RAPID RELOCATION
TECH RUSH The 2010s saw many tech companies make Texas their new home. Low taxes and a friendly business environment are the main pulls of the Lone Star State.
Cowboy appeal
Californians and other bigstate natives are flocking to Texas to make a living, and many businesses have chosen Texan cities for their headquarters.
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harang Vyas has never experienced cold like he did in Dallas this past winter. The California native, used to the coastal climate of the San Francisco Bay Area, says it’s the harshest winter he’s experienced yet. In Austin — just a few hours away — the richest man in the world is also feeling chilly. There’s nothing quite like Golden State weather. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk moved his family out to Austin to focus on a new Tesla Gigafactory and future Starship launches. Musk and his family are not alone in their departure for Texas — according to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than half a million people made the big move in 2019, and many more have Texas on their watch-list.
Sharang during the pandemic, but there were some aspects that made moving Oracle easier. “COVID was one of those things that made our move a little bit quicker, and we didn’t really have a place to stay until now,” Sharang said. “I was able to do online school for the first quarter. That probably helped a lot with us getting settled into our apartment.” Sharang did notice some cultural differences in his move to Texas. “The Bay Area is definitely a lot more diverse from what I’ve seen so far,” Sharang said. “There seem to be more Asians and more Latinos. That’s not to say Dallas isn’t diverse, but the Bay Area is one of the most diverse places in the world.” Sharang found that there were advantages of moving to Texas for him and his family. “[The biggest perks were] definitely my dad not having to keep shuffling back and forth for his work,” Sharang said. “And prices in general; housing was a lot easier here than in California where everything is really, really expensive.” Much like the Vyases, Assistant Head of Upper School Chris Disimile was also a California native. In 2017, Disimile and his family moved to Dallas from Orange County. “My cousin lived in Dallas for a few years, and after visiting him for his wedding I saw an opening at St. Mark’s,” Disimile said. “I had some great conversations with [Associate Headmaster John] Ashton.” Disimile’s personal attraction to Dallas was the school, but he saw a multitude of other reasons people were leaving places like California in favor of places like Texas. “Cost of living in Texas is certainly lower,” Disimile said. “Having no state income tax is another big plus. And even though Dallas folks may complain about the traffic, there really isn’t much in comparison to Los Angeles or New York City.” Texas is one of nine states without a state income
HewlettPackard
economics teacher,
Disimile noted that the money people can save really is as good as it sounds. “It especially makes sense for someone like Elon Musk,” Disimile said. “When you’re talking bigger numbers, not giving up that extra chunk of income on the state level saves you a lot of money. When I lived in New York City, for example, I found that almost half of my paycheck was collected in taxes.” Disimile also credits Texan universities, offering talented graduates for tech companies to hire. “The surrounding universities can serve as major research hubs that are both tech-friendly and business-friendly,” Disimile said. “When you have a well-educated workforce built-in, it naturally attracts tech companies — the same way you find so many in Silicon Valley, next to Stanford.” The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey found that Texas continues to be the most popular state for California residents choosing to relocate. 86,200 people from the westernmost state moved to Texas in 2018. “Dallas is just a great place to raise a family,” Disimile said. “It’s got that perfect mix of city and suburbia.” STORY Austin Williams, Myles Lowenberg GRAPHIC Morgan Chow
Senior starts investment company with a focus on cryptocurrencies by Keshav Krishna n the fall, senior Alexander Zuch helped created NextGen Capital, a small company which invests in cryptocurrency, IPOs and digital art. “My father, his friend and I registered the company in Texas,” Zuch said. “I mainly focus on cryptocurrencies. I help them research, create accounts and invest in various exchanges.” In addition to his responsibilities in NextGen Capital, Zuch personally invests in cryptocurrencies. “I invest in more riskier currencies with smaller market caps,” Zuch said. “While there may be more risk, there’s also more reward.” For this, Zuch uses money he earned from his job as a camp counselor and saved up from his birthdays.
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“I’ve always had that entrepreneurial attitude that I’ve been able to garner some money from,” Zuch said. “Once something goes up, I’ll take out that investment to put it in something else, so the money compounds that way.” Zuch’s interest in cryptocurrencies began in 2017, when Bitcoin surged to popularity. “That was when there was the initial craze of everybody investing in it, even though almost nobody knew what cryptocurrency actually was,” Zuch said. “I was one of those people. I had money in there, but it was a very brief thing.” The ability to manage and grow his money through cryptocurrencies appealed to Zuch. “I’ve always been interested in the stock market and how it runs,”
Zuch said. “Back then, I was not 18 years old, so I didn’t have a personal account in Fidelity or Robinhood to invest in stocks. I could have an account in cryptocurrencies because they’re not very regulated. That’s why it became my avenue of investing.” Additionally, Zuch believes the technology used in cryptocurrencies to be a game-changer. “It’s very exciting because of the volatility,” Zuch said. “Prices go up and down very quickly, all the time. But what really excites me is the blockchain technology. It’s an emerging technology that’s already used for things like voting and healthcare and has a lot of potential applications.” After a hiatus, Zuch revisited cryptocurrencies last spring, when prices were much lower compared to
what they were when he began investing. “It almost got to $20,000 but was down to $4,000 when I got back in it,” Zuch said. “It’s worth ten times that now.” After he graduates from college, Zuch hopes to make a career out of finance, specifically working in private equity or a hedge fund. But first, Zuch will have to finish his senior year. Throughout his grade, he’s known for his investing skills, with many of his classmates asking him for advice. “Don’t invest in something without knowing its uses and why you’re investing in it,” Zuch said. “I try to focus my investments on stuff that people don’t know about with real use cases and actual applications to invest in, rather than just the price going up.”
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February 5, 2020
Freshman Sharang Vyas’s family moved from California to Dallas because of the business opportunities. “My dad was originally working for his own company, which was clients with Toyota, and they have a business here,” Sharang said. “Pretty much every week he would be in Dallas. We just decided it would be a lot easier if all of us just moved to Dallas for his work.” Sharang’s father Nilesh Vyas sees two big reasons that companies would choose Texas over other popular states. “First of all, I think the biggest attractions are tax breaks, government incentives and an escape from the more rigid corporate structure in California,” Nilesh said. “Second — especially moving from California — Texas seems to me to have the most similar weather.” Contrary to his father, one of By the the biggest differences Sharang has numbers noticed between Dallas and the Bay Area is the weather. “In California, it stays relatively warm throughout the million day, and even between winter and people have moved to summer it stays mostly the same,” Texas since Sharang said. “In Dallas, this [past 2010 winter] was some of the coldest weather I’ve ever been in.” Sharang’s mother Pratyusha Kapila says that while winters can of the top be cooler in Dallas, she is a little 25 cities for home surprised Sharang took notice. ownership “We lived in California for 22 nationwide years,” Pratyusha said. “Sharang are in Texas had never lived outside of California, so I can see how he felt it was different.” Moving to Dallas was more challenging for
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