Last week I spent a few days in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York.
It’s a common stop for many ambitious young people between 28 and 32. They move there after they’re done with the every-night Manhattan party scene, and before they couple up and move somewhere with a yard.
The first thing you notice is how fit everyone is.
I was walking with a cofounder of mine from Argentina, who’s a fit guy. He said, “I haven’t seen any place in America that’s this thin.”
It’s a competitive neighborhood. And the fitness level is just one face of it.
We had posted up in a nondescript coworking space, and it was full of people seemingly all working on “Internet money” businesses — ecommerce, software, agency work, recruiting businesses (like Hire With Near, for all your LatAm hiring needs!)
What struck me wasn't the volume. It was the casual leakage of information.
Routinely, these people would turn around, ask their neighbor a question, and learn something they didn’t know.
Or I overheard someone saying, “That company over there is making bank; we can do better!”
Since COVID started in 2020, the promise has been that we’d all be able to work remotely and that geography would cease to matter.
But Williamsburg felt like the counterpoint. And I know the same is happening in San Francisco for tech or LA for culture or Nashville for musicians or New York for finance or Boston for biotech or Chicago for deep dish pizza (that’s a joke!).
It pays to be in the mecca of your chosen industry.
Can you succeed in other places, like San Antonio, Salt Lake City, and Sacramento? Of course. But you’re often doing so on hard mode.
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Go to your mecca. Hire from anywhere.
Whether you're in SF for tech, New York for finance, or Nashville for whatever Nashville is for — you should be where the action is.
But your team doesn't all need to be there with you. Near places senior professionals from Latin America — same time zones, fluent English, world-class talent — at a fraction of US salaries.
Go where you need to go. Build your team through Near.
Book a free call → hirewithnear.com/girdley
Find your mecca
Bill Gurley (major Silicon Valley VC) has some counterintuitive advice on location:
“I think many cities, whether it’s Austin or Miami, have a problem: they’re a lot of fun. There’s a question as to whether you attract the very most determined founders… There are a lot of contagious qualities to successful startups.”
Watch the whole interview here.
My advice: pick the undisputed capital of the thing you’re working on. Then just go there — if only to scout it out.
Thanks for reading.
Michael
P.S. By the way: Bill Gurley has a book on how to find a career you actually love. Smart guy. Worth it if you’re still looking for your path.
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