SoCal or NoCal?

[lostfan13]

If the deciding issue is the talent pool, then you're going to look at where these people come from- local colleges, universities, etc. San Diego only has a couple high ranked universities (UCSD, SDSU, USD etc), so that pool is going to be smaller than the Bay Area (Berkeley, Stanford, countless CSUs).

The Bay Area is also only an hour's drive from Silicon Valley, which is where you're going to want to be when making local connections with other companies in the area. The Bay Area seems to be the logical choice.

Having said that, there's probably other factors you need to consider. Real estate, employment costs, and general overhead are significantly higher near Silicon Valley than SD. Also, the posted job requirements you have don't really seem that demanding, so you might not really need the best talent (so to speak).. just code slaves, which you can find anywhere that has a junior college.

Just for reference, I went to school in San Diego, but am up here in the Bay Area for work. Both places have their pros and cons, but it's really up to one's personal preferences. There's really no "wrong" decision between the two.