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I'd go southeast. close to the airport, lots of office space, and close to affordable apartments.
I'm a web developer. I worked (very briefly) for a startup that was located on dirty sixth. They were a couple of rich kids from Stanford Business School with a less than stellar idea, but more importantly they had an angel with some deep pockets. They leased a space across the street form the driskill hotel and had it slightly modified to an acceptable environment. However, that building was more than 100 years old and was too far gone to undergo a renovation.
(I could hear the rats in the AC vents during the redundant meetings they called everyday.)
After work they'd go drink on 6th street. I went with them one night and I asked the founder why he decided to set up shop downtown, and he gave me the predictable answer "we wanted to be in the middle of everything"
IMO this was a huge blunder. aside from the daily chaos of 6th street, there was the lack of parking (which the company didn't help out with at all. so I paid $7 a day to park. and on startup salary, that's a nice lunch budget). And then there's the events - SXSW, ACL, etc. Everything that brings people into town.
I ended up trying to park my car far out and then ride my bike in. Mission fail: Austin is 95 degrees and humid at 7am in the summertime. Nothing like starting my day DRENCHED in sweat... I needed a 2nd shower before I could grab my first cup of coffee!
So obviously my advice is to stay away from central. Austin is a great city but as stated on citydata, our infrastructure woes are not to be overlooked.
That said...Good Luck!
p.s.
Feel free to PM me with any recruiting information. I'm always interested in investigating opportunities.
ATXhomeSeeker>>
I honestly don't think you can get much talent to come close to airport.
those areas are just filled with trailer house lots for sales.
construction material.
or worse montopolis.
you are right
from intersection of 183 and Mlk to Cameron and Mlk you might find a few places that are more affordable than say north west austin. and would be somewhat acceptable as an office. (say where social security office is.)
but I personally have not seen Tech company move there. it might create recruiting issues.
most of the recommendations are not good for a trendy tech startup. most of the big profile tech startups are downtown or south congress.
Take a look at the startup tour of austin that occurs as part of SXSWi.
rents run between 25-30/sq ft (per year)
parking will cost your company extra, but as long as the company pays, parking isnt a problem. Locating downtown will give your employees access to austins most trendy bars/restaurants.
Your burn rate will be higher downtown than anywhere else. You have to ask yourself if that extra expense is actually worth it. My experience is that the downtown hipster factor is overrated. I say you'll get more good talent with higher salaries and better perks than with higher rent.
Obviously a lot of the big boys are saying no, it's not worth it to be downtown. Cisco and Google and Apple and others have gone north, the General Motors Design Center is going into the former Dell building on Parmer Lane in Tech Ridge, and the huge Samsung plant is further out on Parmer. And there are a dozen more, those are just the ones that come to mind quickly.
parking will cost your company extra, but as long as the company pays, parking isnt a problem. Locating downtown will give your employees access to austins most trendy bars/restaurants.
Have you ever worked at a start-up before? I don't think a single person at the software start-up that I worked for or the ones that friends worked for in Nor-Cal ever had anyone that cared about trendy bars or restaurants. I can't imagine start-ups in Austin being much different. You wake up at 8:30am so you can get to work by 9:30am. Then you work until about 7:30pm or 8:00pm. The people with families would leave around then and everyone else would play Counter-Strike or Battlefield 3 until about 9:30pm or 10:00pm. Then you head home and repeat the next day.
The start-up routine does not need downtown or trendy bars. Any office building off of Burnet or Jollyville Rd. with easy access to Freebird's, Taco Deli, and Costco to stock the fridge with Mountain Dew and Diet Coke will do the trick in my opinion.
ATXhomeSeeker>>
I honestly don't think you can get much talent to come close to airport.
those areas are just filled with trailer house lots for sales.
construction material.
What we can't have a startup in a modern trailer house? Design the thing like a star trek ship
You made some good points. After some reconsideration... I didn't mean to imply right across the street from the Airport or down by McKinney. I'm talkin Stassney, St. Elmo, William Canyon.
Consider it a forecast... when factor the growth rate Austin is experiencing, along with rising costs, traffic congestion. My guess is that its inevitable we'll see more sprawl. With plenty of open space, SouthEast is going to be a hotspot and the next pocket of development in the next 5 years or so. Like the above poster mentioned, dedication to a startup is a 10+ hour a day commitment. That said, no need to have any distractions in the immediate vicinity.
Downtown Austin pricing is on par with some way bigger cities these days... Save on overhead, allocate more funding for talent, arrange for an easy transition by setting up camp near newer built apartments that are 1/4 the costs of downtown living. Then if things pick up you can always move closer to the big crunch.
What we can't have a startup in a modern trailer house? Design the thing like a star trek ship
You made some good points. After some reconsideration... I didn't mean to imply right across the street from the Airport or down by McKinney. I'm talkin Stassney, St. Elmo, William Canyon.
Consider it a forecast... when factor the growth rate Austin is experiencing, along with rising costs, traffic congestion. My guess is that its inevitable we'll see more sprawl. With plenty of open space, SouthEast is going to be a hotspot and the next pocket of development in the next 5 years or so. Like the above poster mentioned, dedication to a startup is a 10+ hour a day commitment. That said, no need to have any distractions in the immediate vicinity.
Downtown Austin pricing is on par with some way bigger cities these days... Save on overhead, allocate more funding for talent, arrange for an easy transition by setting up camp near newer built apartments that are 1/4 the costs of downtown living. Then if things pick up you can always move closer to the big crunch.
are we talking about west of 35 or east of it?
is it just me or there is just a ton of storage and Home Depots in that Area.
I have driven through it. lots of nice looking houses.
but have not really seen and tech company down there. I think one thing to recognize is that. you do need to go to where might be hot. you can go to where is established as a business.
once you make enough profit and enough money. then you can take a look after three years.
go to the location that fits the best and has most amount of prestige or that point is closest to employee homes.
since I am a software guy.
I have worked in round rock.
I have worked in North West Austin
and I have worked south.
let me comment.
---
are you guys gone fly alot?
if yes you might consider locating south (it is a bit more expensive and popular lately)
by south i mean sompe place south of the river on Mopac Express way
untill Mopac Intersect with Capital of 360 highway.
or perhaps somplace on south lamar (some place on south lamar south of the river)
the positive stuff about south austin is that food options are just way more. and young people tend to like a bit more.
and if you really rich it is better for you office is slightly close to the airport. (10 minutes closer)
and if you live in westlake south austin is a bit quicker to get to.
--- now
I my self live in North west austin (arboretum ara)
and I am biased on it. food options are not greatest. but you could say they are second best in austin.
it is a bit more affordable that south austin.
if there is no traffic you could be in airport in 25 minutes.
you could get to affluent (west lake) or poor neighborhoods in about 15-20 minute with moderate traffic.
and arboretum itself is upper middle class.
now two places to avoid cedar park (north 620 and 183 ) intersection there is pretty much no well known IT company.
Round Rock (if you young guys working for you.) dont go there. the food really is not like austin. and really techs have stopped going there. pretty much we have Dell and a Ge subsidiary in RoundRock. more than anything the food really sucks.
if you want an affordable place (with 5 million i would say you do). I would focus on the following area.
---norhtwest---
focus on Mopac Expressway North of Farwest blvd and mopac express way south of braker lane. (google and bunch of other players there)
focus on 183 norh of intersection with Mopac. and south of McNeil/Spicewood. (there is apple,Charles Schwab in Oaknoll area)
I honestly would not go to domain. I think it would be over priced realstate. the restaurants and people who hang out at the domain are also a bit over rated.
stay out of anything south of 183 and mopac intersection.
you can probably find the cheapest prices in cedar park and next round rock.
but if would recommend to going to second cheapest. which is what i outlined in your northwest search.
Thanks for the recommendations man. I would definitely check them out. We have 3 people from SF moving here and 2 from Auckland, new zealand, 1 from Bangalore, India and locally from austin we have to hire around 4 guys for our web-app division and database management, 2 objective C developers, including 2 for marketing management and one chef. There will be more guys we will hire as we move forward in next 6 months.
4 people are moving with families.
Thanks again! I would definitely check your recommendations out!
I'd go southeast. close to the airport, lots of office space, and close to affordable apartments.
I'm a web developer. I worked (very briefly) for a startup that was located on dirty sixth. They were a couple of rich kids from Stanford Business School with a less than stellar idea, but more importantly they had an angel with some deep pockets. They leased a space across the street form the driskill hotel and had it slightly modified to an acceptable environment. However, that building was more than 100 years old and was too far gone to undergo a renovation.
(I could hear the rats in the AC vents during the redundant meetings they called everyday.)
After work they'd go drink on 6th street. I went with them one night and I asked the founder why he decided to set up shop downtown, and he gave me the predictable answer "we wanted to be in the middle of everything"
IMO this was a huge blunder. aside from the daily chaos of 6th street, there was the lack of parking (which the company didn't help out with at all. so I paid $7 a day to park. and on startup salary, that's a nice lunch budget). And then there's the events - SXSW, ACL, etc. Everything that brings people into town.
I ended up trying to park my car far out and then ride my bike in. Mission fail: Austin is 95 degrees and humid at 7am in the summertime. Nothing like starting my day DRENCHED in sweat... I needed a 2nd shower before I could grab my first cup of coffee!
So obviously my advice is to stay away from central. Austin is a great city but as stated on citydata, our infrastructure woes are not to be overlooked.
That said...Good Luck!
p.s.
Feel free to PM me with any recruiting information. I'm always interested in investigating opportunities.
Thanks man. I definitely understand this, been there in past.
It ain't a startup up anymore but Bazaar Voice's office is out on 360, the had an office on Mopac but moved due to cost/space. I think for 35 people having free parking is key. There is a ton of office space available outside of downtown. I mean I think you need to decide if you want to impress people with location or be practical.
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