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Florida-Based Magic Leap Builds Its Team With Bay Area Hires

Posted by timothy on from the hey-man-you're-supposed-to-eat-local dept.

Tekla Perry writes Stealthy 'cinematic reality' company Magic Leap may be based in Florida--but it's doing a lot of hiring from the Bay Area, scooping up engineers from Pixar, Google, Apple, and Intel--along with a few Willow Garage alums. And it's got openings for many many more. Are all these folks with long-term Silicon Valley roots really going to move to South Florida? Or is Magic Leap getting ready to open up a Silicon Valley research center to house the brain trust it is gathering? Here's what we know about Magic Leap and its technology, who's joining it, and what other kinds of engineers the company aims to hire. Magic Leap has a lot of money to do all that hiring, having just raised more than half a billion dollars, the bulk of it from Google. If you're working in the Bay Area now, would you look forward to a move to Florida, or rather stay where you are?

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  1. Nice ad as story you've got there by DaHat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How much did this plug cost Timothy?

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    1. Re:Nice ad as story you've got there by John+Bokma · · Score: 2

      Enough to pay of your student loans, maybe? Pot meet kettle...

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    2. Re:Nice ad as story you've got there by Dan+East · · Score: 2

      And enough to hire you to do some Perl programming.

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  2. And you get to live in Florida!!! by russbutton · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The move to Florida will be a bit difficult for man Silicon Valley folks. Florida is a Red State. Most of you aren't old enough to remember the Equal Rights Amendment to the US Consitution, which Florida never ratified. Floridia also failed to ratify the 19th amendment to the US Constitution until 1969. Which amendment is that you ask? That's the one which gave women the right to vote. It was the Law of the Land back in the 1920's because 2/3rds of the states had ratified it, but Florida only accepted it more than 40 years after the fact.

    Add in punishing heat, humidity and the fact that you're smack dab in Hurricane Alley with things only getting worse with climate change and you'll realize WHY Florida is a cheaper place to live. But if you don't care about any of that and like cheap seafood and good ol' boy values, then maybe Florida is the state for you!

    1. Re:And you get to live in Florida!!! by bangular · · Score: 5, Informative

      Florida resident here. There's a lot of hate toward Florida from people that don't understand our state.

      Florida geographically is HUGE. This means a lot of different cultures. Assuming the panhandle is anything like key west is just plain wrong. Tallahassee, Tampa, Orlando, Melbourne, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Miami, and the Keys might as well be entirely different countries.

      This company is located in Dania Beach in Broward county. I defy you to find good ol' boy values and cheap real estate in Broward.

    2. Re:And you get to live in Florida!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Not state income tax, while in California your income tax fed + state can reach 50%.

      Probably why the company is in Florida, the state that ALLOWS you to do business, vs California where you pay your fees, taxes, and still get protested for daring to run a bus to pick up workers.

    3. Re:And you get to live in Florida!!! by Grishnakh · · Score: 2

      But if you don't care about any of that and like cheap seafood and good ol' boy values, then maybe Florida is the state for you!

      Well with the rise of Brogrammer culture, it seems like the under-30 men should fit in just great in Florida and its good ol' boy values.

    4. Re:And you get to live in Florida!!! by knightghost · · Score: 3, Insightful

      After having worked in both SoCal and Florida, I'd choose Florida hands down. Maybe you should get out more.

    5. Re:And you get to live in Florida!!! by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, I looked for a location for the company and it said Dania Beach, which is along the Atlantic Ocean side probably about 20 miles north of Miami. While Florida may be "red" state, the Miami area is pretty "blue."

      That said, a company I used to work for got bought and we all ended up moving down to Miami. I was in my mid-20s and Miami was a pretty fun place. Lots of fun bars in Coconut Grove and South Beach (which stay open until 4AM!). You have a warm ocean, so you don't need to put on wetsuit if you're spending more than 10 minutes in the water.

      The heat and humidity? Yeah, it can be bad. Make sure you live someplace with a pool. That solved the problem for me. Also, it's one of those cases where pretty much every place you live has central A/C. If they don't, you don't want to live there.

      About the only issue I had was that after a year or so in Miami, I felt like I'd been everywhere and done everything. And once you get out of Miami/Dade, you're in The South which definitely was grating.

    6. Re: And you get to live in Florida!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      And yet it seems that CA does have at least a few successful businesses.

    7. Re:And you get to live in Florida!!! by russbutton · · Score: 2

      I was stationed at Eglin AFB from 1975 - 77. Of course the Florida panhandle really is just Southern Alabama. I was there just 6 weeks when we got hit by Hurricane Eloise. Major damage.

      Being white and a military officer definitely had its advantages and enabled me to fly under the radar for the most part. Leaving in '77 was one of the happier days of my life.

      Old Times there are not forgotten, look away, look away Dixieland.

    8. Re:And you get to live in Florida!!! by Octorian · · Score: 2

      A regular silicon valley salary would be an insanely good income in Florida, at least for someone in the tech industry. I left Florida to move to silicon valley, and got a very nice bump (which exceeded the living expense difference) in the process.

      Of course having left Florida, I'm not sure I'd want to move back there.

    9. Re:And you get to live in Florida!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Florida geographically is HUGE. This means a lot of different cultures. Assuming the panhandle is anything like key west is just plain wrong. Tallahassee, Tampa, Orlando, Melbourne, West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Miami, and the Keys might as well be entirely different countries.

      Boca Raton resident here. I agree completely with the OP. Florida gets a bad rap in the media which is hard to apply to such a diverse state. Having been born here the heat and humidity seem normal.

      I work as an embedded software engineer and that means many trips out to the west coast of the US. Personally I can't stand the weather out there and there are many other things I just don't care for out there but have to tolerate for work. But no amount of money would convince me to live in the west coast. So the GP should keep in mind that the entire world does not share the same values.

    10. Re:And you get to live in Florida!!! by JimSadler · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I have lived in Florida for 60 years and would not reccomend life in the Miami, Ft. lauderdale or Palm Beach area including Boca raton. The southeastern coast of Florida has been destroyed by growth and the deliberate attraction of excessive population. Also considerable racial strife as well as a vivid gap between the haves and the have nots has resulted in an area prone to crime and violent crime at that. There are areas in Florida that could be ideal for major businesses. Areas not too distant from Orlando that are still rural or uninhabited enable land purches at sane prices. Crime is much less of a problem in these areas and if you consult locals you can fine out about the effect of storms in the specific region. With intelligent designs and placements buildings and homes can be quite safe in almost any potential hurricane. Casually buying into just any old place in Florida is a huge mistake. For example if a person dreams about buying land in California knowledge is required or you might end up in a really nasty desert or a wooded area prone to frequent forest fires. You need to know and understand exactly what you are buying.

    11. Re: And you get to live in Florida!!! by gbjbaanb · · Score: 2

      its not size that matters, its how you use it.... or so I'm told :)

      Florida is a big place, if it has the kind of diversity in its cultures as the poster described, then so what if its geographically tiny or like the Siberian steppes?

      If his point is valid re diversity, then why nitpick over some subjective quantity, especially when 'huge' can be applied to geographically small things such as my back yard,

  3. Perhaps the answer is taxes by Trachman · · Score: 2

    While Florida is not the most attractive and friendly place to do business, but it surely beats California, which has for several years been elected as the worst place to do business, in the same bucket with New York and New Jersey.

    Florida has no income tax, climate is subtropical and, more importantly, Florida is giving additional tax incentives to move jobs to Florida.

    My own employer has opened office in Tampa and relocated 250 jobs from NJ; that is probably only the beginning.

    1. Re:Perhaps the answer is taxes by iluvcapra · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The first thing I though of was, apart from being a (slightly) Red state, Florida is also one of those states that makes it impossible to form labor unions, which is quite relevant to a company that wants to make "cinematic" experiences. South Florida, Miami in particular, is a sorta notorious hothouse for non-union filmmaking and is a really popular destination for "venture capital" types that want to try to do movie or movie-like things while avoiding the entertainment guilds.

      Sure, the Apple and Pixar people don't care about unions. But, if this company is a cover for some kind of content operation, they'll need need writers, actors, directors, camera crews that know all about 3D and MoCap, trained grips and stagehands, editors, sound people... South Florida is well stocked with relatively qualified people in all these job categories.

      People who do VFX and animation generally haven't joined the stage guilds, but their employers here in LA have been so abusive (really just flaky) lately that there's been buzzing that the animation guild, IATSE 829, was finally making a push to get them signed -- 829 has jurisdiction in SF as well. But not in Florida.

      --
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    2. Re:Perhaps the answer is taxes by Grishnakh · · Score: 3, Insightful

      There's a lot of better states to move than Florida; two of them are directly north of California.

      California is an excellent place to be an employee:
      1) there's tons of companies there, so if one job doesn't work out, just walk across the street and get a new one.
      2) non-compete clauses are unenforceable in California, so employers can't prevent you from working within your industry if you leave that company. The same isn't true in most other states.

      There's a reason (or really, many reasons) why Silicon Valley is so successful, and why no one has been able to copy that success though many have tried (like "Silicon Alley" in NYC--what a joke). Many foolish places keep trying to pitch themselves as "the next Silicon Valley", but for most of them it's a pathetic joke because they don't make the changes actually needed to make such a place successful.

      Florida is a terrible place to try to set this up for reasons others have stated here: it's a Red State (remember, you're trying to attract hip and well-educated 20- and 30-somethings who are generally non-religious, and a GOP stronghold is not attractive to them), it's full of old people and crazy people, the politics are insane, the weather is terrible (remember, we're talking about people living in the Bay Area, which has excellent mild weather), and of course, it's not already a tech hub unlike places like Boston, Seattle, or RTP, so if this job doesn't work out, they'll have to move back to California. The whole idea is just dumb.

    3. Re:Perhaps the answer is taxes by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 3, Informative

      Oh, it's certainly happening. As you point out, in 2011, 234 companies left California.

      What's entertaining is about 132,000 new businesses were started--tied with Texas. And California leads the nation in job creation, which is why these other states are trying to steal businesses from California.

    4. Re:Perhaps the answer is taxes by AaronW · · Score: 2

      Silicon Valley weathered the 2008 bubble better than most of the country and bounced back very quickly. Unemployment is quite low and there are a lot of new tech companies going in. Currently things are far more diverse than they were when the dot com bubble burst.

      Part of it is the whole environment of Silicon Valley which is not easy to duplicate. Silicon Valley rewards failure. If your last two startup ventures failed, you're more likely to get support for a new one. People also hop from company to company if they're not happy, and the California making non-compete clauses irrelevant has helped a lot. The weather is quite nice though rain would be quite welcome after two years of severe drought. We may get a few hot days in the summer but it's usually a dry heat and it cools off after a few days. The winter rarely gets below freezing. And as a software engineer, it's an engineer's market. If I'm not happy I can just go across the street and work someplace else and the employers know it. Also, the social services here have not been cut nearly as much as in many red states. That isn't to say that there aren't problems, like bad traffic and high housing costs, much of which is due to the demand greatly exceeding supply. There's not much room to build more housing either since Silicon Valley is surrounded by hills.

      The state's financial situation recovered much faster than many other states and has had a balanced budget the last few years. Once we got rid of all the gerrymandering the state has been balancing its budget with minimal fuss since the current voting laws promote moderate candidates.

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    5. Re:Perhaps the answer is taxes by dbIII · · Score: 2

      Is it diverse enough that someone from Hungary (Intel) or Russia (Google - ok so he grew up in the USA so maybe not a good example) can get finance from locals with nothing much behind them apart from an education? That's a major reason for Silicon Valley, the other is that there is plenty of stuff there to provide a supply chain.
      Silicon Valley really should have happened in Texas, but the one thing they didn't have was a willingness to let people from all over the world bring in their good ideas to a place where the factories next door could supply them the bits they needed. For some reason California provided that at the right time.

    6. Re:Perhaps the answer is taxes by ranton · · Score: 2

      In TX, state revenues come from Sales Tax, which is inherently progressive because sales tax is not applied to food items

      No, sales tax is not inherently progressive. Property taxes and sales taxes are most regressive taxes there is. Texas may make some allowances for food items, but that does almost nothing when it comes to making their tax system progressive. And while Texas is not the most regressive state, it is in the top 5.

      Looking at Texas and California, for example, here is a comparison of how regressive their taxes are. Each group represents family income for non-elderly taxpayers. source

      Taxes paid by:
      Lowest 20% - CA 10.6%, TX 12.6%
      Second 20% - CA 9.2%, TX 10.4%
      Middle 20% - CA 8.2%, TX 8.6%
      Fourth 20% - CA 7.6%, TX 7.4%
      Next 15% - CA 7.4%, TX 6.1%
      Next 4% - CA 8.7%, TX 4.9%
      Top 1% - CA 8.8%, TX 3.2%

      This shows the wealthy top 1% in Texas pay 64% less of their state's taxes as the wealthy in California. So while I do see why the top 20% of Texas residents really like this situation, I don't see how they sleep at night.

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      -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
  4. Crazy by zieroh · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You know, California and Florida both have more than their fair share of crazy people. The main difference comes down to what flavor of crazy you're talking about. In California, it's an asset. In Florida, it's fucking frightening.

    So no. I would not move from the Bay Area to Florida.

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  5. Re:Crazy - fairly good summary by echtertyp · · Score: 4, Funny

    From a Euro perspective it would be difficult to prefer Florida over California, all else held equal. But you bring up a good point which is in CA's favor: - in California, having crazy people means they will stick flowers in your car - Florida, having crazy people means they will get amped on bath salts meth and try to eat your face

  6. Re:Really? by Grishnakh · · Score: 3, Informative

    The breed of crazy that will shoot you dead for walking home at night from a convenience store.

  7. Finally, something I'm qualified to answer! by sootman · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As a former Bay Area resident who now lives in Florida, my advice is to stay in California if you can afford to and if you're okay with your current job. Florida isn't totally horrible, but CA is a million times better, ESPECIALLY the Bay Area. Two things off top of my head: the weather is better out there, and there's a whole lot more going on. Every month, it seems, I see an ad for some cool event or something happening right there were used to live. I'd move back in a second if I could afford to. Never should have left, but oh well, that's how life goes sometimes.

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    1. Re:Finally, something I'm qualified to answer! by Darinbob · · Score: 2

      Here's the important thing: lose a job in Silicon Valley, there are many nearby and you wont' have to relocate. Maybe a longer commute though. Lose a tech job in Florida and you're in trouble.

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  12. I moved from bay area to Dallas about 15 years ago by mark_reh · · Score: 2

    And even then, the money I no longer paid to California in income tax more than paid the mortgage on a 3000 sq ft house I had built.

    Yeah I had to give up some stuff - never ending traffic jams, earthquakes, brush fires, wine snobs, ethnic variety of restaurants, shitty service everywhere, shitty public schools, milder weather, nice views from places I could never afford to live, but I managed to survive.

    California is a great place if you are rich enough to be able to afford to live there without working. For everyone else it is hell on earth.

    Florida? Hmmm. I lived there once. Not too sure about the politics- the frightened old people population ensures that it will remain hard core republican for at least another generation. Dallas wasn't much different- there it was frightened stupid people who kept the politics "amusing". The weather can be rough for some, but if you like water sports Florida has nice, warm seas.

    Yeah, I think I'd take Florida over California.