3 ms·

> It's anti-growth NIMBYs who have caused SF real estate prices to fly off to the Moon. It's tech companies who keep insisting that they must have their headqu

> It's anti-growth NIMBYs who have caused SF real estate prices to fly off to the Moon. It's tech companies who keep insisting that they must have their headquaters in SF. Even YC who should care about giving their founders maximum runway insist to force them upon valley and bleed money on rents while eating ramen. Why? Software does not have any need or reason to be only built in the valley. Sure, you come to valley to hire, get funding but then you should leave! Run away to cheaper places and work from there! There are large number of people in SV exceedingly frustrated by home prices, school situation and commute and they will be more then happy to move out to Austin or wherever else. In fact I would say doing a startup these days in SV is almost brain dead. You would burn too much of your funding in high salaries, office rents and all kind of taxes. Virtually every talented person I know outside of valley does not want to move in to valley because of CoL. If you are startup in valley you are closing door to large pool of these talent while exposing yourself to local talent that is actually non-existent at startup level salaries and have huge attrition anyway.

rsj_hn 9y ago
Very few tech companies have their HQ in SF. Of the top 100 tech companies in the valley, only Salesforce has their HQ in SF. Apple, Cisco, Oracle, Intel, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Adobe, Ebay, they all have HQs in the peninsula south of SF. But they all open engineering offices in SF because that's where many (not all) of the engineering talent wants to live. People want to live in SF, and as tech skills are in demand, companies open up offices in locations that make it easier to attract talent. If anything, I see companies trying to hire outside of SF and promote other offices in lower cost areas -- e.g. Adobe in Utah. Over time, the rising cost of living will at some point drive people to want to live elsewhere, and then companies will be under less pressure to purchase expensive office space in SF. But believe me, it's not some irrational desire to make less money that causes tech companies to "insist" on leasing office space in the SF market rather than in the cheaper markets in other parts of the bay. The real problem here is that programming is driven by the young, and they generally don't have the same demand for cheap housing as those who are starting families. Generally speaking, people move out of SF when they have kids and are looking for good schools and more affordable housing. So I guess the cost of providing the more expensive office space for the cheaper (younger) worker works out for tech. So what you need is a sea change in the desirability of living in SF on the part of the younger/cheaper recruits that tech companies need. This is just a business decision at the end of the day.
- DerekL 9y ago
  > Apple, Cisco, Oracle, Intel, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Adobe, Ebay, they all have HQs in the peninsula south of SF. It's more accurate to say “south of SF” instead of “in the peninsula south of SF”. Apple, Cisco, Intel, Netflix, Adobe and eBay are in the Santa Clara Valley. Generally, people say the peninsula starts at Mountain View and Los Altos.

rsj_hn 9y ago

Very few tech companies have their HQ in SF. Of the top 100 tech companies in the valley, only Salesforce has their HQ in SF. Apple, Cisco, Oracle, Intel, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Adobe, Ebay, they all have HQs in the peninsula south of SF. But they all open engineering offices in SF because that's where many (not all) of the engineering talent wants to live. People want to live in SF, and as tech skills are in demand, companies open up offices in locations that make it easier to attract talent. If anything, I see companies trying to hire outside of SF and promote other offices in lower cost areas -- e.g. Adobe in Utah. Over time, the rising cost of living will at some point drive people to want to live elsewhere, and then companies will be under less pressure to purchase expensive office space in SF. But believe me, it's not some irrational desire to make less money that causes tech companies to "insist" on leasing office space in the SF market rather than in the cheaper markets in other parts of the bay. The real problem here is that programming is driven by the young, and they generally don't have the same demand for cheap housing as those who are starting families. Generally speaking, people move out of SF when they have kids and are looking for good schools and more affordable housing. So I guess the cost of providing the more expensive office space for the cheaper (younger) worker works out for tech. So what you need is a sea change in the desirability of living in SF on the part of the younger/cheaper recruits that tech companies need. This is just a business decision at the end of the day.

DerekL 9y ago
> Apple, Cisco, Oracle, Intel, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Adobe, Ebay, they all have HQs in the peninsula south of SF. It's more accurate to say “south of SF” instead of “in the peninsula south of SF”. Apple, Cisco, Intel, Netflix, Adobe and eBay are in the Santa Clara Valley. Generally, people say the peninsula starts at Mountain View and Los Altos.