It's funny that of all the cities I listed you asked about Amherst, because that's the only one that I have lived in.
There are a few [3] tech startups in Amherst. Umass has a US top 10 AI/ML department [1][2], so most of these work with the world class labs there.
The town itself is wonderful, since it is basically 5 schools with a total of about 30k students, under the age of 30. So, it can be pretty happening. There is also the neighboring town on Northampton which brings in a lot of 'culture'.
It isn't city life, but it isn't bad at all. Boston is 2 hrs away, which isn't too bad if you need to do weekly trips to meet investors / important people / others in the startup scene.
You can source talent by giving low-ish paid interns to the really smart CS students, and get amazing consultants by working with the profs there. Ofc, all of this only works if your work and the research/focus of the labs align. For the 'be ambitious' spirit of tech hubs, you can rely on 'overworked grad students' to lend that same kind of energy.
Although honestly, places like Ann Arbor,Champaign and Pittsburg, will probably get you better talent (UMich, UIUC, CMU) at only a marginally higher cost. Amherst is really worth it if the offerings at UMass and Boston align perfectly with your product.
There are a few [3] tech startups in Amherst. Umass has a US top 10 AI/ML department [1][2], so most of these work with the world class labs there.
The town itself is wonderful, since it is basically 5 schools with a total of about 30k students, under the age of 30. So, it can be pretty happening. There is also the neighboring town on Northampton which brings in a lot of 'culture'. It isn't city life, but it isn't bad at all. Boston is 2 hrs away, which isn't too bad if you need to do weekly trips to meet investors / important people / others in the startup scene.
You can source talent by giving low-ish paid interns to the really smart CS students, and get amazing consultants by working with the profs there. Ofc, all of this only works if your work and the research/focus of the labs align. For the 'be ambitious' spirit of tech hubs, you can rely on 'overworked grad students' to lend that same kind of energy.
Although honestly, places like Ann Arbor,Champaign and Pittsburg, will probably get you better talent (UMich, UIUC, CMU) at only a marginally higher cost. Amherst is really worth it if the offerings at UMass and Boston align perfectly with your product.
[1] http://csrankings.org/#/index?ai&vision&mlmining&nlp&ir
[2] https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-sch...
[3] https://www.lexalytics.com/