Showing posts with label startup location. Show all posts
Showing posts with label startup location. Show all posts

Big City Startup vs. Small City Startup

startup location

Starting up in a big city differs a lot from starting up in a small city. No matter what business model, there are certain fixed differences when you start a company in either case.

Costs – Big cities tend to have higher costs of living and an entrepreneur will find it more difficult to sustain himself/herself.

Availability of Talent – A startup is as good as it’s team. Finding the right talent is crucial for any startup. Bigger cities tend to have a higher number of better and specialized colleges (though this cannot be generalized) and hence the availability of a good talent pool is higher. Also talent from bigger cities generally avoids settling in smaller cities due to the loss in lifestyle.

Regulation/Support – Bigger cities tend to be some years ahead in development as compared to smaller cities. The regulatory and support systems in bigger cities tends to be stronger for new entrepreneurs.

Market Size– Bigger cities have a bigger population, which implies a bigger target market for the startup.

Competition Levels – Startups in bigger cities tend to have more competition as compared to startups in smaller cities (this can partly be attributed to the bigger market size).

Is location important?

Is location important when you thinking about starting up? Should you startup in a particular city as compared to others? Why Silicon Valley or London, or Tel Aviv or Bangalore???



The answer is yes, a good location can assist the founders in their startup. Unless you are running a very offline or location specific business where you need to be stationed in the city of launch, it is advisable to move to a city where the startup ecosystem is stronger. In such cases as well, we can have a team in the city of launch to gather/execute the physical part of the business whereas the marketing, technology teams can be seated elsewhere. The reasons for choosing a city which is more conducive to startups are as follows:
- That is where the experts are. Having an established startup ecosystem will ensure that the location will have better more experienced people to mentor and assist you.
- The culture will ensure that you will feel in place and in general you will receive more assistance from people around. People will be more sympathetic and understanding towards what you are doing.
- Vendors & supporting Industries will be more established, thereby enabling your startup to grow with better services and experience supporting it.
- The funding community tends to be more active and involved in the city's startup scene.
- Finding co-founders and hiring the best talent will be easier, which gets drawn due to the city's reputation and culture.

Hence, if one has an option to shift, one should.