8 Tips for startups visiting SF

Here are 8 tips that you as a founder going to SF for the first time might find useful.

It’s all biased, since we’re NYC-based and one of the co-founders, being non-American said: “Wow America is really different here!” *awestruck*

1. All roads lead uphill

This city is literally not for the faint of heart, feeling like you’re going to roll downhill any second. If you look up from below, the world looks like a deep dish pizza and you’re walking up towards the edge of the crust.

You’ll need good shoes, preferably with cushioning. Google maps doesn’t route around steep terrain so give yourself extra walking time between each meeting in case of a surprise slope.

2. There’s nowhere to sit

In NYC you’ll often find benches spread out quite evenly across the city. That doesn’t exist there. If you want to sit, you have to pay. Often the price is a cup of coffee, but be prepared to walk and stand around a lot.

Sometimes there’s just nothing but construction around, worst luck. We had a phone meeting huddled on the roadside curb. It was the only quiet spot around. You’ll have to make do, unless you get a dedicated workspace during travel week which can be costly.

3. Using your phone in a taxi is a BAD idea

Flickering screens and roller coaster slopes? A recipe for motion sickness.

4. Avoid Hay Fever

Traveling from freezing winter in NYC straight into SF spring in full bloom felt wonderful, until hay fever hit us.

BRING ANTIHISTAMINES. You don’t want to show up in an Important Meeting with your eyes red and teary, nose running and blotches on your cheeks.

Minimize allergic reactions by avoiding dusk/dawn where trees are most active. If you feel sick before an Important Meeting — slam a quart of orange juice, take 2 antihistamines, use ice-water or wet wipes on your face and eyedrops. You want to bring the inflammation down ASAP, and this will help with that.

5. Do NOT talk about tech

Unless the other person starts first, or you’re explicitly meeting to talk about tech or startups.

Locals in SF hate talking about tech. They’re surrounded by it 24/7 and they’ve heard about every angle of how tech has transformed their city with high rents and rising costs of living. They know it, and they’re tired of every tourist airing their own opinions (don’t be that tourist).

6. All the coffee is amazing

The best coffees are found inside offices, where swanky unicorns feast on smooth caffeinated brews in their sunlit cafeterias. Swoon at the perfectly roasted Kona coffee topped with creamy milk from happy cows.

7. Try all citrus

The varieties are plentiful from blood oranges to Kaffir limes, with pricey citrus like Meyer lemons at a fraction of normal costs. Sweet, tart and bursting with juice, it’s like eating a ball of sunshine in your hand.

8. Don’t panic

#startuplife tends to be all consuming, but try to take time out. As founders, we have serious FOMO and tendency to cram meetings and calls. It’s good to have urgency, but too much of frantic emailing feels like desperation which is a turn off.

People will reply your emails when they want to reply, and you might end up with most of your meetings all on the last day — but that’s OK. Between each meeting, try to take in some of the scenery and open up to what the city has to offer beyond the tech scene. Startup culture has been accused of being insensitive, blind and a giant cult-like monoculture, and you don’t want to be part of that problem, right?

Most of all, don’t panic. On arrival, our phones didn’t update to the right timezone settings and we ended up missing an Important Meeting. It was horrifying. We cried.

There was nothing we could do but calm down and focus. There’s no point in regrets. We wrote an apology and if they were still available on a later date, we would meet them anywhere anytime. Luckily they accepted our apology, and gave us another chance.

What matters is you. If you believe that people are inherently good, that they want to do their best, that bad things happen but you can make it right! — then the only answer is to pick yourself back up.

Maybe you didn’t get to meet. Maybe you missed someone. Maybe they rescheduled. Whatever it is, things happen. If you screwed up on your first trip, there will be other trips. If not, there’s emails, phone calls, video conferencing and other ways to follow up.

Don’t give up, and have a great trip!