Sunny skies in Cleveland? laszlo-photo

I was meeting with a source the other day when the subject of Seattle's startup community came up. The former media executive had watched a recent video of Netscape founder Marc Andreessen talking about the "magnetic pull" of Silicon Valley, and he was left wondering how Seattle was really faring as an emerging technology hub.

So, he asked for my opinion. I get this question a lot -- from lawyers, VCs, entrepreneurs and others. I used to struggle with it, but no more. My answer is tied to my roots, and it usually goes something like this: We're better off than Cleveland.

I don't say that to mock my friends on the shores of Lake Erie. Not at all. You see, I grew up in northeastern Ohio, where my first job out of college was writing feature stories for the Akron Beacon Journal.

I love the industrial Midwest. The rust belt architecture. The approachable people. And yes, I even kind of like the weather.

But, while there are certainly things I miss, the economy isn't one of them. And that point was hammered home after I read this week that Forbes named Cleveland the "most miserable" city in the U.S. (Really, worse than Detroit and Buffalo?)

Consider this: Ohio has nearly double the population of Washington state. But when it comes to venture capital financing -- the fuel for new businesses -- Ohio is way behind.

In fact, twice as many deals (108) and five times as much money ($574 million) poured into Washington last year.

People in Cleveland would kill to have that sort of capital infrastructure in place.

It seems that the main industry in Cleveland these days is LeBron Inc. -- by which I mean the growing empire of Akron native and Cavs star LeBron James. But now the big worry in Cleveland -- which has endured "The Fumble," "The Shot" and more tortured sports history than just about any city -- is that James will skip town, just as many of the corporate headquarters have over the years.

Seattleites tend to have a "grass-is-always-greener" view of the world. And they like to complain. You know, the folks who talk about how great it is in Portland or San Francisco or Vancouver, but for whatever reason have picked Seattle as their home.

I've got something to say to those folks. Sure, Seattle has some problems. But there are certainly a lot worse places on the planet.

Show some hometown pride, Seattle. After all, how would you like to have Cleveland's nickname?

"The Mistake on the Lake."

[Flickr photo via laszlo-photo]