Dennis Crowley

For the Poughkeepsie Journal

When we started the location-based social platform Foursquare in 2009, some people thought we were crazy to try and build a tech startup in New York City. One of the big questions we'd get asked in the early days was: "Why start the company in New York? Why not San Francisco?"

Our answer was always the same: "Because we live here."

A lot has changed since 2009. Back then, the three big names in New York City's tech startup ecosystem were Foursquare, Tumblr and Etsy. We were aggressively recruiting talent from Google NYC, which was basically the anchor tenant for the current generation of New York tech. Being a big fish in a relatively small pond made it easier to hire some of the city's best software engineers than it is today, when every tech company you know and love has an engineering office in New York. While that's a great development for New York City's tech scene and startup ecosystem, it makes it a lot harder for each company to find the stellar talent to fill its individual needs.

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As markets like New York and San Francisco get more and more competitive, companies have started building offices outside the more established tech markets. At Foursquare, we've recently started discussing doing the same. The company is growing and scaling quickly — we're looking to fill over a dozen software engineering roles by the end of the year — and we're looking at opening another engineering office soon.

Our potential locations include the usual suspects: San Jose, Atlanta, Raleigh-Durham, Boston, Toronto. But we're also seriously considering putting it right here in the Hudson Valley.

So why the Hudson Valley?

For one thing, the local tech ecosystem is growing fast. There's an expanding community of tech startups; the Hudson Valley Tech Meetup, with more than 2,000 members; CatskillsConf, an annual event celebrating tech and maker culture in the area; and the Hudson Valley Startup Fund, which has funded some of the region's most interesting ventures. There are also excellent college engineering programs nearby, plus the enduring legacy of IBM's Hudson Valley presence, which has given us a long lineage of technology experience and expertise.

But there's another answer: "Because we live here."

Four years ago, my wife Chelsa and I got married in the Hudson Valley and bought a home near Kingston. The area is truly beautiful, and has been a welcome escape from the madness of New York City. In these four years we've started growing roots in the Hudson Valley and building deep connections with the people who call it home. We've gotten a sense of the entrepreneurial and creative energy in the community, as well as the tech scene here. Many of you may already be familiar with Stockade FC, the startup soccer team we've been building alongside amazing folks from throughout the community. Through that journey and more, we've come to know the people behind some of the Hudson Valley’s most interesting ventures, projects and local businesses.

There's no shortage of beauty, talent and creative energy here. It's not New York City, and it's not San Francisco. To quote another recent #TechForAll column that was published here: "We're not the next Silicon Valley. We're the first Hudson Valley."

That's why I'm excited to try to infuse some of the Hudson Valley spirit into Foursquare, and why I want to bring some of Foursquare to the Hudson Valley.

So, as we start the process of evaluating the best spot to open the next Foursquare engineering office, I want to invite any and all software engineers in the Hudson Valley to please apply. The Hudson Valley is the underdog on our shortlist at the moment, but this process — and this article — is designed to change that. The more interest we can generate, and the more local talent we can find, the easier it will be for the Foursquare team can determine if the Hudson Valley is as good a fit as I think it is.

So here's the pitch: if you're a software engineer with 2-plus years of experience, check out the job description and think about applying. We'll be accepting applications through the end of August, and you can find the listing here: http://bit.ly/4SQHV

I'm excited about the prospect of bringing a Foursquare engineering office to the Hudson Valley, and I truly hope we can make it work. We'll be reaching out to all our applicants in September to give them an update on the process, and we're looking to make a decision about where to place the office in Q4 of 2017.

Thanks in advance for your help in spreading the word, and for being a part of this incredible community!

Dennis Crowley is co-founder and executive chairman of Foursquare, the location intelligence company that powers products used by more than 50 million people every month across 100 countries. Previously, he founded Dodgeball, one of the first location-based mobile social services (acquired by Google in 2005) and help to build early location-based games PacManhattan (2004) and ConQwest (2004). He is also the founder and Chairman of the Kingston Stockade Football Club, a semi-professional soccer team that competes in the 4th division of the U.S. Soccer Pyramid.