Brokelyn

NY vs. SF: the battle rages on

While you can argue the cultural controversies over which city is friendlier to gays or which has the best Chinese food, there’s one thing those left coasters have us beat on, according to biz blog Focus. The site breaks down (in a huge infographic) the costs of launching a start-up in each city, finding SF to be the cheaper choice. If you’re starting a business in New York, you can expect to fork over at least $70 more a month for utilities and about $10,000 more in annual taxes. But numbers never tell the whole story: Software engineers and designers of Brooklyn, are they right? Is SF really cheaper? What about the less tangible differences such as a scrappy Gotham ‘tude versus head-in-the-clouds granola zen? And dirt-cheap, kick-ass pizza? For all those late-night coding sessions, this might be priceless. Read the rest of this entry »

Alexa Von Tobel, 26, left Harvard b-school early and raised over $1M to launch a web site.

Would you take financial advice from someone who dropped out of Harvard Business School in the middle of a recession to start a web site?

It might not be a bad idea. Alexa Von Tobel is a not-even-30 dynamo who managed to raise $1.1 million from major corporations to launch LearnVest.com, an online personal financial planner for women, a kind of Cosmo for checkbooks.

Alexa’s over the bridge in Manhattan, but we’re writing about her because our readers are creative types who love to dream up iPhone apps, start blogs, open online stores and the like—and while you can do all of those things by the seat of your pants, Alexa’s experience in developing a business plan and raising funds is indispensable to anyone hatching a new venture. Read the rest of this entry »