The best AI founders in the world are moving here

In this episode of the Lightcone Podcast, YC Group Partners chart the evolution of San Francisco as the center of the startup world and how AI has brought everyone back to the city. They also talk about why YC chose to open our new HQ in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco and share their advice for new founders moving to the city for the first time.
Chapters (Powered by bit.ly/chapterme-yc) -
00:00 - Coming Up
01:50 - Startup Base Shift
04:22 - Y Combinator's Impact
07:51 - Twitter's San Francisco office transformed startups energy
10:06 - Startup Culture
14:38 - Culture of Ambition
17:19 - San Franciscos after COVID hit
19:18 - AI's Central Role
20:05 - Silicon Valley hub
21:43 - Emerging Neighborhoods
25:33 - Proximity to Y Combinator
28:14 - San Franciscos Hacker House
30:18 - Success Odds Maximization
31:00 - Hyper-Inclusive Environment
33:05 - Outro

[@chapterme]

Chapters (Powered by ChapterMe) - 00:00 - Coming Up: San Francisco Tech Hub 00:42 - Intro 01:50 - Startup Base Shift 02:14 - Y Combinators South Bay origins opportunists vs serious companies 03:11 - Mountain View became hub for smart people, older founders 04:22 - Y Combinator's Impact 06:54 - YC founders support each other in San Francisco 07:51 - Twitters San Francisco office transformed startups energy 10:06 - Startup Culture 11:01 - Silicon Valleys builders, nerds, optimists 12:01 - Paul Grahams common experiences as a nerd 14:38 - Culture of Ambition 16:03 - San Franciscos inclusive, tech-driven culture 17:19 - San Franciscos tech scene turned around after COVID hit 19:18 - AI's Central Role 20:05 - San Franciscos comeback as Silicon Valley hub 20:09 - Innovation Epicenter 21:43 - Emerging Neighborhoods 25:02 - Neighborhoods to be: Glenn Park, Bernal Heights, Mission Bay, Potrero Hill 25:33 - Proximity to Y Combinator, friendships and co-founders memories 28:14 - San Franciscos Hacker House transformed city into tech hub 30:18 - Success Odds Maximization 31:00 - Hyper-Inclusive Environment: Boom Loop 33:05 - Outro

[@peterbelanger4094]

SF is a joke, everyone knows.

[@peterbelanger4094]

Tech is full of ideological zealots far on the left.

[@peterbelanger4094]

go away commie tech.

[@peterbelanger4094]

The bay is not cool anymore, nerds are not cool anymore.

[@Vanced-ii3bj]

How old are you, unc ​@@peterbelanger4094

[@andrewoodleyjr]

I recently moved back to San Francisco from Miami after 4 years away. My first week back I shed a couple tears because it felt like home and finally I found my people again - the builders, the people willing to stay up working, coding, talking about business. I felt seen.

[@changeillinois]

you didn't have any of that in Miami? SF is a cesspool. There's startups and tech across the entire Bay Area, so you don't need to be in the CITY of SF.

[@jg5875]

@@changeillinoiswrong. It has bad areas but to call the whole city a cesspool indicates you know little.

[@CounterSeal]

@@changeillinois Miami is great if you don't code and you're just into crypto and nfts.

[@pokegan52]

Lots of incentives for YC to advertise SF

[@akpost8780]

This is such a pathetic fictional “roundtable discussion”. These 30 year olds who lived a few years in SF talking about the city’s “good old days” that happened a few years ago. YC is great, but their attempt to bring human capital back to a dying city can’t outweigh reality. In reality, SF is overpriced, a culturally and socially grotesque hellscape of selfish egoic and hypersexualized creeps, and generally overrated place to do business. If you are creating websites, apps, or selling digital services of any kind, all you need is a laptop, remote calls, and a loyal team of less than three people to build a company and begin scaling. Until you’re at that stage, you shouldn’t even be thinking about funding, growth hacking, or selling your company. You can always hop on a plane and spend a few months renting in the Bay once it’s time to mingle with VC-types. Until then, cut your costs, keep your sanity, and build on your laptop at a cafe in a city of your choice. Touch grass daily. Maintain normalcy. See past the illusions this panel is creating, and maintain focus on your product or service.

[@migtav]

@@akpost8780 - is your "normalcy" come to KZbin comments, string a bunch of words together with bad commas, and contradict yourself? If so, keep it up. Bay Area is a fine place to live, depending on what you value and your stage in life. Making blanket statements is super cringe. I would be embarrassed by this but to each their own.

[@Seva896]

​@@migtavbeen there, lived there, no wish to come back. There are multiple places in the world much better, much cheaper. And there are much more people online who you gonna interact with based on your interests.

[@Khobalt664]

When you drive a Jeep Wrangler, you suddenly start to notice them everywhere.

[@MonwabisiGaga-cl1hd]

“If you want to maximise your luck move to SanFran” My bank balance: 0.00

[@shaheryarkhan8514]

Us moment🙂

[@bobbykanae]

Not to mention its 2-3x more expensive living there than anywhere else in the U.S. gotta love the entitled mega rich tech people from the last cycles being out of tune with of the rest of the world thats not sucking on the teat of algos and the past booms

[@1val]

things don't magically get better, it takes deliberate effort thank you guys for keeping things going

[@ablatt89]

If the goal is to discover undiscovered markets and finding real problems to solve, I don't understand the obsession with having founders move to a single city. For example, problems in Fresno, CA are likely agriculture focused, why does it make sense for founders to move to SF? If you're focused only on those who live near you, how you can expose those founders to ever really understand real problems that people outside of the Silicon Valley are facing? It's a bit circular in logic to say you need to understand your customers and to want to expand your problem space, but expect people who live in the Silicon Valley to understand even remotely what issues someone in another region are facing. There's a high concentration of very smart and motivated people, and relatively less distractions than LA/NYC, but at the same time, their experiences are generally constrained to be focused on Silicon Valley issues/companies.

[@Humanprx]

I would love to see a video like this from the perspective of Austin or Dallas, where it is going through its own Silicon Valley transformation, but also isn't as land restricted as San Francisco. Not sure how the startup field is there, but definitely the big tech companies have claimed Austin as their own

[@truszko91]

Surrounding culture of innovation can be a powerful drug. When you eat lunch, buy groceries, go to the movies, or ride a bus, and 90% of people around you are entrepreneurs, it can be very intoxicating. But, it also makes networking much, much easier. It's easy to meet people and get coffee together. Doing this from my computer in midwest suburbs is relatively harder.

[@changeillinois]

YC was based in Mountain View for most of its existence - it started to veer more into SF during the Sam Altman era for his personal convenience and bias so he could do other things (like trying to scheme the takeover of OpenAI). Garry Tan lives in SF, a partisan left wing Democrat who believes in many of the same policies that have turned SF into a cesspool. For his PERSONAL and POLITICAL bias, he has moved YC to SF to irresponsibly force others to be there as well where there was a much safer alternative. Even to VISIT San Francisco for 3 months, it's high cost, high risk and you are surrounded by a narrow minded view of left wingers. If you are building a company for the mass market of the US or the world, you should stay OUT of SF.

[@Realreal12345]

Airbnb was founded in SF and is used by people in every city in the world…

[@Realreal12345]

@@Humanprx​​⁠and yet therein lies the point: no one in Austin has made a video as detailed as this one with as influential start up founders b/c the community in SF is wicked strong!

[@TheTwigMaster]

Weird video! Feels like it’s claiming a comeback a bit prematurely- it’s alluded to in the video itself that there are neighborhoods that are less pleasant to be in a few years ago. Couple notes from my SF experience - Agree wholeheartedly that people should explore neighborhood options. There are tons of cool places. Because the city is small, the neighborhoods are packed right next to each other and can change flavor suddenly (classic example is the juxtaposition between Chinatown and North Beach) - I don’t agree at all that you should highly prefer being in a 1 mile radius from your job or YC or whatever. The city is really small, is really bikeable, and even though it’s not NYC has good public transit (especially if you look into bus routes). You’ll be able to get home pretty fast. This is in support of the first bullet point :) - Agreed that the energy in the tech industry is different in SF/Bay Area. You’ll meet more people who have an infectious fire to do crazy/incredible things. Note that greatness has its cost- make sure you consider your overall life goals, as it will take much of your personal time.

[@zanderpyle8434]

I think it’s hilarious that they’re claiming SF is the center while sitting in the middle of an empty office space.

[@changeillinois]

currently 40% vacancy and increasing - there's no boom loop except in Garry Tan's fantasy

[@jg5875]

I’ve been working in tech and living in SF for over 20 years. It was been hot for decades. It tanked badly at the start of Covid and it has not recovered. The homeless and crime are the problem ….and the “doom loop” has not ended.

[@mariusfacktor3597]

30:40 "We want SF to be hyper-inclusive" I agree but unfortunately SF has been locked in a straight jacket for the last 50 years with the strictest zoning codes in the country. It's impossible to build more housing on just about any parcel of land in the whole city, so people are getting displaced. It's the same reason SF has mass homelessness. SF needs the ability to change, but its local zoning ordinances and NIMBYism has made that impossible for over half a century. Luckily, politics in SF is starting to get more YIMBY and Mayor Breed understands that SF needs the ability to change.

[@changeillinois]

note that far left wing Democrat Garry Tan doesn't include "hyper inclusive" to mean non-Democrats, anyone who opposes genocide by Israel or anyone who doesn't fall for his propaganda that SF is in a boom loop.

[@DingoAteMeBaby]

yea cause development needs to spread out into the surrounding cities. because SF as a political entity is so small theres no incentive to expand beyond the core.

[@buybill]

I absolutely love the visionary ending! Big Trekkie fans here, btw, but the capacity of so many exceptional people to do good on a planetary (or multi-planetary?) scale is awe-inspiring. Let’s do it!

[@marywinter1639]

Just getting in and out of SF is traumatic.

[@artoftradesf]

Left to right: Diana Hu, Group Partner YC | Harj Taggar, Managing Director, Knowledge and Group Partner YC | Garry Tan, President, CEO, and Group Partner | Jared Friedman, Group Partner YC

[@georgewee3544]

The Gary Tan ending monologue was great =)

[@thejoefaron]

Love the part about building things that impress you.. never really thought of it like that, but I've noticed its a good motivator.. and will keep ya learning. Love these podcasts!! Almost moved to SF 17 years ago for a YC entry... but built a FB app that took off and stayed put. :) YC/PG changed my life trajectory early on for sure tho.

[@allenleexyz]

I must say: I met more interesting people through Hacker News than in SF communities. I learned much more by simply cold-emailing famous founders and VCs in Silicon Valley than from any meetups or catch-ups in real life. I'm not saying there's no value in sf startup communities. I just want to point out that 90% of talented and ambitious builders in SF are actually busy and not interested in over-hyped communities.

[@changeillinois]

SF is not the center of Silicon Valley - there's an entire Bay Area, let alone other regions across the world. Garry selectively tries to make it seem SF and Bay Area are the same - one is a cesspool, the other is not.

[@DingoAteMeBaby]

how did you find the right names and their emails?

[@justinfleagle]

YC is literally doing more for a city than anything else.

[@GarryTan]

❤ SF

[@changeillinois]

YC isn't doing ANYTHING for SF...it's only doing what's best for Garry's personal and political agendas...there was no need to move to SF and it's IRRESPONSIBLE to force people to come a city in crisis.

[@jasondou5746]

Love it!

[@jasonlee-os1qi]

"Give us..." a fully staffed police dept, common sense, law and order...

[@steven871]

I appreciate the optimism, but dozens if not, hundreds of salesforce towers? There are the equivalent of 20 vacant ones worth of office space right now.

[@ycombinator]

We gonna fill em all

[@Humanprx]

@@ycombinator lol too based

[@mikewhit]

we're gonna keep working remote@@ycombinator nice thought though probably better functioning as a homeless shelter

[@changeillinois]

Garry's statement is worse than a hallucination from ChatGPT - there's about 40% vacancy in SF and it's getting worse. AI will make the need for large employers LESS. SF needs plenty of housing, but there's no evidence it needs ANY additional office space after the pandemic and the city turning into a cesspool due to Democrat policies that Garry supports.

[@changeillinois]

we'll bet you a billion dollars you're wrong Garry@@ycombinator

[@YaelMendez]

Hard to reach places will do. A zoom call can get it done.

[@starduststereo]

good podcast but the way they casually talk about working 90hrs a week is disturbing.

[@sirvladislav]

Do you think it's worth it for a founder of an early scaling AI startup not to move to SF but just occasionally come there, feel the energy, find new partners and friends, get fundraising and then come back to your safe living place and focus on your work and repeat it? If you're not in a YC batch, I feel like you don't have many reasons to be there the whole time. Events/talking/environment is effective when it's not the overdose of it.

[@changeillinois]

you do not need to move to SF and it's not true that all AI companies are in SF. If anything, there's MORE AI talent at other companies across the Bay Area than all startups in SF combined. Garry is spreading pure propaganda and lies for his own personal and political agenda.

[@sirvladislav]

@@changeillinois I didn’t ask about moving there

[@josepinzon1515]

Thank you for this video, thank you so much!!

[@Marco-wz8xw]

In your opinion, what may be the optimal path for experiencing living in SF in order to "improve luck": Applying for YC? Getting a job in a company based there? I think it should be not wise simply go there anonymously. I work for a company in Brazil that was accelerated by YC in 2016. I also have a side business. But I still want to build much more in this life. And I feel that time is ticking.

[@Marco-wz8xw]

Never mind. I'm going to SF next week. lol

[@npip99]

@@Marco-wz8xw Lol good luck

[@Marco-wz8xw]

@@npip99 Hahaha thank you. It was an amazing trip. Now I wish to go back to an MBA in Stanford. Crazy life!

[@miguelacevedo8649]

One downside is people being very mimetic and wanting to be role-play as a “founder” because there’s so many founders.

[@chriswilfrid]

31:09 Garry Tan prompting future city 😂

[@hadithitv7517]

I wanna move to silicon valley and before that I wanna ace YC interviews therefore I keep asking myself - what contrarian idea do I believe in and why now.This question seems easy but it's surprisingly very difficult. YC is like an open box of secrets and opportunities that only the smartest founders who are willing to lower themselves pick them up.

[@mikewhit]

what?

[@goodtechdoor]

See you there.

[@pocotheo]

What about earthquakes? I'd love to move to SF, but I'm really turned off by the possibility of a big earthquake. I'm willing to move there but I'm not sure how to check if the building I'm moving in is as earthquake safe as possible.

[@pdeezzel]

If you are a human and not a bot, here is your answer: Earthquakes are an excuse for a deeper fear you have. You are using the earthquake narrative to mask a deeper fear response. Look inward and listen.

[@cherubin7th]

St. Francis pray for us.

[@Leto2ndAtreides]

Are they managing to convert office buildings to housing yet?

[@mikewhit]

there's zoning issues and the engineer's take is that office space is simply not set up for residential.. it has something to do with the utilities.. i think the idea is basically that in residential you have 100 units / 100 sinks / 100 showers / 100 dishwashers / 100 tv's / 100 everything.. and commercial is not set up to serve that requirement

[@ahsanmohammed1]

Who are these four people? What are their names? What are their bios? Linkedin? Nothing in about section of video! Kinda relevant. No?!

[@ahsanmohammed1]

BTW, great podcast. Learning so much! Thank you.

[@DRArthur]

Anyone figured out who this nice group are IRL?

[@ahsanmohammed1]

@@DRArthur I had to Google the name of the podcast to find out.

[@Fumbuzi]

Seriously. If they didn't list them than they're not important.

[@Fumbuzi]

They're randos

[@JacobIlin]

SF is the best city. I've lived here since 2014 and don't want to ever move. If you move here, just avoid living in Tenderloin or West SoMa, and you'll be fine. You can also get a great rent deal in some rent-controlled buildings around Nob Hill right now.

[@changeillinois]

also don't park your car, don't walk over sh*t, don't expect to have a quality of life OR you can live anywhere in the Bay Area and just go to SF when you need to.

[@migtav]

@@changeillinois you know top 10 major cities in the US suffer from similar problems right?

[@attlee2010]

Are they named?

[@mikewhit]

oh man i am too old.. for the youngsters watching, the commercial markets and city governments have a strong interest to keep people in the cities.. and there are so many financial instruments tied to commercial real estate, notably the small regional banks that own the debt / financial instruments financing the commercial RE understand that diversity is risk reduction in investment and so even though this is YC, they are fully or mostly or eventually tied to all the other possible assets and instruments one could own or their constituents have such interests and it's a cooperative thing.. likewise, the attribution is that SF local businesses have never really come back since COVID.. and that it's a relative ghost town.. there was a brain drain or exodus from bay area starting in 2017 honestly.. during Trump era many went home.. and then with COVID and remote work this further solidified the movement yes, you can talk to the smartest people doing the coolest stuff, but surrounded a wasteland of poverty to remind you that it's extremely hard to do anything with the tools at hand and not further mess up the human situation oh also forgot to mention like 8% state and city tax lol

[@paternyao]

The Painting 🖼️ speech of Garry at the end 🔥🔥

[@machapuis]

with a young child, my Friday and Saturday nights are at home 🙃

[@mozizsupposes]

Gary for Mayor of SF!

[@borisjoffe]

CA and SF need to make massive changes before it "comes back". Everyone is leaving CA and it's for very valid reasons that have not been addressed by the government - taxes, crime, excessive regulations, cost of living, etc. There's zero diversity in SF. It's an tight bubble where everyone thinks exactly the same way. If you dare to think somewhat differently they will attack you like crabs in a bucket pulling you back down to their close-mindedness.

[@Realreal12345]

False. Elon tried moving Tesla HQ to Austin but then had to come back and open Tesla Worldwide Engineering HQ in Palo Alto b/c he just can’t beat SF Bay Area for getting the best engineering talent in the world. Northern California (SF/SV/SJ) is the center of technology, always will be, and is the envy of every country in the world 🇺🇸

[@borisjoffe]

@@Realreal12345 The official Tesla HQ is still in Austin. And while there are engineers that remain in CA, things are changing and companies are leaving high tax high crime states.

[@Realreal12345]

@@borisjoffe all the AI talent is concentrated in Google, NVIDIA, Meta, OpenAI, Anthropic, Tesla, and Apple. Guess which metropolitan all those companies are in? San Francisco Bay Area. The breakthrough in AI and large language models happened where? San Francisco. North California is a power house of innovation and only getting stronger 💪

[@borisjoffe]

@@Realreal12345 AI work can literally be done anywhere. Microsoft is not headquartered in California. Most of those companies have offices outside CA. Relax with your NorCal supremacy

[@Realreal12345]

@@borisjoffe ChatGPT was born in SF. SF Bay Area is the innovation capital of the world and is churning out innovative products everyday. The caliber of talent here is incredible! The smartest most ambitious people who are changing the world live here and move here. The ecosystem is alive and well!

[@OrangebarsInc]

“It’s back” ok sure 😂😂😂

[@rocketcoachai]

Big B coming soon

[@ArtisanalIntelligence]

We just applied to YC as Openfair, we would love to contribute to your vision of building solutions leveraging AI in the Valley . You positive or negative feedback is greatly welcomed to help propel us forward. 🙏🏼 Also thank you for the inspiring content, keep it up 💪

[@katherandefy]

Where is the engineering mecca?

[@RigoVids]

The reason everyone moves to SF is because they think everyone else in SF is like them, and they feel some strange pressure to move there so they can become like their idols. It is a runaway self-selecting consolidation of financial power.

[@talwu628]

Rec: remove the coming up portion. Maybe replace with the top or second most insightful back and forth from the episode.

[@orlandocastellanos9263]

What about the homeless?

[@migtav]

what about them?

[@SolarpunkSeed]

what about the greedy landlords?

[@alansnyder8448]

This is a very strange video for YC. I don't think it is true that SF was in a doom loop between 2000 and 2008. I was hear and SF was actually very nice and clean during that time. What is happening to SF now is something I've not seen since arriving here in 1992.

[@RichardStiennon]

I can't help thinking that if you advocate for centralization of tech in a small geographic area you should think seriously about the geological stability of that one place.

[@ifoundaim]

Gary Tan's outro energized me! San Fran destiny, please!

[@attlee2010]

It makes no sense that so much of your company’s potential is down to how much rent you could afford

[@lonoibi]

Even NVIDIA is silicon valley

[@neanda]

i can't take people seriously when they keep nodding at everything. see how much someone nods at everything being said, and you'll see someone who doesn't really know what's going on

[@deviceinside]

was wondering when these roundtable of nerds would start playing Dungeons & Dragons

[@unvjustintime1]

How many of their cars got broken into filming this?

[@sirtony5542]

My future destination...

[@l1gh7s]

The Lower Haight is *not* part of Hayes Valley lololol. We appreciate being included I guess?

[@soumen_das]

Wait for Indus Valley.

[@chrisbtr7657]

Enjoy it while it lasts. AI is ripping apart all barrier to entry. We are moving exponentially faster to a place where anyone can create anything they want. The old way - create the widget, build user base, scale it, blah blah blah man. That same old ride is only going to last a little while longer.

[@Chaaos2]

SF had a magic to it, its gone now. Hope it comes back, but tbh will not hold my breath

[@sabaokangan]

Y’all are way better podcasters than those 2 other bozos

[@blackdash225]

most of the people hating in the comments haven't even been to San Francisco

[@LuisPerez-uh9ik]

Last

[@SolarpunkSeed]

get those rents lower.

[@sergejdergatsjev]

😂 second 🎉

[@kingnick6260]

Fourth

[@ishangoswami9462]

First here 🙋‍♂️

[@photon2724]

Majority of people watching/following YC are broke 18-25 year olds. This advice of moving to SF is like saying, if you’re homeless, just buy a house! I love YC but this video just ain't it. Very out of touch with founders.

[@paramveerdhoot6415]

I think the video is aimed at startup founders who better have some money/investments otherwise they are not ready.

[@npip99]

They aren't saying to do it jobless. It's fine to work on a startup idea part-time while keeping a FT FAANG job until you actually get a pre-seed round.

[@princekalyan5311]

awesome

[@rerrer3346]

But….. I’m poor🙃

[@nateb.1276]

SF is definitely top-tier, pretty obvious. But Seattle is second place.

[@donbernie9346]

we can infer from the video that YC has lots of real estate investment in SF 😂 there is no way we are moving to SF, over priced and not enough women, even when NYC sucks too I would rather go to NYC, let' SF die and let's remember SF in the history books as good place to build back in the days, MOVE ON, the real deal is REMOTE FTW get close to family and friends and let that be your main motivation!

[@diazluiseduardo]

SF is the best!

[@andu896]

All nice but you have a problem with fascism, guns, and healthcare. If Trump is elected, bye bye SF.

[@wan2lmao]

Drugs

[@_anarki_]

S+ propaganda LFG!!!

[@onlybryanliu]

Woke city

[@TheKing-mm2fn]

San Francisco is the best city for business not to live