When people think of tech hubs, they think first of San Francisco and Silicon Valley. In fact, many people don’t realize that those are two different places. The two often get mentally categorized together.
But the old guard may be on its way out. Tech job growth in Seattle is outpacing tech job growth in San Francisco and Silicon Valley. Many people in the Bay Area are looking to jump ship because the personal cost for success in that area is simply getting to be too high.
Many people in San Francisco are also fed up with the extreme homeless problem, the extreme cost of housing and the dating scene. They are disgruntled and looking for greener pastures.
Many of these people are heading north for the lower cost of housing and better work-life balance that can be found in Seattle. They are heading there as a means to secure a serious and well-paid tech career without giving up the kind of lifestyle they desire. Seattle is getting to be known as the place to be for people in tech who want to escape the insanity of the San Francisco Bay Area.
The greater Seattle area is generally more family-friendly than the San Francisco Bay Area. This is true in part because the cost of housing in Seattle is dramatically lower, making it possible to comfortably support a family on a tech salary.
Seattle has relatively mild weather year-round, yet you are a short drive to the mountains where you can find serious winter weather for sports like skiing or snowboarding. You are also not far from an international border and can readily visit parts of Canada if you so desire. You don’t even need a passport to go up there. You just need to make sure you have the right kind of Washington state ID card.
Seattle has an international airport and is not far from the state capital. If your business has need of international imports, the deep water Port of Grays Harbor is a day closer to Asia than any other port on the West Coast.
So Seattle boasts essential business assets to make your company a success and also offers terrific quality of life. But there’s another good reason to locate in Seattle.
The tech scene has long been hired from out of the area. No matter where you start a tech company, you can count on needing to bring people in from elsewhere. There are simply never enough local people with the right kind of skills and talent to meet the needs of a growing business.
This has long been true in the San Francisco Bay Area and it is also true in Seattle. But long distance moving in Seattle gets great support from local companies going back more than a hundred years.
Suddath knows that trust is paramount, so they take background checks seriously and do drug testing. The company is an early adopter of safety tech.
This moving company also has three million square feet of climate-controlled storage at SeaTac International Airport. Short and long-term storage is often essential pieces of the moving puzzle, especially for long-distance moves.
Never look back. Always look forward. Seattle is looking a lot like it is going to be the future of the tech scene in the US.
Starting your tech company there now is a good way to catch the wave and help propel your company to success. It’s an excellent way to sidestep the myriad problems in the San Francisco Bay Area while still having access to world-class talent and a thriving tech business ecosystem.
