Note: This post was originally written by Zac Sweers on Quara in response to the question, What is Austin like for startups and tech companies? How does it compare to Silicon Valley?“. Zac does the best job I’ve yet read of distilling the issues facing Austin and the growth of its tech business.

There are two big issues that startups in Austin face that I think stunt their collective growth. This is based on my time there (5 years of college), interning a short time at a local start up, having a few friends found local startups, and just general observations of the startup community. I now live in Palo Alto, CA working at a startup called Flipboard. More…