3 reasons Berkeley’s the bomb for tech entrepreneurs

after co-working in SF, Beijing, Shanghai, Bangkok, Taipei, San Mateo, NYC, and Berkeley

When I started Tandem over a year ago, I was living in the SOMA neighborhood of San Francisco. That’s where my last startup, TaskRabbit, was located and as most tech people know — a world hub for startups. Don’t get me wrong, the quality of engineers and entrepreneurs readily accessible there is unbelievable. Countless times, I’ll walk down the street for lunch, run into a friend-of-a-friend who’s wicked smart, spitball some ideas, and get instant, brilliant feedback. The ecosystem is awe inspiring, but, to be honest, there’s also a fair amount of “group think” with venture money trying to follow trends and popularity contests between ‘tech celebrities.’ Last April, I decided to recalibrate and get out of the SF tech bubble.

Beijing / Shanghai / Bangkok / Taipei

I visited friends and co-worked in Beijing, Shanghai, Bangkok, and Taipei for 2-3 weeks each. China is blowing up; insane amounts of wealth being created, but you’ll either want to know the language or partner with a local. It’s affordable to work out of and you can get by through VPN to work on Facebook integrations (since that website is blocked there). I found that smartphone usage was greater by the general population than in SF. So comparing people who don’t work at a startup, there’ll be a greater percentage of them using more apps and more often in China.

Costs of living is generally cheaper especially for food and transportation. That said, I did pay $20 for a cocktail at a speakeasy in Taipei… If you can’t handle the language barrier, probably want to stay out of Beijing. Shanghai and Bangkok have a lot of expats. Not a lot of expats in Taipei, but for some reason it felt more foreigner friendly than Beijing. Probably more English taught in schools there.

NYC

So fun. So expensive. I’m pretty sure I paid $12 for a cold-pressed drink just to see what it would feel like… LOL Lots of young hustlers and activity there. Cost and 50% shitty weather keep me a visitor, but I love the vibe and the people, much more eclectic than SF.

San Mateo

After months away, I continued to rent out my place in SF and wound up in San Mateo for a couple months. It’s a nice suburban neighborhood, but I felt VERY isolated. Cheaper than SF but not by much and I’d say there’s really nothing interesting going on. Some coworking spaces, but I didn’t bother.

Berkeley

You can tell I’m not a suburb guy. So I thought Berkeley would suck as much as San Mateo did when I decided to run Tandem experiments on the student population out there. Surprisingly, I’m a fan and here’s 3 reasons why Berkeley (possibly Palo Alto as well) is great for a tech entrepreneur. (These apply to people living near UC Berkeley.)

1. Students

I find that people, who are hungry and foolish, are generally happy and optimistic too. Walking around UCB or nearby areas you’ll notice all the bright, shining faces who haven’t been jaded by the ‘real world.’ Having 35,000+ students in a tight proximity makes the area feel like a magical, happy city where everyone is young and smart.

Want to do consumer user testing? Just talk to any one of the thousands of fresh eyes that are happy to give their opinion. They’re into all the latest trends because they are the ones causing the trend. Not to mention the Electrical Engineering, Computer Science program is Cal’s largest undergrad major and one of the top programs in the world. Interns anyone?

Lastly, they work when I work. NOT 9 to 5 but whenever I can make time in between things. The local coffee shops and restaurants know this, so it’s perfectly normal to grab a coffee and plug in for the whole day or night. Tons of libraries open to the public and if you have AT&T wifi access, you’ve got internet all over campus. There’s always students working, reading, etc. so unlike the suburbs of San Mateo, it always feels like I’m co-working with somebody.

2. Cost & Quality of Life

OK, so not Asia cheap and the costs of renting a room is high enough where students are piled in like 3 to a room, but still generally cheaper than most of SF. Food is definitely cheaper from buying muffins at Safeway (I swear it’s 25% less) to getting lunch for $7/$8. And I can’t help but give a shout-out to SpoonRocket a recent startup delivering hot gourmet meals in 10 minutes for $6 till 4AM! (only in Berkeley and Oakland right now) Truth be told I even get them to hit me on the border of campus or on my walk home.

California weather here obviously except a bit less fog than SF. You can walk to a scenic hike and you’ll see people, including myself, running around the neighborhoods all the time.

3. Proximity to SF and Silicon Valley

Anytime, I want to have a meeting or attend tech events, it’s a short drive or bart ride away. Certainly, I’ll stack meetings to optimize time, but not a big deal to go back 2 days in a row… I’m sure less fortunate souls commute longer.

Perhaps all the young people around will get annoying at some point or I’ll stop looking like one of them, but for now, it’s one of the best places I can think of to work on a tech startup. When we open a physical office, I would seriously consider Berkeley.