English: The western ramp and pylon of Brooklyn Bridge, New York City (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
NY has made its name as a prime destination for tech startups, as the The Wall Street Journal recently reported on why star up companies are attracted to the most expensive city in the United States, instead of setting up shop in a cheaper location, like Kansas. Rohan Deuskar is one example of a tech start up founder who decided to begin in NC. Deuskar won a $30,000 prize from a Wharton School business plan competition and moved his company, Stylitics (a website where consumers can track and share outfits), to Brooklyn. Deuskar and co-founder Zach Davis found it difficult to afford living in NY.
Two months after their move to Brooklyn, $800,000 in angel funding was granted to the startup. But according to Deuskar, this did not help alleviate pressure from the founders or the company. He claimed that hiring was the toughest problem they faced because of a lack of engineering talent, as he ended up paying $20,000 per hire in recruiter commissions when trying to find employees with an engineering background.
Then, Stylitics moved to a 1,800 sq ft space on West 36th for $5,500 a month. WSJ reporter Anne Kadet met with Deuskar to discuss why he decided to move his startup to NY. Apparently, their NY location paid off as the Stylitics founders have appeared at panels and spoken in Paris, which has impressed investors. Next year, Stylitics is set to pull in another $2 million in funding.
Kadet also spoke with founder of Tutorspree, Aaron Harris, who recently moved his start up from California to Tribeca. Harris told Kadet that NY has “normal people” and deciding to come to NY ”moves you out of your self-contained little bubble and helps you avoid group think.”
Kadet indicates that despite all of this, it is still difficult to know if the tech trend in NY will last.
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