

Why we moved our startup from San Francisco to Berkeley - mllerustad
http://www.berkeleyside.com/2013/09/16/why-we-moved-our-startup-from-san-francisco-to-berkeley-and-why-more-will-follow/

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klipt
...and now Berkeley rents will start rising to match San Francisco rents.

Plus if you want to live in the Downtown area, you'll be competing with
students who want to be right next to campus. Since the spending power of a
software engineer far outweighs that of a student, the students are going to
get royally screwed on this.

~~~
rms
>...and now Berkeley rents will start rising to match San Francisco rents.

Downtown Berkeley is already pretty close to San Francisco rents. I recommend
getting out of the zone where you are competing with Cal students. Near Ashby
BART to be closer to nightlife and Oakland/San Francisco, or near North
Berkeley BART for a safer, quieter existence.

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calbear81
I'm really hoping for more of this all around the Bay especially to places
with lower costs of living while still being very accessible to The City.

Our office is based in Mountain View but lately a lot of coworkers have been
going to Santa Cruz on weekends to play beach volleyball, surf, and kick back.
Looking at Craigslist, I'm seeing a ton of office space centrally located in
downtown Santa Cruz for around $1-$2 a square foot which is about 50-70% less
than space in SF/Palo Alto and wondering why there hasn't been more of a
migration there.

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Apocryphon
HWY 17 is really brutal for commuting.

~~~
calbear81
Yeah, I guess it might be possible if you're a small company and everyone is
willing to live close by but if you need to attract talent, that commute would
be an obstacle.

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vidarh
A long time ago, but I used to work for a European subsidiary of a company
headquartered in Santa Cruz back in '99, and when we went over to visit we
could not go a day without hearing almost the whole team bitching about Hwy
17...

Apart from people like the CTO who had a fantastic place nestled deep in a
small valley in between the nearby redwoods, or the CEO who had a huge house
in Santa Cruz and had his sailing boat in the harbour.

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verisimilidude
The social scene in Downtown Berkeley is strong for nerds. I was a big fan of
the twice-a-week board game meets, where I met some brilliant people. The
science fiction writing circle was also a favorite. Point being, there are a
lot of surprising opportunities to spread out and network in Berkeley.

(I'm sure the same is true in SF, of course.)

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jessedhillon
Can you tell me more about this scifi writing circle?

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rms
I've lived in Berkeley for three years and love the lifestyle and the weather.
I pine for the city sometimes but recognize that I don't want to lose what I
have here. And this place just opened around the corner.
[http://www.yelp.com/biz/rangoon-super-stars-
berkeley](http://www.yelp.com/biz/rangoon-super-stars-berkeley)

Berkeley has not coalesced as a software startup hub because city zoning
policies discriminate against software companies. Large swaths of real estate
are reserved for food production companies and some biotech space. Definitely
start your food companies here, and there are small built out lab spaces
available here if you're doing biochemistry.

Eventually zoning policy will change and then Berkeley can more firmly
integrate itself into the greater Silicon Valley.

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nightmann
In addition to Berkeley, nearby Emeryville is a very nice place to live. It's
close to a lot of public transit (freeways, MacArthur BART, bus lines on San
Pablo) and 15 minutes across the bay bridge to SF and 5 minutes from Berkeley.
Large companies (like Pixar and Bayer) and a few startups (like TubeMogul) are
here already. A medium/big startup considering the peninsula could make a big
splash and see high ROI choosing Emeryville.

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milesf
It's less than a 1/2 hour drive between the two destinations. Not exactly an
epic Oregon trail journey :)

[http://bit.ly/1eYm99v](http://bit.ly/1eYm99v)

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Reedx
Well, after 9PM that drive is < 30 mins. But the Bay Bridge is bumper to
bumper much of the day and every exit/entrance around it gets backed up. It's
bad.

~~~
klipt
Hence BART.

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davmar
this can be summed up easily. "we moved our startup to berkeley for viks." at
least, that's the reason i'd do it.

[http://www.yelp.com/biz/viks-chaat-berkeley](http://www.yelp.com/biz/viks-
chaat-berkeley)

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piratebroadcast
bitgym (the authors startup) seems to be a solution in search of a problem. I
cant speak for everyone, but when I go to the gym, I am happy to be away from
computers and mobile screens- I just want to be real for a while.

~~~
jamesaguilar
That's right, you can't speak for everyone. Also, this is a post about
Berkeley mostly, and only tangentially (to be generous) about their startup.

