[tomjohnson3]

whenever i read comments about nyc's best developers ultimately being sucked into the vortex of finance, i want to gag.

i can only assume that these commenters haven't spent much quality time here (or in finance - which is, for the most part, not glamorous, but rather soul-sucking)...or they have spent some time here and have a very limited view of the city.

nyc is more than just wall street, "silicon alley" and midtown. i've worked in several places (boston, london, atlanta, san fran)...and i've never come across as rich a mixture of people who "make stuff" as i have in brooklyn.

on a related note: it'll be interesting if stanford ends up winning the bid to open a campus in NYC. (i think the navy yard location would be perfect!)

btw, great coffee (and serendipity-friendly) spots in brooklyn: gorilla, cafe grumpy, ...a new place called rucola (serves stumptown), and many many more.

[jquery]

Seeing as this is the top comment, could someone please back up this argument beyond personal anecdote? At least the people arguing the other direction are pointing at actual companies.

[tomjohnson3]

i'll throw down a few off the top of my head: foursquare, 10gen, etsy, a cool one called makerbot, stackoverflow, etc, etc., etc. ...but there are lots of little guys you probably haven't heard of yet popping out of columbia/nyu or the great design schools like pratt/etc. or coming out of the larger companies around here. it's actually an exciting time to be in the city...

listen, i love the valley. ...i just want people to know that my nyc is a creative and fun one. ...and you can live a happy/rich/fascinating existence here without touching a line of fintech code.

[jquery]

And you've gotten your point across nicely. But that's not the conversation here. It's whether it can catch up to the Valley anytime soon, a different question entirely than whether there are cool little companies scattered around. Here in San Francisco, you end up inside a tech company if you so much as sneeze. Twitter is moving across the street from my apartment. When I walk to get a sandwich I pass by several world-class tech companies and a dozen startups. New York isn't even in the same league. Maybe someday it will be... I hope so!

[tomjohnson3]

good points...i definitely get chills (in a good way) going down 101 or walking around soma, etc., feeling the energy of the tech companies all around me. it was definitely a motivating factor when i worked there. (lo those many years ago.)

(btw, the other comments seem to focus more on the mythical finance vortex here, which i'd love to debunk someday...hence the sidetrack.)

as for being in the "same league," i guess i dunno know what that means, really - from the perspective of a person trying to get an idea off the ground. (and i write this having started/sold one myself, been an early member of a company that went public, been part of a flame-out...and been through plenty of ups and downs over my startup-oriented tech career).

both have great access to capital...great engineers...pently of startups (not a smattering) and plenty of spots for serendipitous meetings with interesting people (we got plenty 'o those). ...i think the rest is pointless d#ck measuring when it comes down to it. any location is really what u make of it anyway - as long as you're not in a bad one.

don't get me wrong, i'd love to just bump into ron conway or PG at my local coffee spot. perhaps they'd visit the good people of brooklyn someday...over a latte with a side of capacitors at the local hacker collective. ;-)