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The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups

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Re: The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups

#131

Post by rdl »

timothycrosley wrote: post #63
Houshalter wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Move where exactly? So many people want to live there for a reason. If moving to another city saves you $1k a month on rent, but you lose $1.5k in income, it doesn't make any economic sense.

Seattle. Lose ~2-5 thousand a year in income on average as a Software engineer, save 1-2 thousand a month on rent, and no income tax: https://www.codementor.io/blog/best-cities-software-engineer...

Seattle is full/horrible. Do not move here if you are a San Franciscan. Especially don't bring your government philosophy, tax policies, or aversion to reality here.

Re: The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups

#132

Post by CodeCube »

Naritai wrote: post #129
narrator wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does everyone have to squeeze into San Francisco and the peninsula? Can't you tech workers gentrify West Oakland at least? Guess a few street thugs are a force more powerful than million dollar home prices. I bet those guys are really proud of the chaos they create that forces all of you to avoid their neighborhoods.

Did you miss the part where BART is packed every commute hour? There are huge numbers of people in Oakland and the rest of the east bay. But the most efficient transportation system is one that doesn't have huge rush hour stresses, i.e. ones where people live close to where they work. So if the offices are getting built in SF, then so must be the housing.

so then build the offices in oakland ;)

Re: The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups

#133

Post by Nav_Panel »

CodeCube wrote: post #132
Naritai wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you miss the part where BART is packed every commute hour? There are huge numbers of people in Oakland and the rest of the east bay. But the most efficient transportation system is one that doesn't have huge rush hour stresses, i.e. ones where people live close to where they work. So if the offices are getting built in SF, then so must be the housing.

so then build the offices in oakland ;)

This is actually what happened in parts of Westchester and Connecticut. All the executive staff were commuting from their suburban homes to their various headquarters in NYC, then they realized they could just move their office instead.

Re: The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups

#134

Post by ghaff »

vedanta wrote: post #39
ThrustVectoring wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or the costs are driving potential founders out of founding. If you double your monthly costs, you double the amount you need to save in order to have enough runway to "two guys in a basement" your way into enough traction for funding. Plus you need more funding for getting enough roadway for employees and an actual business. Maybe I'm far more mobile than others, but I'm really surprised that there isn't a wave of p…

Nevada is too different, the combination of non-enforceable non-competes and the nice weather can be duplicated elsewhere in CA easiest, and this is happening. If your state has big corporate HQs forget about getting non-enforceable non-competes.

No one is forcing you as a company to make employees sign a non-compete, enforceable or otherwise. I've generally lived in states where non-competes are enforceable and I've signed exactly one.

Re: The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups

#135

Post by golemotron »

nailer wrote: post #115

This is excellent opportunity for anyone who wants investment from west coast VCs but doesn't want to deal with San Francisco, Oakland or the bay area. San Francisco frequently has human feces on the sidewalk in many areas right near the city center, high housing prices and a combination of startup bros and angry hard left outrage culture folk. The bay area is a cultureless void and Oakland is still dangerous. Better…

SF culture has descended into purity spirals [1]. The last time I was there I was shocked by the amount of signaling that was happening.

[1] - http://www.redgulls.com/2016/08/17/the-purity-spiral/

Re: The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups

#136

Post by nck4222 »

readhn wrote: post #66

It's a self correcting cycle. Money pours in - salaries and living expenses go up - real estate goes up. Money flows out - everything shrinks. What goes up must come down. Everything is cyclical. SF economy is no exception.

Uhh, ever hear about the depression, dot com bubble, great recession/housing market crash?

You're basically advocating "Let's do nothing, the market always corrects itself." Which is true to an extent, but in the extreme it also ruins lives, the country, and itself left unchecked during this process.

This is why a completely unregulated market is a horrible idea. Government needs to step in at certain times. This might not be as expansive as those (localized to the SF area), but it's pretty clear government intervention can be helpful when a market doesn't correct itself fast enough and the majority are screwed in favor of the few (or none).

Re: The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups

#137

Post by icantdrive55 »

Decade wrote: post #90
timr wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Wishing people would just leave is what the NIMBY organizations have been trying for decades." ...and yet, this crisis is only about 5 years old. Between 2008 and 2012, San Francisco rents were going down , not up. San Francisco's population declined in the 1980s. Say what you will about construction rates, but this is an acute housing crisis, brought on by an asset bubble, instigated by historically low interest ra…

5 years. How cute. Prop 13, a law with horrific long-term consequences, was passed by the voters in response to the housing crisis. 40 years ago. http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-pol-ca-housing-supply/ San Francisco rents have sometimes gone down slightly, but they never returned to sane levels, and affordable housing for the poor hasn’t been abundant in many, many years.

I guess we will have to revisit history in order to understand it?

In the Bay Area, when politicans had their hands on that never ending supply of money; they spent it on pet projects, and projects that would boost their re-election.

It seems fashionable to blame prop 13 for the housing crisis.

And don't get me started on SF rent control.(talk about misplaced anger. Rent control in SF, just allowed the 1 percent to build luxury condos for 1 percenters, or their kids. These are not condos, they are mansions in buildings. How do I know? As a local 6 electrician--that's all I work on. Could I ever afford one--hell no, and my wage is over $100/hr., including benefits.

A lot of you in tech will be going home due to a bunch of just bad.com investment money drying up. We have had investors throw money at thelatestestmonopolysaturatedcutestbuystufffromagayman.com

I don't have a solution to the housing crisis. Pesonally, I think we need to open up state, federal, and county land to free camping because many of you complaining about rent right now will be Homeless after the gold rush ends, and a whole new reality will rear its ugly head.

(There will be a politician who tries to exploit the projected prop 13 displacement for votes. I think the strategy will fall on multiple fronts.

Remember this, before prop 13, property taxes for Everyone was going up every year. New house owners were greatly affected. Apartment dwellers just got an increase in rents.)

Re: The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups

#138

Post by aswanson »

kevinburke wrote: post #6

Both top-level comments have mentioned housing prices. I grew up in the Bay Area and want to stay here and I am trying to work to change policy to help build more housing. Unfortunately due to law, bad policy and NIMBY's the market is not going to solve this problem on its own, without political change rents and housing prices will keep increasing. Here are some political actions you can take to help: - call your Sta…

Are the Bay Area public schools good? Or is it the thing to do to send kids to private school there like every other urban center?

Re: The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups

#139

Post by eeZah7Ux »

vidoc wrote: post #22
aphextron wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost comical how overcrowded BART has gotten at rush hour. Embarcadero and Powell stations become standing room only. I live deep in the east bay, and the new apartment building going up across the street has 1 bedroom layouts starting at $2800. Something has to give, or people will simply give up.

> Riding BART into and out of SF as a commute is ridiculous at a new level nowadays. Especially given the shocking number of uneducated people who insist on keeping their backpacks on their shoulders despite the train being packed. Totally pisses me off!

Placing the backpack at your feet takes almost the same space, unless you are really fat, plus it becomes a tripping hazard and gets kicked.

Re: The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups

#140

Post by matwood »

richardknop wrote: post #93
aphextron wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost comical how overcrowded BART has gotten at rush hour. Embarcadero and Powell stations become standing room only. I live deep in the east bay, and the new apartment building going up across the street has 1 bedroom layouts starting at $2800. Something has to give, or people will simply give up.

That's normal in every major city. Tube is stand only during rush hour.

Yeah, if you want to see crowded ride the Tokyo subway sometime. They have workers on the platform literally squeezing people in so the doors will close.
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