Winning San Francisco's Startup Scene | Hacker News Reader

Winning San Francisco's Startup Scene

zachholman.com

21 pointsholman13 comments

1. San Francisco has a very vibrant tech startup scene that's unmatched elsewhere. That's the same comment many people from different parts of the world tell me. They all seems to be excited to be here.

2. San Francisco is small. I'm happy with 15 minutes bike commute. Many of our customers are a few blocks away. This week we are abuzz with a big developer's conference in Moscone Center next block. Such events big and small keep happening through out the year.

3. The author seems to enjoy drinking and partying a lot. But don't get it wrong. You don't have to drink to enjoy San Francisco. I do none of those but I simply love the natural environment, the activities and the dramatic coastline around here. There are something for everyone.

Seven year SF/Bay Area resident here. This rings true for me in a number of ways. Two anecdotes:

1. SF is small. Several years ago I was reading Dreaming in Code. Turned out a guy that I had been working with for a year or so had come from OSF, and sat in the desk the author vacated at the OSF office.

2. Right after I moved to the Bay Area I was chatting with someone at a tech writing meetup. She mentioned that she knew someone who worked at a company that could maybe throw me a contract, and they did. Things didn't go that great but it got my career going.

great post, i dream of one day moving to the city too...it's been a three year battle =/. you did leave out one thing though, what's your drink of choice? and where the ladies at?

Gin. Or beer. Or whiskey.

Also there are no ladies in San Francisco.

They just don't go to hacker meetups :-P

As someone who's a) moving to SF in 3 months and b) looking for a job there, this post was encouraging.

I've heard a lot of buzz about SF in the last two months or so, not sure if it's because I'm moving there (and so I stumble on Bay Area news more often) or because the hiring scene is generating more interest.

Anyone have concrete insight?

To be followed up by next post: "San Francisco dating scene, city of 6's." ;)

Oh but what fun it is.

One legit addition is the weather is beautiful, just not in June, July, or August, so be prepared to get out of the city a lot. The peninsula escapes the summer gloom, where it's a steady 80-90 every day for like 6 months straight.

The fact that you can jump on Caltrain in sunny 90 degree weather and jump out in SOMA in relative dreary weather continually amazes me.

The weather is not dreary. It is beautiful and sunny right now. And it is like this most of the time. I always enjoy the bright view across the bay. The temperature is often on the cool side. This bit you have to get use to. It is actually a great relieve for people escape from sweltering heat elsewhere.

One thing that I envy and I'm missing in my professional life is such a vibrant ecosystem and startup scene in where I live.

It's obvious that when you put two talented people together, they create value of 110% * (1 + 1). But when you mix so many of them, the multiplier starts hitting the sky. I've seen so many talents with great potential who already been kind of rockstars in their environments, but who could get so much better if they had such a great community in their city/country.

Working in SF

If you're not an American, what are your options? From what I've heard you're pretty much out of luck unless you have the money to buy (and then renew) a visa.

I'm from Seattle (not living there at the moment), and I have heard more than one person describe it as "San Francisco Lite". There is a large tech community there, a fair amount of VC firms, and the cost of living is a bit cheaper. I would encourage anyone considering a move to SF to at least take a look at Seattle before they take the leap.

EDIT: Everything you've heard about the bad weather is true.

yup -- great post and great insights. san ef, looks like a cool city, pretty much as thessaloniki in greece is. but skg (thessaloniki, airport code) hasn't that much of tech-scene: it only can be related with booze drinking, bar hopping, the everyone knows everyone thing plus that everything is close to you from everywhere. startup & tech scene is "growing up" smoothly and good—we call it the "sallonikon valley". anyway, again, great post.

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