Comparing Houston to San Francisco: A Perspective

So I have been here in San Francisco for most of this week and will get on a plane back you H-Town in a few hours. Since I continually hear comparisons drawn between the Bay Area and Space City, I thought I would offer some of my observations:

• In San Francisco, capital pours into the city from all points; in Houston, capital exists in abundance and seeks “good” deals outside of the city.
• In San Francisco, angel investors and venture capitalists are investing in any deal that remotely smells of Web 2.0; in Houston, angel investors and the venture capitalist (singular) have made investments in a single-digit number of “so called” Web 2.0 companies, “so called” because they tend to be repackaged Web 1.0 companies.
• In San Francisco, there is a labor shortage even while developers and entrepreneurs are dying to get in; in Houston, the labor shortage for developers has been created by oil flirting with $100 a barrel and developers charging the major oil companies over $200 an hour.
• In San Francisco, the mantra is revenue at all costs; in Houston, the mantra is bootstrap and get profitable;
• In San Francisco, a CEO of a VC funded company can make greater than a six-figure salary and still take the bus to work from their one bedroom apartment that they pay over $2,000 a month for; in Houston, a CEO of a bootstrapped startup pays himself nothing and drives to work from Katy in their BMW.
• In San Francisco, failure is a badge of honor; in Houston, failure is a stigma.
• In San Francisco, you can swing a dead cat and hit 10 other well funded startups; in Houston, you need to get coffee downtown at Coffee Groundz to meet them.

I think y’all get the point. Perception may be reality but reality is constructed by perception so we do control reality.

Far out, man.