Airbnb will build a new tech hub in Atlanta

I grew up in metro Atlanta and studied at Georgia Tech. The state government subsidizes college education for grads with a certain GPA (HOPE Scholarship). However, I (and most CS grads I knew) left Atlanta for better paying jobs in NYC&#x2F;Bay Area&#x2F;Seattle&#x2F;Austin. I always wondered why the ATL tech scene was &#x27;underdeveloped&#x27; compared to comparable sized cities like Seattle and Austin, despite having major research institutions (Georgia Tech and Emory) to anchor it.<p>This is what I mean by &#x27;underdeveloped&#x27;:<p>- Most software dev job postings (as of May 2018) have SPECIFIC tech stack requirements. This to me is a red flag. Most recruiters in &#x27;developed&#x27; tech cities assume that software development skills are transferable and that technology stacks&#x2F;frameworks&#x2F;languages can be learned.<p>- The salaries offered were still very low compared to comparable COL locations like Austin<p>- No major FAANG presence to put upward pressure on local developer wages

I&#x27;m happy for Atlanta - it&#x27;s about time they got some recognition for the growth that&#x27;s happening there. However, as someone who started her tech career working at satellite offices for west coast tech companies (in RTP, NC) before moving to Seattle - there&#x27;s just no comparison to the career opportunity that comes from working at a HQ (or even just in the same timezone as the HQ!). I&#x27;m back in NC, which isn&#x27;t so bad now that I&#x27;ve &quot;leveled up&quot; my resume with FAANG experience and have plenty of remote work skills - but I still recommend that ambitious engineers from the south spend at least a few years in a west coast tech hub. It&#x27;s possible that NYC works too now, but I&#x27;m not sure.<p>Regardless, this is a smart move for airbnb. I have no doubt they&#x27;ll get great talented engineers, lower costs, and be able to brag about their diversity numbers compared to other west coast companies as a result. But until there is real startup investment in the south, I&#x27;m not optimistic that we&#x27;ll see anything special come from this trend. That said, if I&#x27;m wrong and this means more tech investment in Atlanta for startups too - I&#x27;d be incredibly happy.

I think a couple of good things may come out of the pandemic:<p>1. Big companies being more amenable to remote work. I don&#x27;t see a total shift to remote to be likely or even desirable but a partial shift is good; and<p>2. An end to the ultimately unsustainable ultra-concentration of tech jobs in places like SF and NYC.<p>I see the likely winners here are Atlanta, Denver&#x2F;Boulder, Dallas&#x2F;Forth Worth, Austin and Tampa. This may well trickle-down to mid-sized regional centers too. Think Boise, Salt Lake City, Louisville, Nashville, Memphis, etc.<p>I support this decentralization.

OK I&#x27;ll bite. Airbnb is a website. A hard-to-navigate, overproduced one, but it&#x27;s still basically just a website coupled to a database. And it&#x27;s not even as complex as Uber&#x27;s because it doesn&#x27;t need realtime GPS tracking of anything.<p>Why does Airbnb need a &quot;tech hub?&quot;

First Microsoft and not Airbnb.<p>As if our traffic didn&#x27;t qualify us as the LA of the East.<p>Seriously though, metropolitan Atlanta is a great area to live with three major interstates going through the city and a very well developer surrounding area. With many businesses adopting more lenient WFH policies the drive is not always a concern. Schools are generally a good mix of public and private as with any area.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blogs.microsoft.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;2021&#x2F;02&#x2F;11&#x2F;investing-to-grow-in-and-with-atlanta&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blogs.microsoft.com&#x2F;blog&#x2F;2021&#x2F;02&#x2F;11&#x2F;investing-to-gro...</a>

The article subheading states:<p><pre><code> Airbnb needed an East Coast home. </code></pre> Why particularly an <i>east coast</i> home vs. just <i>another</i> home? What&#x27;s the strategic benefit of the east coast in particular?

Atlanta is a mixed bag. I am a person of color, an immigrant and spent about a decade working in the coasts (NYC and Bay Area) before relocating to Atlanta about 6 years ago.<p>The Pros &gt; relatively newer, affordable housing &gt; decent weather &gt; good public schools &gt; there is room for my young kids to grow in the suburbs &gt; It is green (love the tree cover), though the locals don&#x27;t seem to care and keep chopping down the trees with no remorse. &gt; not prone to earth quakes, forest fires and gets plenty of rainfall. &gt; Plenty of trails, lakes. You can get to a beach in 5 hours (Hilton Head, Destin etc)<p>The Cons &gt; Salaries are lower and yes roles are stack specific &gt; Opportunities are limited. &gt; Mindset &gt; Traffic<p>If I had the means to buy a home at any of the tech centers, I would have not moved. It is always a good idea to stay close to the mother ship(HQ). The network effect of companies attracting engineers and other way around will always work.

Woo boy, I see a lot of people throwing shade at Atlanta here. That&#x27;s not exactly a new phenomenon. As a native ATLien, let me quote one of our prophets:<p>The south got something to say.

Hell yeah. Everyone says they care about diversity. But you aren’t going to build a diverse workforce if all your offices are in SF, NYC, London, and Seattle.<p>I’ve wanted to see big tech expand into the South for years. (Austin doesn’t count.) Atlanta and Nashville please.

I thought that tech companies were moving towards remote work.

short airbnb. this is clearly their priority

Airbnb and tech hub in one sentence. Could someone explain to me what one has to do with the other?

I have wondered if with a flight from Silicon Valley&#x2F;NYC during the pandemic, if there would be an explicit focus on convincing people from blue(democrat)-areas to move to political flippable&#x2F;purple(competitive) states like Arizona, Georgia, Texas. So when I see &quot;move to Atlanta&quot; it makes me wonder if companies, with their progressive employees, might even make this an explicit strategy. If anything for long term political stability in the US, which helps business...

I did a project in Atlanta which required my presence on-site, so every week a flight to and back. I&#x27;ve spent enough time working there that I had to pay Georgia state tax. Anyway, I consider Atlanta to have one of the worst airports in US. Pathologically long lines through security, even with the rapid pass.<p>Maybe it won&#x27;t be a problem in the Covid era, with zoom calls everywhere, but in the pre-Covid era Atlanta was a PITA for travel.

I don&#x27;t pretend to be an expert, but what &#x27;tech&#x27; is there to AirBNB exactly? A SQL database setup and UI CRUD layers for every popular platform?<p>Why does this company even need a hub? It could use some extra lobbying power I&#x27;m sure, given that it&#x27;s entire business model is dependent upon them remaining a de-facto monopoly.