5 ms·

It's easier to make this work when the company is smaller. One of the big advantages of SF (and especially the financial district) is that it's possible for mo

by drags 13y ago

It's easier to make this work when the company is smaller. One of the big advantages of SF (and especially the financial district) is that it's possible for most people in the city, the East Bay _and_ the South Bay to get to work in less than an hour. I want to make the commute decent for as many employees as possible.

timr 13y ago
"It's easier to make this work when the company is smaller." Oh jeez. The way people talk about it now, you'd think that San Francisco was some sort of eternal pre-requisite for founding a startup, rather than the flavor of the moment. Startups didn't want to be here until a few years ago, and it isn't exactly a practically motivated decision today. Startups get founded here mostly because a certain subset of 20-somethings want to live in the city.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- canterburry 13y ago
  That cracks me up too. nothing has convinced me more that you can be successful outside of the valley than coming to the valley.
- wildgift 13y ago
  I don't know what SF is like now, but CNet, Wired, Craigslist, and a few other companies started out there. There was also Hyperreal and SF.NET, the ravers, and Mondo 2000 up in Berkeley too. Maybe it wasn't the same kind of startup or the same people, but there it was. Anyway, I was almost instantly burned out on that hype almost before it happened. It wasn't the tech but the whole utopianism that was tiresome. Technoids in fantasy land. Ugh. I couldn't afford SF and liked Oakland a lot more, especially Chinatown and the area around the lake, and the swap meets, and the tiny computer stores. The Black culture, southern culture, Black Muslims, all that was new to me. The crime, not so cool, but whatever. SF had hella crime too. I guess my old San Francisco and old Oakland are no more.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
dgallagher 13y ago
From someone who lives in Massachusetts, how difficult is it to commute between Oakland and San Francisco? On a map they're about as close as Cambridge and Boston. Is there a huge difference between, say, driving a car and taking the BART?
- aaroneous 13y ago
  < 15 minutes to downtown SF on BART, nearly the same drive if you're going off-peak.
  - tingletech 13y ago
    It is actually faster to get to downtown SF from downtown OAK on BART than it is to get to downtown SF from the Sunset, Richmond, or even lower Haight on Muni.
    - zaidos 13y ago
      This is very true. I live in inland east bay (Walnut Creek) and my BART commute is still a few minutes shorter than my MUNI commute from when I was living in the Outer Richmond district.
      - codex_irl 13y ago
        I cannot figure out why more startups are not based in Walnut Creek - lots of office space, a great downtown & there are two BART stations within 5 mins + the contra costa transit center.
    - radley 13y ago
      During non-peak hours. In contrast, it will take an hour or longer to drive over on a weekend afternoons.
      - tingletech 13y ago
        I said BART. BART is even faster from Oakland during peak hours because there is less time between trains. I gave away my car when I lived in lower Haight because I had no place to park.
sAuronas 13y ago
Then do not commute! If you were in Oakland, you workers could actually afford to live near work and...walk. Commuting in SF is horrible because it is packed. Oakland has enough problems without memes about non-existent commuter issues. PS you could live downtown SF and Bart to downtown Oakland in less than 20 mins. PSS downtown Oakland is a great place to live. Or Go Uptown
- dllthomas 13y ago
  As someone living in Oakland with friends on the peninsula, I've gotta say that particular haul is a bit more of a pain than it seems like it should be. Of people who are somehow anchored (partner, property), you'll reach more of them in SF than in Oakland or Mountain View - their commute will suck, instead of being basically impossible. Of course, most startup workers are not terribly anchored, and picking an end gives more of an option to affordably have a commute that doesn't suck. So it's certainly a question of tradeoffs.

by drags 13y ago

timr 13y ago

"It's easier to make this work when the company is smaller." Oh jeez. The way people talk about it now, you'd think that San Francisco was some sort of eternal pre-requisite for founding a startup, rather than the flavor of the moment. Startups didn't want to be here until a few years ago, and it isn't exactly a practically motivated decision today. Startups get founded here mostly because a certain subset of 20-somethings want to live in the city.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
canterburry 13y ago
That cracks me up too. nothing has convinced me more that you can be successful outside of the valley than coming to the valley.
wildgift 13y ago
I don't know what SF is like now, but CNet, Wired, Craigslist, and a few other companies started out there. There was also Hyperreal and SF.NET, the ravers, and Mondo 2000 up in Berkeley too. Maybe it wasn't the same kind of startup or the same people, but there it was. Anyway, I was almost instantly burned out on that hype almost before it happened. It wasn't the tech but the whole utopianism that was tiresome. Technoids in fantasy land. Ugh. I couldn't afford SF and liked Oakland a lot more, especially Chinatown and the area around the lake, and the swap meets, and the tiny computer stores. The Black culture, southern culture, Black Muslims, all that was new to me. The crime, not so cool, but whatever. SF had hella crime too. I guess my old San Francisco and old Oakland are no more.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]

dgallagher 13y ago

From someone who lives in Massachusetts, how difficult is it to commute between Oakland and San Francisco? On a map they're about as close as Cambridge and Boston. Is there a huge difference between, say, driving a car and taking the BART?

aaroneous 13y ago
< 15 minutes to downtown SF on BART, nearly the same drive if you're going off-peak.
- tingletech 13y ago
  It is actually faster to get to downtown SF from downtown OAK on BART than it is to get to downtown SF from the Sunset, Richmond, or even lower Haight on Muni.
  - zaidos 13y ago
    This is very true. I live in inland east bay (Walnut Creek) and my BART commute is still a few minutes shorter than my MUNI commute from when I was living in the Outer Richmond district.
    - codex_irl 13y ago
      I cannot figure out why more startups are not based in Walnut Creek - lots of office space, a great downtown & there are two BART stations within 5 mins + the contra costa transit center.
  - radley 13y ago
    During non-peak hours. In contrast, it will take an hour or longer to drive over on a weekend afternoons.
    - tingletech 13y ago
      I said BART. BART is even faster from Oakland during peak hours because there is less time between trains. I gave away my car when I lived in lower Haight because I had no place to park.

sAuronas 13y ago

Then do not commute! If you were in Oakland, you workers could actually afford to live near work and...walk. Commuting in SF is horrible because it is packed. Oakland has enough problems without memes about non-existent commuter issues. PS you could live downtown SF and Bart to downtown Oakland in less than 20 mins. PSS downtown Oakland is a great place to live. Or Go Uptown

dllthomas 13y ago
As someone living in Oakland with friends on the peninsula, I've gotta say that particular haul is a bit more of a pain than it seems like it should be. Of people who are somehow anchored (partner, property), you'll reach more of them in SF than in Oakland or Mountain View - their commute will suck, instead of being basically impossible. Of course, most startup workers are not terribly anchored, and picking an end gives more of an option to affordably have a commute that doesn't suck. So it's certainly a question of tradeoffs.