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It would probably be the other way around: an REO firm that made investments in startups.

meritt 9y ago
This has been happening for the past decade. Why do you think so many VC/PE firms and incubators have a hard requirement of people relocating to SF/SV? You'll also find that many investors will very strongly encourage your startup to utilize technology choices (e.g. MongoDB or Docker) that happen to be part of their investment circle.
- gnicholas 9y ago
  You're suggesting that an individual VC partner requires relocation because it will increase the value of his home? I doubt the effect would be strong enough, especially because the type of homes that VC partners live in ($5M-25M) are in a somewhat different market than the homes that VC-backed startup employees would purchase/rent. I would think that relocation requirements would be primarily motivated by factors related to the value of being in SV for networking and other purposes.
  - meritt 9y ago
    Their individual homes? Not at all. They invest in companies that build, sell, and lease single-family, multi-family, and commercial real estate in the SF/SV area.
    - gnicholas 9y ago
      I'm not familiar with this—how common is this type of investment among VCs? I assume not all VCs have investments in this area, and it would be interesting to see whether the firms that do invest in this area correlate with the firms that require relocation.
adventured 9y ago
That prompted me to recall Carl Berg from the prior era of the 1980s and 1990s tech boom. He ended up with a lot of stray equity holdings as a consequence of his real-estate position in Silicon Valley. https://www.forbes.com/forbes/1998/1012/6208086a.html https://www.forbes.com/forbes/1998/1012/6208086a.html
- sedachv 9y ago
  > That prompted me to recall Carl Berg from the prior era of the 1980s and 1990s tech boom. Minor point: those were two tech booms, a 1980s one and a 1990s one, separated by the recession of the early 1990s. I was not around, but period books describe the early 1990s recession as impacting the technology sector fairly seriously.

This has been happening for the past decade. Why do you think so many VC/PE firms and incubators have a hard requirement of people relocating to SF/SV? You'll also find that many investors will very strongly encourage your startup to utilize technology choices (e.g. MongoDB or Docker) that happen to be part of their investment circle.

gnicholas 9y ago
You're suggesting that an individual VC partner requires relocation because it will increase the value of his home? I doubt the effect would be strong enough, especially because the type of homes that VC partners live in ($5M-25M) are in a somewhat different market than the homes that VC-backed startup employees would purchase/rent. I would think that relocation requirements would be primarily motivated by factors related to the value of being in SV for networking and other purposes.
- meritt 9y ago
  Their individual homes? Not at all. They invest in companies that build, sell, and lease single-family, multi-family, and commercial real estate in the SF/SV area.
  - gnicholas 9y ago
    I'm not familiar with this—how common is this type of investment among VCs? I assume not all VCs have investments in this area, and it would be interesting to see whether the firms that do invest in this area correlate with the firms that require relocation.

adventured 9y ago

That prompted me to recall Carl Berg from the prior era of the 1980s and 1990s tech boom. He ended up with a lot of stray equity holdings as a consequence of his real-estate position in Silicon Valley. https://www.forbes.com/forbes/1998/1012/6208086a.html https://www.forbes.com/forbes/1998/1012/6208086a.html

sedachv 9y ago
> That prompted me to recall Carl Berg from the prior era of the 1980s and 1990s tech boom. Minor point: those were two tech booms, a 1980s one and a 1990s one, separated by the recession of the early 1990s. I was not around, but period books describe the early 1990s recession as impacting the technology sector fairly seriously.