Earlier quoted context omitted.
As James Surowiecki makes clear in his book "The Wisdom Of Crowds", the wisdom is only apparent in situations where the people are not able to talk to each other. But real estate agents are able to talk to each other. In Surowiecki's telling, if you get a room full of people to write down a guess about how many jelly beans are in a jar, the average of all the guesses will be surprisingly accurate. But if the people a…
That's a delightful observation. Is the book worth reading?
Landlords are trying not to rent to startups in San Francisco
121–130 of 308 posts
Re: Landlords are trying not to rent to startups in San Francisco
#122Seriously, expand only if you have people stacked three high and just enough to cover the next 1-2 years of conservative growth. And don't spend arms and legs on new furniture or other generic, high-depreciation items, get gently used kit from liquidators and recyclers. Enterprise shops throw out perfectly good stuff because they're redecorating or it's lifecycled out because it's recurring budgeted. Capture every advantage of their waste to your benefit.
Put another way, don't waste cash to look rich, spend some to make staff and yourself comfortable enough to get the job done and keep morale/productivity up (Penny wise, pound wise.) A badge of honor for entrepreneurs is spending as least as possible with the best results. Only looney billionaires buy diamonds to use as doorstops. (Sure most startups flush cash down the drain, but there's no reason for founders to inordinately waste investor's cash because it counts against their reputation in future dealings.)
Re: Landlords are trying not to rent to startups in San Francisco
#123Or, consider starting a company outside of San Francisco. Not just outside of SoMA, actually outside of San Francisco. (I know, I know, blasphemy.) Eventually the price of real estate and labor will be so high that the relative disadvantages of other locations will not matter.
Re: Landlords are trying not to rent to startups in San Francisco
#124Or, consider starting a company outside of San Francisco. Not just outside of SoMA, actually outside of San Francisco. (I know, I know, blasphemy.) Eventually the price of real estate and labor will be so high that the relative disadvantages of other locations will not matter.
I'm good friends with a startup that was trying to raise money for their Utah-based company. Really strong growth rate, revenue coming in, etc. They went up and down sandhill road/SF, and got a couple really lousy offers for funding, and were shocked at how harsh the VC community can be. Their board member (one of our closest/best mentors) recommended they go back, but make the first slide in their pitch deck "We're…
Re: Landlords are trying not to rent to startups in San Francisco
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of this may come from the belief that the economy is only being propped up by the easy money policies of the Fed, and that the Fed is going to start tightening rapidly in the fall. There's a sense that once the tightening starts, everyone will run for the exits at once, and we'll have another 2008 situation but worse.
Not to pile on too much, but the Fed has been amazingly slow to raise rates and only shows signs of doing the most timid increase. It's the cheap money that's fueling the mad rush, yes, but it's a blunt policy tool being used to help along parts of the country that are really still struggling. Until Detroit and Stockton and Pittsburgh are doing well again, aggressive policy is going to continue to fuel massive growth…
Re: Landlords are trying not to rent to startups in San Francisco
#126Then we needed to sublet our old space at 2nd and Townsend. Shawn Fanning's new company Rupture wanted the space. We hadn't moved out the furniture yet, and they were interested. So we sold it to them for $1. Way more relaxed back then.
Re: Landlords are trying not to rent to startups in San Francisco
#127Earlier quoted context omitted.
I always thought a BIG benefit of SoMa is the fact that you can draw employees from East Bay and South Bay (as well as SF itself). On the other hand, a, say, San Mateo -> Oakland commute is pretty much untenable.
Yup. This is a huge advantage to SoMa. I even hear hesitations around FiDi as it's not easily accessible by Caltrain (let alone Oakland). The Central Subway and new Transbay Terminal might alter this. That said, I don't think the new Transbay will directly link with BART -- will still be a walk, which is a bit of a shame.
Re: Landlords are trying not to rent to startups in San Francisco
#128Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm good friends with a startup that was trying to raise money for their Utah-based company. Really strong growth rate, revenue coming in, etc. They went up and down sandhill road/SF, and got a couple really lousy offers for funding, and were shocked at how harsh the VC community can be. Their board member (one of our closest/best mentors) recommended they go back, but make the first slide in their pitch deck "We're…
Did they move to SF?
Re: Landlords are trying not to rent to startups in San Francisco
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
I never understood why investors need to be 'close.' I also don't understand why most startups need an office. Basecamp is entirely remote with an office just for show. They only use it a few times a year. Unless you build hardware, an office is unnecessary. A dumb waste of money, especially early in a startup's life. I do some side work for a major international medical lab and their entire Dev team is remote -- and…
We've tried and found that remote engineers are less effective, they miss out a lot from group whiteboard discussions, overhearing office chatter "Hey bill, service XX crashed again because of YY (and Mike overhears and says "Oh yeah, I saw YY in service ZZ too and fixed it"), and just general team cohesiveness. In theory we could hire more people for less salary if we had a remote workforce, but we're still a small…
It takes work to establish your culture to work remotely well -- if you just hire some people that you only ever hear on Skype during standup and give them work, they don't become enmeshed in the fabric of the company. Cliques form everywhere but they can be especially brutal in excluding remote workers from the 'core' teams that are seen as successful within a company.
I'm sorry to hear it hasn't worked for you. If you attempt it again, make sure you evaluate whether you've built a culture based on 'being there' before hiring people who can't be. Lots of people make this mistake and just see cheaper workers.
Re: Landlords are trying not to rent to startups in San Francisco
#130Or, consider starting a company outside of San Francisco. Not just outside of SoMA, actually outside of San Francisco. (I know, I know, blasphemy.) Eventually the price of real estate and labor will be so high that the relative disadvantages of other locations will not matter.
I wish people would do that. I know when I see jobs that interest me, they're almost always in SF or NYC. Neither location is somewhere I'd flourish. Seriously, what is the actual appeal of SF? I just don't see it.