The obsession with SF amazes me. Despite being HCOL, brutal talent war, and a host of other things investors will still push you to setup operations there even at the beginning where your runway is super important. Talent being a main driver doesn't make much sense when the war there is like a bloodbath, people who are considered "top talent" get many offers so they can jump ship whenever there is a good opportunity.
If you setup operations in another city whether it's in a European city like Dublin[1] or another US city like Denver, you can attract top talent and pay them lower than you would in somewhere like SF. You will have larger runway to find PMF. If you really want to go to SF you could do that once you've found PMF and scaled up.
I'm curious as to what others think.
[1] Some would say Dublin is HCOL, that's true to some extent. There's a housing crisis there but it's still considerably cheaper than SF and salaries are lower than in SF. Apartments are not difficult to find and there's a lot of other places you can live outside of Dublin which would take you 20 - 40 minutes to get to the city.
The obsession with SF amazes me. Despite being HCOL, brutal talent war, and a host of other things investors will still push you to setup operations there even at the beginning where your runway is super important. Talent being a main driver doesn't make much sense when the war there is like a bloodbath, people who are considered "top talent" get many offers so they can jump ship whenever there is a good opportunity.
If you setup operations in another city whether it's in a European city like Dublin[1] or another US city like Denver, you can attract top talent and pay them lower than you would in somewhere like SF. You will have larger runway to find PMF. If you really want to go to SF you could do that once you've found PMF and scaled up.
I'm curious as to what others think.
[1] Some would say Dublin is HCOL, that's true to some extent. There's a housing crisis there but it's still considerably cheaper than SF and salaries are lower than in SF. Apartments are not difficult to find and there's a lot of other places you can live outside of Dublin which would take you 20 - 40 minutes to get to the city.