[dworin]

I have a small company in New York, and agree with all of your reasons why it's terrible.

The one advantage besides talent pool (which is a big advantage!) that both New York and San Francisco have, and that's often overlooked, is proximity to customers. If you're in a business where high touch sales are important, or where you need to be able to meet regularly with your customers, it's very difficult to do remotely.

I'm not sure if the cost-benefit really plays out in New York's favor. I often think that for what it costs to live here, it might be cheaper just to fly in twice a month from someplace else. But it's certainly an advantage I underestimated when I started out.

[jusben1369]

Great point and I think the answer is both. We're in Durham and it's fundamentally cheaper for us to be here and for me to fly to the Bay Area every 90 days for a week (admittedly I have family there still so accommodation is free) However, there are a lot of customers or prospective customers I never met because I have to formally schedule it around a trip. No random meet ups. No "Oh, you guys are just 4 blocks over? To heck with email let's get coffee and explain what we're doing"

[silverlake]

Couldn't you put sales in NYC, but everything else in NJ/CT? Lots of banks have finally wised up to that.

[jrockway]

BofA sort of did that when I was there; important projects at 42nd/6th, most everyone else, downtown at WFC. (They also had an "offshore" office in Chicago, where I worked. Loved that term.)

Downtown is not quite New Jersey, but Midtown certainly seems to be the hotness these days.