I love NYC. My life is there. If I could move my startup to NYC, I would do it in a heartbeat. But every venture requires <i>capital</i>, some more than others. Pretty much all "early stage" funds make one or two early stage investments a year, most likely into someone they already know. That means most first-time entrepreneurs have to pitch to dozens of funds before they get funding. Most first-time startup founders I know scheduled three meetings with VCs per day, five days a week, for at least two-three weeks before they got anywhere. That's at least thirty meetings with all kinds of VCs of all shapes and sizes! If you were to do this in NYC, you'd exhaust your opportunities within two days. Six funds cannot possibly support a healthy startup ecosystem. The Valley has thousands, and I've still seen some good early stage teams that didn't get adequate funding. All arguments end here - no capital, no startup scene.<p>If you've already started a successful company before and you already have a good relationship with one of the funds in NYC (i.e. they invested in you before and you didn't screw it up), you can start thinking about starting up in NYC. If your company is taking off like a rocket, you can start thinking about moving to NYC (in this case you'll get funded pretty much anywhere). If you can bootstrap, you can start thinking about starting up in NYC. Otherwise, moving your startup to NYC is suicide.