[madcaptenor]

Seconding Atlanta. I moved here from San Francisco in the spring, because living in SF just didn't seem sustainable and at my (not old!) age I was starting to feel old. There are lots of startups here although I took a job at a large company.

(Don't move here if you don't like traffic, though.)

[wuliwong]

Thirding Atlanta. My point of reference is Philadelphia (not in the bible-belt). Atlanta has significantly more startups and acquisitions than in Philadelphia, at least in the areas that I interact. Even with Philadelphia being home of First Round Capital, there isn't a lot of hometown investments in their portfolio compared to their SF ones.

This bashing of the 'bible-belt' is just silly. It's just as close minded and prejudiced as what the bashers accuse the residents of the 'bible-belt' to be. Go out to Western PA or northern New York and tell me about the 'startup culture' there vs. the bible-belt.

My guess is that nearly any metro area is going to have a superior startup culture compared with nearly any rural area. As far as comparing city vs. city, I would guess there isn't a real solid rule to follow. Probably requires some investigation and also factor in your own personal likes and dislikes.

[madcaptenor]

Philadelphia has a good number of startups as well, as I discovered when I was doing job searches in Philadelphia and Atlanta simultaneously. (I'm originally from Philly and my wife went to college to Atlanta and loved it, so both were places we had ties to when we decided we'd had it with San Francisco.)