It is most likely that Zed didn't work with some of the most interesting startups in New York because he was too busy stroking his own ego and thinking he was too good for them. ;-) (this is mostly a joke, Zed is a great guy but he loves pissing people off.)<p>So I'll take the bait and present:<p>Exhibit A: A list of the most well-known startups in NYC seems to completely disagree with what Zed is saying (Edit: that you need to be in <i>banking, marketing, government or publishing</i> to do a startup in NYC.)<p>1. Meetup<p>2. DoubleClick<p>3. Vimeo<p>4. Etsy<p>5. Gilt Groupe<p>6. Boxee<p>7. FourSquare<p>8. Tumblr<p>9. Bit.ly/Betaworks<p>10. Blip.tv<p>11. Drop.io<p>12. Hunch<p>13. omgpop<p>I've been here 6 years now, and think New York is about as great a place to build a startup than anywhere else in the country. Sure, there's a lot of hype around NYC and starutps and finance is still a huge part of the scene but if you want to build your startup here, don't let these silly posts get you down!