Good bye San Francisco
Almost 6 years ago I had a tiny get together at a friend’s place to say good bye to Guadalajara. After a bunch of drinks, I thought it would be funny to have them pose being all sad that I was leaving. The over exposed Instagram filter perfectly dates the picture. I was supposed to be excited. I was supposed to be incredibly grateful for the opportunity to go to such a marvelous city. But I wasn’t. You see, I was a mess at that time. I had gone through what felt the worst heartbreak possible and things at my job were shitty. I decided that I needed a change. I loved “La Perla” and my friends but the heartbreak was so big that there was hurt for me at almost at every street and corner. It was definitely a bitter sweet good bye. In a way I was running. I was not seeking startup fame or fortune in San Francisco. I was presented with a way out and i took it.
I visited a couple times before I became aware that San Francisco was such the perma 20’s wonderland . My interest in “off the beaten path” technology and culture seemed to go well with the city. I got to know some of the hip places and formed a couple friendships with people in the (ruby) tech community. I had come to admire the craft beer scene, hip bars, farm to table restaurants and artisanal coffee shops everywhere. When I visited Dolores park for the first time, I became immediately lured by the atmosphere of authenticity and the fresh bay area breeze. ‘Hipster’ was a term that started being associated with a lot of what was going on, and I was all for it. Before I had any job interviews I decided what neighborhood I wanted to live in (The Mission) and how cool my life would become. That was it, that was my 2 step plan:
- Move to San Francisco.
- Become awesome!
It wasn’t that easy.
Finding a job was nerve wrecking. Back then, companies were trending towards Ruby and Rails. My bet on this language by a Japanese man and a framework by a snooty Danish programmer paid of. It also helped that I joined the Ruby conference circuit. Piotr, one of the guys I had met in the Ruby conference world, was especially good at persuading me to go to San Francisco. He wanted me to join Get Satisfaction, a company he had recently joined. It totally seemed like the right company, surely destined to change the world along with many others. I was to be part of the “Web 2.0” elite and become insanely rich. There was VC money everywhere and things were starting to get crazy. Ha!
The long hard road to startup failure is not without its rewards. When I joined the Get Satisfaction engineering team I was one of 5 engineers. We were working on a code base that seemed to have been typed in anger by at least 2 other generations of engineers. The company seemed to be too young for such high turnover of engineers but it really didn't matter to me. It was exiting and challenging work that kept us running long days and nights. The company kept growing, customers kept coming, and we did what we could to keep the ship running. Get Satisfaction was a sales and marketing heavy organization, yet the engineering team’s culture was so strong that it permeated all other teams. We stuck together and supported each other despite the drama and struggles of getting those “hockey stick” results VC’s love.
3 years and much joy, fun, drama, and some grief I decided to part ways with “Get Sat”. I felt the company was losing “steam”. What hurt the most was to leave such amazing coworkers behind. A great opportunity came and I took it. I turns out I was right on the “losing steam” part. Not long after I left, Get Satisfaction was acquired “for pennies” by another company in a move that seemed shameful for the expectations so many people had. In the end the full picture of failure is a complex one, that hides under many layers of NDA’s but I learned so much and became a much better professional because of it. Yes, it is a Silicon Valley cliche, but its true you do learn so much more from failure.
Housing is insane as they say
6 years ago a studio/1br would cost about 2k a month. I really wanted to live in the Mission per my previous experience as a tourist. Unfortunately, I could not rent a place on my own because I had no credit history, so I decided to go “the roommate” route. I planned to stay at an Airbnb for 2 weeks. That would be enough time to find a permanent place for me and all my earthly belongings, which were 2 suitcases. I could not have been so wrong. Those 2 weeks stretched to 4 weeks very quickly and my Airbnb host really wanted her extra room back.
Next I moved into a really expensive short term sub-let in the Mission. All my remaining energy after work was spent scouring Craigslist, writing/responding to emails, and interviewing with potential roommates. This went on for 3 months, right up until the expiration of my sub-let lease. Luckily, one of the roommates that had previously passed on me, reached out to let me know that a girl from google flaked on her and she decided to take me in. I was never happier about being second best! Almost 5 months after arriving in San Francisco, having drained all of my savings, I finally landed a killer apartment in the hip neighborhood, close to Bart and award winning bars and restaurants.
SF culture is dead, long live SF culture.
It turns out that the fresh Bay Area smell was really a mix of pot smoke and homeless people bodily functions brewing under the sun. During my short time in “The City” I saw the culture definitely shift. I’m an outsider that came in thanks to tech so it feels a hypocritical to say things about San Francisco culture dying. In my defense I specifically moved to San Francisco with the intention of being part of a community of creatives and trailblazers. I tried hard to support local events and contribute and give back to the community. Over the years people and events became more 20 year-old party focused. Suddenly every event was filled with shirt-less bro’s and spaced out ‘burners’. When I first arrived, I loved that San Francisco had a little bit of something for everyone, but it’s changed. It’s now more of one kind of thing and much less diverse.
Now that I have spent some time away from San Francisco. I see why it seems so amazing to outsiders..because it still is fucking amazing! The thing is, it’s become “a bit too much”, at least for me. Imagine if as a kid you had lived in the Disney resort and could go to Disneyland everyday. How long would it stay “the happiest place on earth”? It would be too much. Right? You would end up with a tummy ache every day and needing some wholesome time at home with regular play and not make-believe stuff 24/7. Your imagination would dwindle and the wonder of Disneyland would consume you. It’s the same in San Francisco. It’s become less of a city and more of a Wonderland of sorts. No wonder most natives have left and less and less stuff is “home grown”.
No doubt that San Francisco will continue to evolve. I loved every festival, block party, picnic, beach, bar, restaurant, museum. I wish it would not be insanely expensive to create a future there but, as corny as it sounds, life must go on.
Veni, vidi, vici
I somehow survived the experience, all while dealing with anxiety and depression, and it helped shape the last bits of me that needed shaping. My good friend Piotr, that guy that brought me over, joked that being in San Francisco was like getting the masters degree that our moms expected from us. He meant it in a mostly professional sense but I also believe it was the perfect place to get my masters degree in life. I definitely had to conquer many personal struggles, some of them alone and some with help of wonderful people.
I was able to meet incredible people and create lasting friendships. I was very lucky to make connections as soon as I got there through friends from Mexico and Twitter. Yes, Twitter. There was the “International” group of friends and the “Mexas”. It was almost too perfect to have an adventurous, open-minded, world traveled group and another that made me feel close to my roots and my culture. I cannot state enough the importance of having both. Ultimately, having made those incredible friendships is what I am most proud of and hurts me the most to say good bye.
Last but not least I met my beautiful wife in San Francisco. I met her at the office, not online dating or at a bar. I lack the normal male abilities to “pick up chicks”. I bet the fact I call it “pick up chicks” pretty much explains it. Our love story deserves one or many more posts but she is definitely the most prized conquest of my tenure as a San Franciscan. She is a bay area native, she totally gets me, her friends are now like a family to us. Oh, and did I mention, she saved my life? #humblebrag.
It has been a bit more than a month away and the sadness of leaving has already fully set in and is in the process of clearing out now. I took a lot of time to write this because it comes with great nostalgia and “bittersweetness”. My wife and I are entering a new time, 7 year cycle, phase, epoch or whatever you might call it. Thank you San Francisco, thank you friends, hope you always remain there so we can visit you a lot.
Fin.
