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Stripe to move to South San Francisco

sfchronicle.com

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Re: Stripe to move to South San Francisco

#381

Post by jchallis »

pc wrote: post #296

Stripe cofounder here. Quick comment to say that we're excited about the move. South San Francisco is a cooperative and open-minded city. In being an infrastructure company, we have to take a long-term view, and we think this can be a good for many years. And while the Bay is tricky from a commuting standpoint no matter what the location, the the presence of a marina right beside this site opens up a lot of interesti…

I live in Burlingame and the very large number of Genentech folks in the neighborhood suggests that a simple shuttle service to Millbrae BART and Burlingame Broadway can lead to an enhancement in quality of life for workers, particularly those with kids.

Re: Stripe to move to South San Francisco

#382

Post by m0llusk »

abalone wrote: post #117
Decade wrote: post #67

What a completely unexpected consequence of the restrictions on office space, spearheaded by John Elberling of TODCO. /s He is now trying to make office space even more restricted, and his allies are working to reduce office space alternatively by raising the fees on office construction. https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/SF-Mayor-SoMa-n... https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2019/10/22/sf-... (Mo…

> working to reduce office space That's a rather uncharitable characterization. SF is just trying to tie jobs to adequate housing construction. We already have way too few houses, especially low-income housing.[1] Which is what makes Stripe's move here particularly low integrity: they'll have all the housing impact on SF without paying any of the corporate taxes. From your own source: "A separate economic feasibility…

South SF office parks are carefully managed medium to high density facilities while South SF residential land is mostly restricted single family zoning locked up hard by prop. 13. The burden to make room is clearly with residents.

Re: Stripe to move to South San Francisco

#383

Post by rodgerd »

reaperducer wrote: post #338
dawg- wrote: post #149

I 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…

People in tech used to accept being relocated as part of the job. From what I read on HN, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. It was common to joke in the 80's that IBM stands for "I've Been Moved."

Yeah, and IBM in the 80s and 90s was a paragon of success.

Re: Stripe to move to South San Francisco

#384

Post by marblar »

asdff wrote: post #309
giarc wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google Maps tells me this is a 14 minute drive (old HQ to Oyster Point Park). 16-30 minutes if you want to arrive at 8am. Is that correct? Is that such a game changer? Do that many people not own vehicles or can't carpool to work?

Google maps work commute estimates in CA are not accurate at all. Probably looking at 30-45mins during rush hour which would be soul crushing if you've previously fought 20 other applicants for a year long lease at a place in walking distance of the old HQ

Where are you guys living that you have to fight 20 people for a lease?

Re: Stripe to move to South San Francisco

#385

Post by the_watcher »

Decade wrote: post #315
pc wrote: post #296

Stripe cofounder here. Quick comment to say that we're excited about the move. South San Francisco is a cooperative and open-minded city. In being an infrastructure company, we have to take a long-term view, and we think this can be a good for many years. And while the Bay is tricky from a commuting standpoint no matter what the location, the the presence of a marina right beside this site opens up a lot of interesti…

South City is also one of the worst cities in the Bay Area in building offices and rejecting homes. The long-term view is that we need more homes near jobs. What are you doing to get South City to build more homes?

PC extremely vocal and active in advocating for better housing solutions in the Bay Area, particularly within SF proper. That doesn't mean he doesn't have a company to run, and to look out for its best interests given the existing state of regulations.

That said, South SF definitely seems like trading a worse commute for anyone in SF or the South Bay who rely on Muni/BART/Caltrain (presumably the majority of current and future Stripe employees) for improved commute options from parts of the East Bay (ferry) & the Peninsula (driving). This seems like a bet on a future tech flight from SF proper (to the Peninsula and East Bay). As someone hitting the point where I'm thinking about where I'd like to raise kids, this doesn't seem like a terribly bad bet to make, particularly as I see places I wouldn't have considered living at 24 evolve towards what I originally preferred about city life.

Re: Stripe to move to South San Francisco

#386

Post by the_watcher »

Wh1skey wrote: post #354
the_watcher wrote: post #271

> “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.

Thornberg skipped ECON101.

"Taxes do not drive business decisions" as a company leaves a city immediately after said city passed a massive tax increase on said company for a city with demonstrably lower taxes.

"Real estate prices drive business decisions, not taxes" as though business are not capable of understanding that real estate costs should take into account the tax implications of said real estate.

Re: Stripe to move to South San Francisco

#387

Post by Noos »

maxlamb wrote: post #203
harimau777 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is SSF still a large city in terms of cost of living and owning a home? Personally, by living in a large city I'm giving up the ability to own a home in exchange for access to niche resources such as ethnic enclaves, bohemian artist communities, cultural events, groups dedicated to uncommon hobbies, etc. Just having trendy restaurants and coffee shops wouldn't do it for me.

|bohemian artist communities Do bohemian artist communities still exist in San Francisco? How can they afford to live there?

trust fund kids with their MFAs playing at being bohemians, more likely. These days a lot of people who would have been bohemians are drawing porn of cartoon characters on Patreon to pay the bills. Art is a rich man's game now.

Re: Stripe to move to South San Francisco

#388

Post by pm90 »

nostrademons wrote: post #317
kerkeslager wrote: post #227

Earlier 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…

There're network effects between teams in a big company just like there're network effects between startups in a big city. As others have mentioned, the big tech companies are all actively doing this. Nevertheless, it's not really taking. I know 3 people who moved from Google's NYC office (the 2nd largest) to Mountain View because all the top-priority projects were in Mountain View. As a general rule of thumb, you wa…

This is an excellent summary of the situation, and reflects on my own career path. I moved from Austin to SF cuz I'm not-married and thus can keep my COL reasonably low while working on high impact, high visibility and frankly, high fun projects. But, its not a lifestyle I would want to keep when I will get married and have kids... a less demanding job + lower COL seems incredibly reasonable to me.

Re: Stripe to move to South San Francisco

#389

Post by reaperducer »

rodgerd wrote: post #383
reaperducer wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People in tech used to accept being relocated as part of the job. From what I read on HN, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. It was common to joke in the 80's that IBM stands for "I've Been Moved."

Yeah, and IBM in the 80s and 90s was a paragon of success.

Yeah, singlehandedly transforming the computer industry. So terrible.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Personal_Computer

Re: Stripe to move to South San Francisco

#390

Post by mbesto »

dmode wrote: post #224
friedman23 wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Albuquerque, NM This is not the only other option. Imagine telling an engineer, hey I'll pay you $500k a year in Atlanta, Miami, Philadelphia, Chicago, or Boston? Rent is immediately cut in half and some states have no income taxes. Their disposable income essentially triples.

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

> I will never move out of SV/SF as I know I can walk down the street and get another $500k job

This. Those salaries are basically correlative to cost living * demand for resources.

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