In addition to already seeing an increasing number of engineers from both Seattle and Los Angeles applying to Triplebyte, two other trends drove our decision to open up in these two locations.
First we've seen a continual drop in the number of Seattle based engineers who are willing to relocate to the Bay Area. It's dropped by over half since the start of the year and it's the first sustained drop we've seen since starting Triplebyte in 2015.
Second, we've seen an increasing number of Bay Area engineers interested in moving to Los Angeles even as the average software engineer salaries in the Bay Area continue to grow.
As someone who moved halfway across the world and left family/friends to move to the Bay Area, it makes me sad to see how it's becoming increasingly difficult for people to move here. I believe this is the biggest threat to Silicon Valley's dominance as the center of the technology industry.
Why sad? I think it's great. It's awesome that folks can stay where their families are, where they want to live, and participate in this awesome industry. It's going to bring so much more wealth to other parts of the world. We should celebrate that.
Congrats on expanding, looking forward to when you come to the midwest!
> Why sad? I think it's great. It's awesome that folks can stay where their families are, where they want to live, and participate in this awesome industry.
In my case, the problem is needing to move away from where my friends & family are, because the bay area has gotten too expensive due mostly to the lack of housing. Given a choice, I'd rather be here.
It's sad because the cost of living is eliminating choice. It's great if you want to stay wherever you are and have a fulfilling life there. But it's still sad if someone else wants to move to the Bay Area and can't because prices have gotten out of control.
> As someone who moved halfway across the world and left family/friends to move to the Bay Area, it makes me sad to see how it's becoming increasingly difficult for people to move here. I believe this is the biggest thread to Silicon Valley's dominance as the center of the technology industry.
Yes, 100% this. The Bay Area's loss is rest-of-world's gain, so I suppose it's fine in that sense. But it's still really sad to see such completely and utter failure of leadership from our local politicians on housing, and our federal politicians on immigration.
As a person in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle-Vancouver area) it would require a truly ridiculous amount of money to convince me to live in the SF Bay/South Bay area, and physically commute to an office 5 days a week.
Considering the cost of California income taxes, housing costs, etc.
Vancouver has an insane housing market but it is still possible to buy a nice 2BD condo in a concrete high-rise building for a relatively reasonable price, that a couple with two professional level salaries can afford.
>> Vancouver has an insane housing market but it is still possible to buy a nice 2BD condo in a concrete high-rise building for a relatively reasonable price, that a couple with two professional level salaries can afford.
Yes, but is this the pinnacle we should aspire to reach?
2 professional salaries to eventually own a 2br condo somewhere in the lower mainland?
Vancouver and Toronto have a comparable ratio of salary to home costs as many of the hottest US locales right now. I don't see how it's a sustainable way to grow a city...
No, it's not ideal, but for my personal lifestyle choices I have no desire to deal with yard maintenance and tasks related to owning a regular single family home, whether in the city limits of Vancouver/Burnaby or in a suburb. I like being very close to the center of downtown and being able to walk most places, or take the Skytrain.
Vancouver is a much more pedestrian and transit friendly city than Seattle or anywhere else in the US outside of Manhattan.
When I compare what $700,000 (USD) buys in the south bay vs what $700,000 converted into Canadian at an exchange rate of 1.29 can buy, Vancouver still comes out way ahead.
Vancouver technology industry salaries are, sadly, significantly lower than Seattle or Bay area, or other large cities in the US (Chicago, Dallas, NY). There's a reason why so many Canadians leave to work in the US.
Yeah, moving out of Bay Area sounds more and more reasonable now. I wonder if salaries in Vancouver would match that in Seattle. Both of them are very interesting cities to move to
This is accurate. The tech industry is really anemic in Vancouver, to the extent that people consider HootSuite a "big deal" and it's mentioned in the local media as an example of a big, successful company. The total number of employers with >15 staff doing something IT/Networking/Software Development/Internet related is a lot lower in Vancouver.
I always wonder why the Stripes (and similar) of the world don't build engineering outposts in LA. It seems like it would get them access to large pools of devs in the same time zone and just a short flight from the main office in SF.
The FAANG of the world do it, but any idea why it's not more common with midsize or large startups.
Harj, I'm curious, what's involved in "launching a city" for Triplebyte? Why not accept candidates from anywhere? From an employer's perspective, I would love your service in Toronto.
Many of my friends from the Bay Area have been moving down to Los Angeles. Better weather, larger city, and booming tech opportunities - although CoL is still somewhat high compared to Seattle/etc
I moved to Seattle from the Bay Area 4 years ago. Uprooting my family aside, it would take a phenomenal opportunity to get me to move back, even though I loved it there and still miss it.
Hopefully you get over to Boston soon. It looks like you've got an actually decent recruiting process, but the Bay Area, LA and NYC are not places I would ever go live, for love or money, and while Seattle is charming, it's way the heck across the other side of the world.
> it makes me sad to see how it's becoming increasingly difficult for people to move here. I believe this is the biggest threat to Silicon Valley's dominance as the center of the technology industry
Absolutely. Highest income tax in the nation, couple with some of the highest cost of living in the world.
SV is in big trouble once more non-SV companies start paying comp that is competitive with SV.
This is already happening and I know several great engineers who preferred offers for the same or slightly lower comp outside of SV.
The trend will be strongest among senior and veteran engineers, since buying a decent house and raising a family is virtually non-affordable in SV.
Especially since SV was never great about paying extra for senior and experienced engineers. They're going to have a serious problem when the only people willing to relocate to SV are fresh grads willing to live with roommates.
California has benefited immensely from SV growing in its backyard, but now that this fortunate growth needs some tending, California is just shrugging its shoulders, and in some cases making it worse (e.g. NIMBY laws in SF preventing new construction).
First we've seen a continual drop in the number of Seattle based engineers who are willing to relocate to the Bay Area. It's dropped by over half since the start of the year and it's the first sustained drop we've seen since starting Triplebyte in 2015.
Second, we've seen an increasing number of Bay Area engineers interested in moving to Los Angeles even as the average software engineer salaries in the Bay Area continue to grow.
As someone who moved halfway across the world and left family/friends to move to the Bay Area, it makes me sad to see how it's becoming increasingly difficult for people to move here. I believe this is the biggest threat to Silicon Valley's dominance as the center of the technology industry.