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Originally Posted by We vs us
Yeah, I get that Houston's int'l, too . . . but I think of it far less as a cultural option for a tech co than Dallas. TBH, I don't think of Dallas as a cultural option either, but I put it a smidge above Houston. And "cultural" here is only "tech culture" not overall diversity.
I definitely see Austin shaping up as a compelling choice -- but especially for TikTok (and companies like them), being connected to other global hubs would seem important, and maybe a top tier priority. And we're just not quite there yet, IMO. (Part of me has been starting to wonder if that's why we aren't a place that gets HQs yet. As meteroic as our rise has been, maybe infrastructure and connectivity hasn't risen quite fast enough? I dunno, I just get the sense that we're not quite to that spot yet.)
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I'm not so sure a company like TikTok is so concerned with global connectivity than let say a Samsung or Tesla. It's a web platform. Dell seems to be quite happy in Round Rock.
Prior to COVID, Austin was pretty darn well connected to the world. If I counted correctly, ABIA has four, large European airlines serving it. None of them have officially pulled their respective routes (even though all but BA have no restart date publicized). I expect all of them to have scheduled service out of ABIA (at least temporarily abbreviated) by the end of 2021. Having said that, Norwegian will need to weather this downturn. And, that is in question.
Additionally, Austin may not have a ton of Fortune 500 HQ's - it does have its fair share of "second HQs" (at least in terms of being home the the largest offices of certain companies outside of their respective global HQ). And, most cities who are of comparable size to Austin who have more Fortune 500 HQs is mainly due to the fact said companies were founded in those cities. Remember, Austin was a relatively small town not 25-30 years ago (Austin's metro surpassed 1 million in 1995 and was roughly 750,000 in 1990).
Dallas does have a decent amount of tech companies. However...pick a business magazine...Austin is almost always ranked higher than the DFW area regarding the tech industry - in general. Almost every major city in the U.S. is going to have their fair share of tech company offices. I actually think Nashville has a better "tech culture" (as you put it) than the DFW area...