5 Reasons to Set Up Your Startup in the Suburbs

5 Reasons to Set Up Your Startup in the Suburbs

Choosing a site to set up your tech startup can be a challenging task for an entrepreneur. Once you’ve outgrown your garage and need a dedicated space, you’ll need to start considering not only rent, but other expenses like parking, taxes, travel time, and cost of living.

And don't forget the importance of culture - It can be tough to network if you’re the only tech company in town. But the closer you get to Silicon Valley, the higher the cost of doing business.

We crunched the numbers. Whether you’re an employer or employee, there are real, tangible financial advantages to setting your startup in the Santa Clarita Valley (SCV). Our “Silicon Suburb” makes financial sense for entrepreneurs, even compared to nearby tech hubs like Silicon Beach.

Here are five reasons setting your tech startup in SCV makes good financial sense:

1. Office Space is More Affordable – SCV has diverse (and, more importantly, available) office space that’s easy on the wallet. The average rent is about $25 per square foot, a bargain compared to the $40 per square foot average in Silicon Beach.

2. The Commute Won’t Drive You Crazy – Time is money. No one likes sitting in gridlock or circling endlessly for a parking spot. Fortunately, parking in SCV is free, and you can make a 10-mile commute in 15 minutes on average (less than a third of the time you’ll spend getting to work in Silicon Beach).

3. The Crime Rate is Low – Safety should always be a top priority for every entrepreneur and feeling safe shouldn’t come at a premium. SCV’s violent crime rate has always been low compared to the national average. Our crime index number is 125.1 (low) compared to the US average (286.7) and Silicon Beach (336).

4. Better Cost of Living – Say you want to be a software developer. Whether you work in Silicon Suburb or Silicon Beach, you’ll make about the same amount of money – around $100,000 a year. But you’ll get more bang for your buck in SCV. The average home price here is $550,000 (compared to $1.5 million in Silicon Beach). And rent is nearly half of what you’ll pay in Silicon Beach ($1,874 vs. $3,356).

5. The Culture is Already Here – Our Silicon Suburb is an up-and-coming tech hub! Resources like the Santa Clarita Business Incubator and Santa Clarita’s chapter of Google Startup Grind make it easy to network with other tech startups and build meaningful business relationships that will pay dividends for years to come.

Make the right business decision that affects your bottom line.

In last week’s blog, the benefits of community and connectivity as well as prime locale were highlighted as integral decision-making factors when selecting where to plant your entrepreneurial roots. Join other like-minded individuals that are leading their respective markets and get your startup off the ground today – contact SCVEDC to call SCV home, your future is closer than you think!

The Santa Clarita Valley Economic Development Corporation (SCVEDC) is a unique private / public partnership representing the united effort of regional industry and government leaders. The SCVEDC utilizes an integrated approach to attracting, retaining and expanding a diversity of businesses in the Santa Clarita Valley, especially those in key industry clusters, by offering competitive business services and other resources.