“We’re betting that the future of America is going to be built in the middle of the country, in places with good government and a reasonable cost of living. In other words, places like Texas.”
Not even $3.6 billion worth of committed capital will keep top VCs in Silicon Valley anymore. Founding partner of 8VC, co-founder of Palantir, and lifelong Californian Joe Lonsdale wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal explaining his decision to move to Texas, “the new land of opportunity.” He joins a growing diaspora of disenchanted tech entrepreneurs fed up with San Francisco’s crumbling infrastructure and bureaucratic policies. As Adam Bluestein wrote in Marker back in July, this exodus bodes well for cities like Austin, which was already on its way to becoming the de facto, secondary outpost for tech talent before the pandemic hit in early March — and is likely to benefit from the remote work boom.
“As these workers flee the expensive coastal cities they’ve been golden-handcuffed to, Austin could find itself inheriting an entirely new class of workers who don’t actually work here,” writes Bluestein. “People won’t necessarily be flocking to Austin for jobs, but for all the other reasons they’ve been coming here at a rate of 150 people per day since 2010 — including no state income tax and a median home price of $405,000, compared to $1.3 million in San Francisco. Now, they’re just bringing their jobs along with them.”
