I'm new to US and a hardcore .NET developer so I want to know whether there are many .NET startups around or .NET is mostly irrelevant in US startup community? How about in the Valley?<p>The reason I ask is because I am aspired to work in startup and want to know whether I should keep developing my .NET skills or start learning Rails, iOS, node... which seem to receive much attention from the HN community.
In the Valley, very unlikely. I don't have any factual statistics to throw at you but in all the years I've lived here, from purely personal observation and interactions, with exception to employees of the local Microsoft division here, I have yet to run into anyone using .NET at all. Everyone is mostly a Java, Python, Ruby, or a PHP shop. However, you might have better luck in the Seattle area as that is where Microsoft is headquartered (Redmond actually which is close to Seattle) and more likely the startups around there maybe more influenced in .NET usage.
I imagine that if Windows mobile can start grabbing more market share then there would be demand for devs who could create apps on that platform.<p>Otherwise, I would hit Github, Twitter, LinkedIn, meet-up info, etc to see what sort of .NET activity is coming out of the Valley.
If you are serious about it, I would learn either Ruby, JavaScript or Objective-C. Those are the hot markets right now and what many start-ups are focused on.