> “Taxes don’t have a lot of impact on business decisions. It’s something that has been exaggerated for years”
What a laughable comment, as anyone can just look at the overseas behavior of large companies to see how this is false.
Stripe to move to South San Francisco
271–280 of 441 posts
Re: Stripe to move to South San Francisco
#272Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you are still lying $500k, what’s the point of that move ? Also, network effect doesn’t change. I will never move out of SV/SF as I know I can walk down the street and get another $500k job
> If you are still lying $500k, what’s the point of that move ? I think you mistyped here. The point of the move is that $500k in San Francisco vs $500k in any other city in the US (except New York) result in substantially different qualities of life. $500k a year income in Miami can get you a mortgage on a 3 bedroom house and a boat. In SF, you get a mortgage on a 1 bedroom apartment.
Yeah, but then I would have to live in Miami.
LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION!
Re: Stripe to move to South San Francisco
#273I am not in the bay area, in fact I've never even been to the West Coast. So I am going to ask what may seem like a stupid question to some of you. I mean this in as polite a way as possible, but why wouldn't established companies like Stripe just fuck off to another city entirely? It's a successful company with a great product - that I'm sure many people would like to work for. They could surely lure talent from the…
I'm going to predict that even the move to South San Francisco will be highly disruptive and will result in major turnover. If you live in the city and are taking public transit, a move to South San Francisco is going to be extremely painful. If you own or on rent control, its probably time to start looking for a new job.
Re: Stripe to move to South San Francisco
#274Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's all true, but assumes a quick move. A move strategy could be as simple as, opening up an office in a cheaper location: 1. New teams are created at the new location. 2. New hires on existing teams are placed at the new location, with exceptions if teams have a strong need to be in the same place. 3. Make it clear that you'll help people relocate to the new office if they choose to--some people will take you up…
Any examples of a big company actually doing a gradual move this way? It doesn't seem like it would work. Satellite offices are tough to do right. It's very hard to build trust between individuals at the different offices without regular face-to-face contact. In the absence of this, you end up with negative relationships between teams at different sites: "The team in Springfield doesn't care about quality" vs. "Those…
Almost every successful medium- or large-sized company has done this. As they grow, they open new offices, which they seed with existing staff who are willing to either permanently or temporarily relocate. Most of the time those offices have specific areas of focus, at least when they're starting out. That way they minimize cross-geographic dependencies. To pick a totally non-random example, Stripe has followed this model. It's evident when one looks at their job listings: https://stripe.com/jobs/search
By growing any one of their regional offices, they could move their headquarters. Toyota recently did this over the course of several years. They announced the relocation in 2014, but didn't officially move the HQ until 2016. The planning and execution spanned years before and after that timeframe as well.
Re: Stripe to move to South San Francisco
#275Earlier quoted context omitted.
So many reasons: - That effectively means those employees tied to the old location have to quit or be let go. Stripe isn't a public company, so that causes major issues for those with options who suddenly need to exercise into an expensive illiquid holding. For those w/o vested options in a company as successful as Stripe, you're leaving a lot of money on the table. What are the odds you find another Stripe with opti…
You're assuming that people actually own homes in the bay area. Good one.
There are other points the OP raised as well. If you disagree, provide a counter argument to all points vs. selectively paraphrasing to your benefit.
Re: Stripe to move to South San Francisco
#276Earlier quoted context omitted.
Moving offices is really disruptive to people's lives, and causes a huge amount of turnover in your workforce. A brief excerpt from Peopleware[1]: "The typical person being moved today is part of a two-career family. The other half of that equation is probably not being moved, so the corporate move comes down hard on the couple’s relationship at a very delicate point. It brings intolerable stress to bear on the accom…
That's all true, but assumes a quick move. A move strategy could be as simple as, opening up an office in a cheaper location: 1. New teams are created at the new location. 2. New hires on existing teams are placed at the new location, with exceptions if teams have a strong need to be in the same place. 3. Make it clear that you'll help people relocate to the new office if they choose to--some people will take you up…
Bay Area companies are actively trying to do this. Stripe's Remote HQ is an example, but so are the emerging second HQs in Seattle. But the fact remains that there is a huge glut of talent in the Bay Area, and if you want to recruit from the FB/Apple/GOOG HQs, you need a strong Bay Area presence.
Re: Stripe to move to South San Francisco
#277I am not in the bay area, in fact I've never even been to the West Coast. So I am going to ask what may seem like a stupid question to some of you. I mean this in as polite a way as possible, but why wouldn't established companies like Stripe just fuck off to another city entirely? It's a successful company with a great product - that I'm sure many people would like to work for. They could surely lure talent from the…
Some employees would be afraid to live in a non-California state where non-compete agreements can be enforced. Even if Stripe eschewed them, their next employer might not.
I can’t picture a single tech company I would be attached to enough to follow through any geographic move, unless I were a founder of that company. There are plenty of opportunities in the ocean for the average software engineer and company loyalty rightfully doesn’t exist.
California has too much going for it for engineers to abandon it over a company that can’t event afford to keep an office open there, and I’m saying that as an outsider, I much prefer the east coast or Colorado.
Re: Stripe to move to South San Francisco
#278I can tell you recruiting for South San Francisco was way harder than recruiting for SF. If I lived in SF without a car, that'd be a deal breaker for me. They're going to start losing people, or see a huge spike in chronic working from home. I guess they have to move somewhere at some point, and no move is without trade-offs. Regarding the gross receipts tax, couldn't they just move their HQ-on-paper to any place tha…
They'll probably just start running shuttle buses, like every other big company with offices outside the city. It will be a bigger problem for employees who live in the East Bay, but not near the ferry terminals.
Re: Stripe to move to South San Francisco
#279Earlier quoted context omitted.
I remember when Stripe emailed me as a job candidate. At the time, I was sitting in the bar directly behind their office, and basically replied that they (one of the Collison brothers) could come right now and have a beer with me. (I was sitting in the Rose and Crown, and they were in the office behind the Wine Room on the same block.) * > why wouldn't established companies like Stripe just ... off to another city en…
> Good weather The weather in San Francisco is overrated, it's always cold and windy and there are never any seasons.
Based on the prices people are willing to pay to live there, it’s obviously highly desirable among those who are on the higher end of the wealth distribution.