[akerl_]

> I don't know if it's my location in the bible belt

Yes. You really need to start looking for either remote jobs that are headquartered elsewhere, or start looking to relocate to one of those places. The second will likely get you more culture, there are plenty of good remote companies but also plenty of bad ones.

SF seems to be the commonly-referenced location, but really any city. Portland, DC, New York, really anywhere that's not bible belt.

[ryanSrich]

Having lived in DC and now Portland I can confidently say that DC's tech scene is several orders of magnitude larger than Portland's.

Portland is one of my favorite cities I've lived in but it's not a tech city by any means. If you're looking for tech culture you should definitely look elsewhere.

This can also be said about a number of other cities.

> but really any city

...is not that great of an answer. I mean look at Philly. Philly is a massive city but it's not a tech giant nor does it have a huge tech culture. Houston, Dallas, San Diego, etc. These cities are not necessarily known for their tech culture.

But this is all relative. To me Portland doesn't seem like a tech city because I've lived in DC where they average > 1000 attendees at tech meetups.

Edit: Portland OR, not ME

[sbierwagen]

  Portland is one of my favorite cities I've lived in but it's 
  not a tech city by any means.

Are you talking about Portland, Maine, rather than Portland, Oregon?

[ryanSrich]

Ah sorry. No I'm speaking about Portland, Oregon. Certainly a growing city but by no means a tech/tech-startup city.

But then again it's all relative. Someone coming from the bible belt might consider Portland to be a tech city.

[poulsbohemian]

When were you last in Portland, OR? I bounce between there and Seattle and I'd say Portland has at least as vibrant a tech/startup scene as Seattle, even if there isn't as much VC activity. It isn't just Intel and HP in Portland anymore either.

[ryanSrich]

I actually currently live in The Pearl. I've found that the gap between DC and Portland, in terms of startup culture, is shocking.

Here is why I think Portland's startup/tech culture is lacking:

1.) In DC I had ~12 co-working spaces to choose from. All of which had both bull-pen and dedicated office space. One of the spaces I worked out of had ~10 startups with their own offices, and that was just at the single location in Arlington. At their other 3 locations they had just as many if not more. In Portland I maybe have 2 solid co-working spaces to choose from and as far as I know none of them are supporting any well known startups.

2. Meetups in Portland are very low key and don't draw very many attendees. I mean check out this meetup in DC[1]. It had close to 900 confirmed attendees. From experience I'd say at least 70% of those confirmed actually showed up. Portland on the other hand has only 70[2] confirmed attendees for a very similar event.

3. There's a lack of startup accelerators and incubation in Portland. PIEPDX seems to be the largest (and looks awesome). Nike moved FuleLab to SF this year[4] and everything else that I've researched seems to have closed down. In DC you have 1776[5], Acceleprise[6] and The Fort[7].

Perhaps comparing the two isn't fair as DC is a larger city. These are simply my observations as a person who has lived in both places.

It could also be that I'm just not looking in the right places. I know startups like Simple, Treehouse and New Relic are all in Portland, I just haven't seen any presence from them (be it at meetups or otherwise).

To be honest, one of the reasons I love living in Portland is because it's tech/startup culture is smaller than other cities. I'm excited to be part of it's growth.

• 1. http://www.meetup.com/DC-Tech-Meetup/events/154948792/

• 2. http://www.meetup.com/PDX-Tech/

• 3. http://www.piepdx.com/

• 4. http://www.nikefuellab.com/

• 5. http://1776dc.com/

• 6. http://acceleprise.vc/east-coast/

• 7. http://fortify.vc/Fortifyventures/

p.s. - Let me know if you're up for a coffee the next time you're in town. I'm always interested in meeting HNers.

[wuliwong]

I have lived in Philadelphia, Boston and Atlanta. I was pleasantly surprised to find Atlanta's tech scene to be quite a lot further along than Philadelphia. I'm sure Boston's is the most developed but I was only beginning my transition into web development and startups. In Boston I worked in physics research.

I really don't think it has much to do with the "bible belt" as much as it has to do with being in a large metro area and then different metros have different strengths and weaknesses. I mean, Georgia Tech is in Atlanta, it is one of the premier engineering schools in the world. Somehow it has managed to prosper despite being located in the bible belt.

[aedifico]

I'm not opposed to moving, but aside from just jumping in do you have any recommendations on where to start?

Obviously cost of living, things to do in the city, etc. But should I also try to ascertain hard numbers on the "growth" of the tech sector in that area?

[treehau5]

Didn't think Charlotte and Atlanta would get overlooked so easily.

[pc86]

They don't fit the narrative that you need to live in one of a handful of cities to be a "real" developer.

[akerl_]

I mostly left them out based on not having experienced their tech scene. Apologies for the omission.

[johnward]

I'll throw in Pittsburgh. There is some type of tech meetup pretty much every night.