrepreneurs that I know have no problem meeting women wherever they are because they are passionate, outgoing, interesting people.

Also, GroupMe's major investor is Khosla Ventures, which is a west coast firm. So I am not sure how that speaks to NYC as a "dumb money" scene.

[maxawaytoolong]

I call bullshit on you as I know everyone involved. They are great, but can you deny the part about jam bands and a history of drunk tweets by their engineers? There's a whole website about "things X says when he's drunk" where X is the engineer I'm talking about.

If you don't think it's important to get laid, good on you, you've transcended to the next level of hacker zen. If you think it's easy to get laid in Silicon Valley, you are a bartender with a huge dick, not the VP of Product for Whatever.com.

As a New Yorker I am allowed to call bullshit, too.

[SeoxyS]

Firstly, there is absolutely nothing wrong with drinking about debauchery in general. I live in SF, work at a Palo Alto startup and attended college in Berkeley and found that entrepreneurship and debauchery went very well together. The startup I work for exited to a Fortune 50 company for a great deal of money, and has a fridge stocked with beer. I drink a lot—and yet still get great work done.

Meeting girls has not really been a problem either. Palo Alto has Stanford, tho its girls tend to be way too smart for me. SF is the world's most promiscuous city (SF State girls are great!), and Berkeley is a huge college town.

[billclerico]

I also know everyone involved.

As a former New Yorker transplanted to Palo Alto, I can attest that there are less girls here, but I have not had trouble meeting them.

Why is drinking and listening to jam bands reflective of their ability as a company? I can cite many examples of famous entrepreneurs who have well documented episodes of drinking or using drugs. Steve Jobs would be the most obvious.

[maxawaytoolong]

After thinking about it for a moment, I guess I'm totally wrong. Guys who built an awesome app in 24 hours, then improved it and raised $10M during brief moments of sobriety in between jam band benders... Those guys are superhuman.

Good job on meeting girls in PA. The secret of dating in SV/SF that I wish I knew when I moved there: the women are all in Palo Alto, Pac Heights, and The Marina. That may not be your "type" but it's better to broaden your range than hold out for what you think is your best match. It's not like in NYC where there's a match (or 10) for everyone.

Sadly, I think sometimes my posts come off as mean-spirited. I consider myself sort of a forum comedian who tries to throw some wisdom in while being entertaining. I wasn't trying to disparage GroupMe. I actually like and use their service! On the other hand, I also don't think anything I said is factually inaccurate!

[aberman]

"After thinking about it for a moment, I guess I'm totally wrong."

And yet, your totally wrong and snarky comments above get up-voted. Go figure.

"The secret of dating in SV/SF that I wish I knew when I moved there: the women are all in Palo Alto, Pac Heights, and The Marina."

And you said you were here for 10 years? Based on the amount of real-estate you devoted to talking about getting girls, I'm guessing you're not too good at it. Yes, it's harder to get girls in SF than in NYC, but the people droning on about it are as hopeless in SF as they are anywhere else.

[todayiamme]

You sound like the epitome of a hormonal teenager. I know this was an ad hominem, but seriously is sex more important than doing great work? Really?

Moreover, what happened to love and quality relationships? What I'm getting across from your comment is basically mindless one nighters and the entire getting laid gig. Sure there are some places on earth where it's better to do that, but love, true love, can blossom anywhere you go.

Further, your comment is the most disgusting thing I've ever read on HN. It's crass in all of the wrong ways and it reads like some 14 year old on steroids wrote it. If your self worth is determined by how many women you take to bed then, trust me, you will be a lonely man indeed.

That said I really hope that I misread your comments.

[bluekite2000]

" If you think it's easy to get laid in Silicon Valley, you are a bartender with a huge dick, not the VP of Product for Whatever.com" LOL. This is the best sentence I have read on hackers news by far.

[iamelgringo]

Dude, this is Hacker News.

Please avoid comments like "The guys working on it are basically drunks and stoners and guys who follow jam bands around. "

Not cool, and not helpful to the level of discourse.

[jamesteow]

This might be the funniest comment I've ever read here.

I can't disagree. I've lived in NY for the last few years and I have found it so much harder to find women in SF. Though, I'm sure some people will have contrasting stories.

[defen]

> NYC is the second easiest place in the USA to meet women.

Out of curiosity, what is #1?

[random42]

Colleges

[InfinityX0]

I agree wholeheartedly with SF being pretty difficult to meet women. I was there for six months and had a hell of a time after leaving college. I've since relocated to Seattle to work - and it's been incredibly easy comparatively.

I can't really posit why that is, besides maybe the depressing rain making finding a mate the only relatively common thing to do here. Or, maybe, the women's standards are way lower. Either way, it's easier.

[gordonc]

"Playing startup." Most apt description I've heard of the New York 'tech' scene yet.