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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

#211

Post by philipodonnell »

nojvek wrote: post #177
timothycrosley wrote: post #64

For people looking for an escape from San Francisco: come join us in Seattle! https://www.codementor.io/blog/best-cities-software-engineer... it's great here. And we have been building several times the housing to keep up with demand: http://www.spur.org/news/2017-06-15/keep-building-oakland .

Seattle housing market is still crazy. Not a lot for sale. Plus it rains for 6 months and miserable. If you like that then it's great. I love it in Seattle. You don't get as many startups here though. It's just the big companies doing business as usual.

9 months more like it! I moved back to Florida for that sweet, sweet vitamin D.

Re: The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups

#212

Post by stale2002 »

_pmf_ wrote: post #48
stale2002 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct. And the best way to fix Bart overcrowding is to build apartments near where people work so they don't HAVE to commute.

> And the best way to fix Bart overcrowding is to build apartments near where people work so they don't HAVE to commute. Why not build businesses where people live? Apple can spend 5 billion on its new campus in the middle of nowhere, but the public has to shoulder the cost for transit. 90 percent of Google's and Apple's domestic workforce could probably do at least 70 percent of their work from home. Apple prides it…

If the city allowed Apple or whoever to build a whole bunch of skyscrapers in the middle of Soma SF, then I can assure you that the companies would Love to do that.

I agree. Density should be the focuses. And zoning laws should be changed so BOTH companies and residential apartment companies are allowed to build more densely.

Re: The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups

#213

Post by NotQuantum »

colbyh wrote: post #29
ultimoo wrote: post #5

TL;DR: The investments are moving from the city proper to South Bay over the last 2-3 years. Mostly a good writeup backed by sufficient data points. If I may anecdotally share my observations, of the handful of people that I personally know who have founded Startups in 2016 and 2017 -- all of them are in their late 30s, and have dependents (spouse, children, pets). All of them currently live on the peninsula or in th…

Those places are all just as, if not more, expensive than SF and come with their own challenges as well. The school systems in the peninsula are fantastic though, and for most families that trade-off alone is probably worth it.

Menlo Park and Palo Alto, sure. But MTV, Sunnyvale and San Jose are still pretty cheap. (relatively)

Re: The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups

#214

Post by stale2002 »

bluedino wrote: post #165
WalterBright wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple should have build a couple apartment towers next to it.

Then you'd have a bunch of millionaires in a price war to live right next to work

Why is that a problem?

For every millionaire that is price waring over NEW Apartments is one less millionaire that is gentrifying and kicking out a family living in the mission.

Re: The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups

#215

Post by NotQuantum »

colbyh wrote: post #29
ultimoo wrote: post #5

TL;DR: The investments are moving from the city proper to South Bay over the last 2-3 years. Mostly a good writeup backed by sufficient data points. If I may anecdotally share my observations, of the handful of people that I personally know who have founded Startups in 2016 and 2017 -- all of them are in their late 30s, and have dependents (spouse, children, pets). All of them currently live on the peninsula or in th…

Those places are all just as, if not more, expensive than SF and come with their own challenges as well. The school systems in the peninsula are fantastic though, and for most families that trade-off alone is probably worth it.

Menlo Park and Palo Alto, sure. But MTV, Sunnyvale and San Jose are still pretty cheap. (relatively)

Re: The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups

#216

Post by kcanini »

santaclaus wrote: post #33
vidoc wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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!

Ok, while we are on BART gripes: what is the deal with people trying to squeeze their way upstream and board the cars before everyone has fully detrained? In NYC peeps form little ad-hoc queues to the left and right of the doors, let the exiters exit, then enter in two quick streams. In the Bay, I feel like MFing Moses trying to part the sea when exiting a train. Don't even get me started on the weird station lines t…

Seems like adding these stickers would be useful: http://thesource.metro.net/2013/02/13/new-platform-decals-re...

Re: The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups

#217

Post by hectorr »

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.

Yeah. Prop 13 massively depresses housing turnover and reduces property tax revenue, which means they need to collect more from income tax. Malcom Gladwell's excellent podcast on golf courses has a great discussion of this.

http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/11-a-good-walk-spoile...

Re: The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups

#218

Post by mercutio2 »

timothycrosley wrote: post #192
mercutio2 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People keep using Glassdoor numbers and think they’re representative. Representative of low performers, maybe, but even then I’m not convinced. The idea that a high performer only gives up $5k total comp going to Amazon or Microsoft in Seattle is... well, feel free to believe that. You’re making a ton of money any which way relative to the general population. But most people I know in the Bay Area don’t report that t…

Eh, it doesn't really matter what stats you drive from they all paint the same picture. More and more engineers are moving here from San Francisco for that reason. People never report that there leaving net income on the table, especially once they have enough to be comfortable, and most never even search to look.

If you’re looking at $100-150k total comp, and expect to max out there, you should definitely move to Seattle.

If you’re interested in earning $300-400k/year after working for a BigCo for 4-5 years, Seattle isn’t going to work out to a better net savings/year.

I think it’s perfectly fine to max out at $100-150k. You’re still extremely rich by any standard. And startups in The Bay Area will pay you vastly less regardless, so Seattle may well be a better place for startups.

But I think you’re doing people a disservice if you convince them they’ll save more money working in Seattle than the Bay Area.

Re: The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups

#219

Post by resu_nimda »

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…

A cultureless void. That is honestly one of the most ignorant things I've ever heard. The bay area has culture coming out of its ears. Try getting outside of the tech/startup/VC bubble. For a very basic and accessible start go walk around First Friday in Oakland and talk to some people that you normally wouldn't.

Re: The Decline of Investment in San Francisco Startups

#220

Post by narrator »

kevinburke wrote: post #203
CodeCube wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so then build the offices in oakland ;)

Uber tried this and backed off of it because their employees didn't want to move.

...And why didn't their employees want to move from those sky high San Francisco rents? I hear rents are really cheap in West Oakland! Back we go to my original point.
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