A Love Letter to San Francisco
If you know me personally, you know that I love SF.
But why do I love SF?
Doesn’t the city have major problems?
Isn’t there a bunch of new places that are the new Silicon Valley?
These are all very relevant questions but there are some key factors that still make it the best place in the world to build a startup.
Now to preface, this by no means is saying you cannot build a startup anywhere else. SF is not a guarantee of success for your startup, nor is it necessarily the best city for you to build in specifically. I don’t want to isolate anyone reading this who is not in SF or planning not to be.
These are just my own personal observations based on my time having lived in 11 different cities for at least a month in the last 8 years. I’ve traveled all over the place, yet I haven’t found a better place for a young startup founder to live.
I get it, some of you will think I am perpetuating this hyped-up narrative, but hear me out.
Dreams Don’t Seem like Dreams Here
As a kid, I have always been a dreamer. I currently am and hopefully always will be. But as life goes on, obviously things get put into perspective.
Your dream isn’t possible because of [insert reason here].
It’s an insanely hard problem
It requires a bunch of money.
I need people who truly believe
99% of people just never try to pursue their dream. But out of 1% who really do, I swear, 50% of them are all concentrated in SF. And being around people chasing the impossible dream can make you think perhaps you can too.
Let me tell you a personal story about my friend, Mo Mahmood. Mo observed for the last 40 years, although America has become a dominant global superpower, it hadn’t built a great new world wonder — something people could look up to and be inspired by, a true feat of humanity pushing the boundaries of what we thought was possible. So even as a 20-year-old from Delaware, Mo dropped out and made More Monuments, a not-for-profit with this goal in mind.
Now, when you hear something like this, most people support the cause but assume it is nearly impossible to pull off, especially for someone like Mo, who was not a billionaire, not involved in politics, and didn’t really have the power to enact change. I was in the exact same boat. But hold onto those feelings, and see how quickly they are about to change.
A couple of weeks after meeting Mo, I found out an ex-girlfriend of one of the richest people on earth was coming to check out the stuff they were doing.
Huh, maybe there is something here.
A couple of weeks after that, I found out Palmer Luckey, the original founder of Oculus and the CEO of Anduril, was following More Monuments on Twitter.
Damn, he’s rich, powerful, and is now directly showing support.
And a couple of weeks after that, this graced my Twitter timeline.
Holy shit, this guy might actually build a new world wonder
You see how quickly it took to make you start to believe?
I cannot tell you if Mo will actually end up building his monument. But even the fact it went from a 0% chance to the 20% chance I give it now is absolutely absurd. And its people like this you can meet in SF. Mo is just one example I can give, but something about this place not only attracts the dreamers but gives them the resources they need to really act upon them.
Shout out to Mo and More Monuments. If like what they are doing follow them on X here:
Everyone Knows a Guy Who Knows a Guy Who Knows a Guy
“You are working on this? Oh dude, you should talk to my friend doing [X] or my other friend doing [Y].”
In SF, I’ve heard this countless times. Although SF has a substantial population in startups and tech, the community still feels somewhat small. Everyone seems to know each other somehow, either meeting at previous mixers or just through colleagues. And not only people on the ground level but even billionaires. You can find people across the tech spectrum in the myriad of events hosted across the city.
The Community is Popping
How many people are willing to make introductions for people they just met? I’d say in most places that’s an anomaly, but in SF, it’s pretty commonplace. Yeah, they might not vouch for you, but they will make the introduction. That just isn’t something I have seen anywhere else.
The community is just on another level of helpfulness and support. Every single day there is an event going on in the city, with at least one or two per day likely piquing your interest. There are so many events, in fact, Michelle literally puts out a weekly thread every week with all the events going on in SF.
And through the help of nothing but reaching out to the SF Tech community on Twitter, she put together this handy guide for new and existing founders within the city.
Pretty cool right?
People Invest in the Long-Term Vision
“If I gave you all the resources in the world to fully act upon your vision, what is the best end goal you see for this product?”
It amazes me how many founders I talk to outside of SF who have never considered this question, which is absolutely dumbfounding. They seem to just focus on the short-term stuff like where the product is today in terms of users, revenue, or capability. While these are extremely important, they are not the primary basis on why people invest in you in SF.
Instead, you sell them on the end goal, the end vision, the 10000x multiple return, the dream. And you will find someone with money to throw at it.
That’s not the case as a whole anywhere else. There will always be apprehension to invest in other places if you don’t have the short-term traction, but it’s not the case in SF.
Vibes
A couple of weeks ago, my friend Andre, who was just in the last batch at YC, asked me if I wanted to swing by the office. Sure, why the hell not?
So I tagged along with him, and a couple of minutes later, I was graced with the beauty of this setup.
Stealing a photo of the setup off of Andre’s Co-Founder Nanki, it’s a converted 2-bedroom apartment, with two desks beside each other and a whiteboard in the background.
Most people will see this and think it’s a small but humble beginning.
Some people will point out that for the same price, hey could’ve probably got an entire floor in an office building in Arkansas.
But I saw this and could only really think about how this is it.
This is peak startup.
In this very apartment, many other entrepreneurs have probably tried their hand, most likely succeeding or maybe just making it in this very room.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, I am a big subscriber to “vibes.” And in SF, there is just this intrinsic motivation you see, from feeling the energy from the past and the current energy with people around the city. In that building alone, there are probably 2–3 setups of founders with the exact same setup. That type of energy is infectious and something I just have not gotten a taste of anywhere else.
Downsides
Now, if you notice my list above, you will see most of the stuff I wrote here was very narrowed in on startups and not really talking about the city. The reason being is that yes, the city has its problems. Although I regard it as the most naturally beautiful city I have seen, at least in North America, there are some bad parts that should dissuade people from moving here.
So to be only fair, here are some of the bad things about SF:
The High Cost of Living
Let’s address the elephant in the room first — SF is incredibly expensive. The cost of housing, food, and basic necessities is significantly higher than in most other cities. You should not come to SF unless you are willing to look at the cost of living as an opportunity cost or plan to go hard on your career. Those who work hard will be rewarded here and be compensated accordingly, so the cost of living doesn’t seem too bad. But you have to be ready to do that. It’s a major factor to consider.
It Can Be a Bubble
While I mentioned the “vibes” as a positive earlier on, it has led to a pretty substantial bubble every time a new technology comes out. So while AI has a closed grip on the city, founders will fall into certain traps when creating their startups.
They will put the technology before the problem.
They will just focus on engineering and ignore building a business.
I have my own issues with the way a lot of founders conduct themselves and wrote about it extensively in these articles:
Sometimes it can get weird too. Apparently “delve” is a common indicator an email was written by AI, so using it can get your email shot down?
Time to carry about my AI generated word guide I guess.
Underlying City Issues
I would be lying if I thought SF itself was an incredible city. While it does have certain high points, especially in terms of views, there are many low points for me as well. The homelessness problem is 100% legit and is a major issue. It’s something to be aware of if you’re considering moving here.
Food and Nightlife Leave Much to Be Desired
I’ve been around the world. Unless you are going to Michelin stars every night, the food in SF is pretty bad. Granted, I am a vegetarian and have heard the seafood is pretty good, but I have not been a fan.
SF also isn’t known as a party spot, and it shows. While there are a lot of good house parties, establishments in the city itself are lacking. Maybe I am not well-versed enough with the party scene, but I’d say fly into Vegas or somewhere else if you are looking to get your party fill in.
Dating Can Be Intimidating
You take the world’s smartest guys and girls, put them in one city, and dating suddenly becomes super intimidating. I’d say dating in SF is not a great time for a lot of people. It’s just something to keep in mind if that’s top of mind for you.
All Your Friends Will Be in Tech
As a bonafide tech nerd, I thought I would like having all my friends be in tech. But you know what? I can appreciate having friends in other industries and talking about stuff that’s going on with them. Because in SF, it will be the same stuff over and over again. “Did you see the new NVIDIA GPU release?” “When is GPT-5 releasing?” “What is the context window of Gemini now?” I mean, it’s stuff I find sick, but can sometimes feel like talking in a loop. So if that really matters to you, keep this in mind.
At the end of the day, the way I look at it, everything is just about priorities. If you want to have a fun, well-balanced life, I can name tons of cities that are better.
NYC, Austin, Miami.
Hell, why stop in America?
Bangkok, London, Dubai, Tokyo.
But most founders already sacrifice a lot to go work on their startup. So if they are already all in, doesn’t it make sense to work on it in the place that offers you the most potential leverage?
I talk about this concept of leverage extensively in my last article, and I don’t think there is a better place to gain leverage than SF. While I won’t rehash the article here, if you take a look at all the forms of leverage I mention there and what I mentioned above about SF, you can start to see the connections quickly.
Quite simply, I can’t think about a better place to take most advantage of the opportunity, and I have really tried.
I have been to all the so-called new Silicon Valleys. But it isn’t the same.
SF isn’t the best place in the world by any stretch, but I will still say it is the best place to build a startup, despite its flaws.
Just be ready for the sacrifices that come with it.
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Thanks for reading,
Daivik Goel
