

Ask YC: What is the best area in SF Bay Area for startup hackers? - yrashk

In regards to my previous submission (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=295139) — I've moved to SF within 24 hrs after that submission and now I am wondering – what is the best area/neighborhood around in terms of possibility to meet startup hackers and/or attend interesting related events, etc.?<p>Any ideas?<p>Thanks :)
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gibsonf1
Last night Yahoo! YUI engineers hosted a meetup for the new 3.0 version at the
Brickhouse in Soma. There was also another geek gathering at Cnet and all
headed afterwards over to the 21st Amendment Brewery also in Soma. Our office
is in Soma, as is Justin.tv and many other startups, so Soma is probably a
good area to look around.

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mriley
The Mission has a pretty high concentration of young people, and a lot of the
startup people I know live around there. Rent in the area may be more
reasonable than elsewhere but not by much, given its popularity. If you aren't
here permanently you might try the Sublets/Temporary Housing section of
Craigslist - I had good luck there, and you should be able to find something
for less than $500/wk.

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breck
500 per week??

so less than 2k per month? that seems pretty pricey...about to move into the
mission and paying 800/mo.

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mriley
I was referring to the price he stated in his original post (he said he didn't
want to pay more than $500/wk). I'm living in the mission now and paying much
less than $500/wk (but I have 4 roommates).

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breck
ok gotcha, didnt see that.

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iamelgringo
I host a Meetup called Hackers and Founders in Sunnyvale every month. It's
been growing a lot though, so we might end up going to every other week. We
have 30 people planning to attend on September 18th, and I'm holding off on
allowing more RSVP's because the bar we have it at gets pretty crowded. If you
wanted to crash the party around 7:30 or 8pm it would probably clear out by
then. There is another one scheduled for October 1st.

It's a low key event which consists of having a burger and a beer with hackers
and people interested in startups. Our Meetup page is here:
<http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/1737/>

As far as where to go to meet Hackers.... In the Bay Area, just strike up a
conversation with people. 1 out of 10 people living in the area are engineers.
You're bound to meet someone.

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iamelgringo
If you're looking for places to live, I really like San Jose. Sure, it's not,
The City(tm), but down town does have a lovely little, urban lite feel to it.
There are plenty of working class people and plenty of hackers in the area.
It's not the sexy place to live, but heck, for what people are paying for a
one bedroom apartment up in SF, I'm getting a 4 bed/2 bath house with a yard
and an office big enough for 3 people. And, if I want to go up to Yoshi's and
hear some really great jazz, it's only 80 minutes away.

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dmpayton
+1 on this.

I recently took a job at a startup in Campbell, and the San Jose area is
really nice. It's not as expensive at SF, but it's still "bay area".

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tlrobinson
Either San Francisco proper (especially SOMA), or around Palo Alto / Mountain
View would be my suggestions.

Most of the meetup type events I've been to have been in SF. Lots of startups
are based in SF too (of the winter 2008 YC companies I think only a handfull
are still in the valley, the rest are in SF or elsewhere).

Startups seem to congregate in or near SOMA in particular. The three SF JS
meetups I've been to have been in SOMA: Hi5, SlideShare, and Serious Business.
Also: Twitter (and their old office's new residents, Get Satisfaction), Engine
Yard, and numerous YC companies like Disqus, SnapTalent, Xobni, Justin.TV. And
lots of others I would probably know about if I actually lived up there.

But the valley is great too. Of course there's lots of startups there as well.
Palo Alto and Mountain View are both quite nice. But be careful because there
are lots of boring suburban and strip mall type areas in Silicon Valley.

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jwilliams
This probably doesn't answer your question directly, but (if you haven't
already) I'd recommend taking a look at:
<http://www.paulgraham.com/marginal.html> (and his other essays)

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ojbyrne
Except that's old news (at least the real estate part of it). All that
marginal space has been turned into paying real estate. Not only in SF but in
just about every slightly expensive city in North America.

There was an article last week in the NYT about garages and what they add to
the value of a property in Manhattan. Its in the millions. Chances are, if you
pay a million extra for a garage, at the very least, you're parking a car
there.

Admittedly, if you go far enough out in the suburbs, its not the case. But
then you're in the suburbs, which has other challenges (transportation, etc).

All that aside, SOMA is where everything happens. If you can't afford to live
there look incrementally further south until you find a place that you can
live.

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yrashk
Thanks! I am currently in a hotel in SOMA, but think to move a little bit
southwest I guess — I don't want to spend more than $500/wk for rent, and
housing is really a bit crazy in SF ;)

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martian
You can definitely find a place cheaper than $500/wk in SF. I live in the
city, and pay way less than that.

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yrashk
Short term rentals seems to be more expensive than long-term ones

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Frocer
We just moved our startup to the Bay Area a couple of weeks ago :) My partner
and I found a temporary place in Mountain View for the next few weeks while we
look for a more permanent place -- but everyone has recommended us to either
live in SF or Palo Alto.

We should meet up some time once you are settled!

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yrashk
Done. I am settled and would love to meet with people around :)

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jonmc12
Meetup.com is good resource for events, also sf.garysguide.org - helped to
give me a feel for what goes on where.

